Not bad for citrus so far either

US (CA): Cold snap pleases nut and stone fruit growers

Farmers in Kern County, CA are pleased with the cold weather so far this season, yet remain cautious as unpredictable weather could disrupt pollination, as happened last year.



While it will still be several months before Kern County’s 2015-16 agricultural season can be declared a success, the recent cold snap has provided a healthy dose of encouragement.



Local nut and stone fruit growers are tentatively optimistic their trees are getting the required “chill hours,” or cumulative time below a certain temperature during dormancy in the late fall and early winter. At the very least, Kern orchards are getting more of the cold they missed last year and the year before.



Shafter-area cherry and almond grower Leah Volkoff said her family’s orchards have already received more than half the cold weather they need for a healthy crop. Although that’s not necessarily unusual, she said, last year the family’s trees didn’t pass that halfway point until well into January.



Of course, there’s more to a good harvest than just cold weather, and not everyone is enjoying the recent low temperatures: citrus growers, for example, are more sensitive to the cold than other farmers.



The trade group California Citrus Mutual says its members have run giant fans in recent weeks to maintain a certain minimum temperature in their orchards. The organization is grateful for the recent cloud cover that has acted as insulation.



Pistachio growers are also keeping a close eye on the weather after a disastrous harvest earlier this year.



The executive director of the Kern County Farm Bureau, Beatris Espericueta Sanders, said pistachio trees require about 650 hours below 45 degrees if they are going to produce healthy nuts.



Last year, she said, they got only 425 hours in that temperature range, leading many growers in Kern to blame the unusually warm winter for the worst harvest on record: 300 million pounds statewide, or half the volume expected if conditions had been ideal.



Even if the reasonably cold weather keeps up, though, risks lie ahead. The all-important pollination could be disrupted if temperatures rise too early, as happened last year. Trees simply bloomed too soon.



Another concern is last summer’s unusual warmth. High temperatures, combined with a continuing drought that left orchards with a high level of soil salinity, threaten to leave cherry growers like Volkoff with poor quality fruit.



“One thing to consider, and one thing we can’t forget, is that summer was very hot,” said Volkoff, whose Volkoff Family Farms grows 40 acres of cherries and 250 acres of almonds. The company also leases 40 acres for grape production.



Source: bakersfield.com

