Competition Among Berries on the Cranberry Upright

One hundred fruiting uprights were sampled for each of 3 cranberry ( Vaccinium macrocarpon Ait.) cultivars, ‘Ben Lear’, ‘Bergman’, and ‘McFarlin’. Length of the upright, flowers per upright, berries per upright, seeds per berry, and weight of the berries were recorded. Two-dimensional partitioning using analysis of variance and multiple regression were combined for yield component analysis on a per-upright basis. In decreasing order, fruit set, berry enlargement, and number of flowers per centimeter of the upright were the most important components. Linear trends accounted for most of the differences due to position with lower positions having more flowers, fruit set, seeds per berry, and larger fruit than upper positions on the upright. More berries were set in ‘Ben Lear’ than in ‘McFarlin’ and ‘Bergman’.