Ten straight days of rain in Mills River is devastatingly impacting the growing season. 

Since July 1, Mills River has received 11.45 inches of rain.

"I'm sure we've lost some tomatoes in some areas that have been basically underwater," said Terry Kelley, Henderson County director of N.C. Cooperative Extension.

"Unfortunately, it's kind of a fine line between just enough and too much."

Kirby Johnson, the owner of the generations-long Johnson Family Farm, told News 13 that he is in jeopardy of losing a large portion of his tomatoes this year.

"I'm worried about the whole crop. I figure, right now, if it quit raining and [the] sun shines... we're already cut out of probably 35 percent of our crop,” he said.

Johnson said around this time of the year, his people should be picking tomatoes eight hours a day.

You can handle a two-inch summer afternoon storm and then it turns right back [to] hot and dry with the wind blowing, but this has been continuous no sunshine," Johnson said.

Over the last few weeks, they have only been able to be out in the fields for three-to-four hours.

"We give out a price thinking we're going to anticipate 2,000 boxes of grapes, 2,200 tomatoes to the acre," Johnson said. "This puts you at 1,700 to 1,800. It's going to be hard for this farm to come out this particular year when you lose ten or 12 dollars — whatever you're selling your tomatoes for — times 400 boxes."

Terry Kelley said Mills River areas around Boylston Creek have been hit hard, impacting a handful of farms besides Johnson's.

"Some growers have suffered, already, some irreversible losses," Kelley said.

The issue with excessive rain and no sunshine is that the vines cannot dry, which allows disease to set in.

"Seven more days of this and it will be catastrophic," Johnson said.

The wet weather also means growers cannot get out to spray their crops because it can be too muddy.

With the soft ground, tomatoes are more likely to fall off in the wind.

"You know, you put a truck in there, you have to pull it from one end of the field to the other, [and] it smashes up that mud on your tomatoes which we can't pick because it's kind of inundated," Johnson said.

Tomatoes and other produce like blackberries and strawberries do not like excessive rain, but the wet weather has not been bad for everything.

"I'm sure it's going to be great for our corn and soybeans and our hay crops, which needed the rain and really can withstand a fair amount of rain," Kelley said.

Kelley said that the apples in Henderson County have also benefited from this streak.

But for Johnson, until the rain goes away, it is a waiting game.

Source - https://wlos.com