Local growers holding their breath
Freeze may have damaged almond and citrus crops
Porterville area growers continue to put in long nights protecting their crops from freeze damage this week, but they won’t know how successful their efforts have been for at least a few more days.
“It generally takes about a week to see if any of the [citrus] plants are going to have freeze burn,” said Tricia Stever Blattler, executive director of the Tulare County Farm Bureau. “I checked in with Monrovia Nursery this morning, and they have not yet been able to identify any damage.”
Overnight temperatures Monday and Tuesday dipped into the low to mid 20s across the San Joaquin Valley for several hours. Temperatures overnight for the remainder of the week are expected to be warmer — upper 20s in the coldest rural area and low to mid 30s in the cities, according to forecasters. There is a slight chance of isolated light showers across in the Valley Thursday into Friday, with the next chance of rain coming Monday night.
Blattler added that a lot of the damage cannot be seen on citrus crops until it goes to a packing house, and then county agricultural inspectors cut fruit as it comes in to check for freeze damage.
While staying up all night to battle freezing temperatures and prevent crop damage is a common practice for growers, what’s not common is having to do it in February.
“There’s nothing ordinary with this cold for this time of year,” said Matt Watkins, director of farm operations for Bee Sweet Citrus. “I’ve been in citrus for 12 years and this is the coldest late February we’ve ever had.”
Watkins said they are feeling “pretty good” about surviving the freezing temperatures with minimal crop damage however, due in part to the weeks of unseasonably warm weather that preceded this week’s cold snap, which accelerated the development of sugar levels in fruit.
“We call it antifreeze. They can weather the cold pretty good,” said Watkins. “If this cold had happened in the beginning of December we would definitely have damage.”
Of greater concern is new growth on trees and next year’s blooms, but Watkins said if there is damage it will be “nothing catastrophic” like what other crops like almonds, stone fruits and blueberries are facing with the untimely cold event.
While the warm weather prior to the freeze helped citrus, it accelerated bloom on almond trees to a point where they are very susceptible to freeze damage.
“The trees were already waking up thinking it was springtime with that warm weather. They pushed a lot sooner and a lot faster than they normally would have, and then all of a sudden here comes this cold front,” said Mark Aguiar of RPC Packing in Porterville.
RPC works with about a dozen almond growers around Porterville, and Aguiar said it’s still a little early to assess damage in almond trees, but almond growers are concerned.
“The jury’s still out, and everyone’s keeping their fingers crossed. We’re watching everything, and in the next couple of days we’ll be looking at petals and flowers to see if there is any freeze damage on them,” said Aguiar.
As bad as the timing of the weather has been for almond growers, Aguiar said it could have been worse.
“I think we’re good in the fact that it’s coming earlier rather than later,” he said. “When they’re flowering it’s not as bad, but if there were already nutlets on the trees we’d be in worse shape.”
When temperatures get below freezing, a difference of one or two degrees can make all the difference for the delicate almond blossoms. Aguiar said that 26 to 27 degrees seems to be the breaking point for flowers, but nutlets can be damaged at 28 to 29 degrees.
As a result, he has spent much of his time the last few days trying to determine exactly how cold it has been at area orchards.
Citrus growers frequently protect their crops in the coldest months of the year, so many make the investment to outfit their orchards with permanent wind machines.
This is uncharted waters for almond growers, however, and Aguiar said they are doing their best to protect their crops with irrigation, which slightly raises temperatures in orchards as heat escapes from the water.
While the wind machines are useful, they can also make additional work for growers during cold weather episodes.
“A lot of these growers are trying to catch some sleep during the day because they’re up all night fighting the cold, and also trying to keep bad guys from stealing diesel fuel and stealing the engines off of wind machines,” said Blattler. “It’s hard for them to battle both rural crime and the weather at the same time.”