Hilary A. Sandler, the Director of the UMass Cranberry Station, is conducting a study of the identification and expansion of off-type cranberry vines in commercial farms using UAS. This project captures images of cranberry farms in early spring when the color differentiation is clearly defined. They then ground-truth the impact (and expansion over time) of these vines in terms of fruit quantity and quality. It is part of their current 5- year Hatch project.
Above is an image for the mongrel vine project. If the vines were of uniform genetics, they would all come out of dormancy and “color up” at the same time. By the fact that we can see this “mottled” appearance, we know there has been a loss of genetic integrity over time. The red mottling in the lower third of the green vine area denotes the “mongrel” or off-type vines.
This is an impact comparison on the yield.