The Oswego Cranberry Co. is a limited liability company chartered in New York that now has 21 members, each of whom has invested both money and time. Brower stressed the importance of the expertise and time of the partners, saying that a number of successful businessmen are involved in the project. Another 80 acres was being planted as this article went to press. Brower explains that before the Oswego Cranberry Co. started planting any vines, he did extensive research on his own. These include the use of dry harvest techniques and the use of plugs to start a new cranberry field.
Plugs are well-rooted cranberry vines that have been started and raised in a greenhouse.
Traditionally, to establish new plants, cranberry vines were mowed off and the pieces then disked into the ground to root. This quick but haphazard production method generally yielded only about a 30 percent survival rate and took several years to produce a full bed of bearing vines. Rooted plugs show a 99 percent survival rate upon transplanting and begin to bear fruit in a full bed in the second season. Dry harvest also eliminates environmental and regulatory issues pertaining to wet-lands and decreases harmful effects on water quality, as any water used to irrigate is then filtered through sand rather than running off directly into neighboring creeks and farm ponds. The Oswego Cranberry is also able to reuse some of its water, returning it to storage ponds.