The cling peach crop in Sacramento Valley has been hit by hailstorms, less than two weeks after rain, wind and hail damaged prunes there, leaving some growers without a crop. Cherry and tomato farmers in the San Joaquin Valley also reported concerns, as farmers continue to gauge the effects of the storms.
“We’re still doing an assessment of the cling peach crop, but our estimation right now is that about 2,000 acres had some impact from the hailstorms that moved through the area last (week),” said Rich Hudgins, California Canning Peach Association president and chief executive officer. “That’s about 20 percent of the total Yuba City production and about 10 percent of the whole state’s cling peach production. It’s a major deal for the peach industry.”
Hudgins said he believes some orchards have been so severely damaged that they won’t be able to deliver a crop in 2016, whereas other orchards may be able to salvage some usable fruit for the canneries.
“In some orchards, you can see where leaves and fruit were actually knocked to the ground as the hailstorm dropped on the orchard,” Hudgins said. “It marks the fruit and creates a problem for the canneries, but it’s also dropping hundreds of fruit per tree on the ground. We’ll see yield losses and quality issues, and it’s a significant impact for the growers involved.”
Last year, the Yuba/Sutter growing region grew 9,966 bearing acres, which yielded 186,955 tons, the California Canning Peach Association reported. The total for the state in 2015 was 18,538 bearing acres, which yielded production of 335,613 tons.
Though cherry season has been ongoing, the recent storms have been disconcerting, causing quality issues for the fruit. In past several weeks, rain and wind following by heat has caused some splitting, among other issues.
California Cherry Board Executive Director Chris Zanobini said, “In general, we’re seeing lots of damage to cherries,” estimating that 50 percent of the state’s bing cherry crop has been damaged.
“The cherry crop went from 8 million (18-pound boxes) to 6 million (boxes) as of last Thursday, and is now somewhere between 4 and 5 million (boxes),” he said.
Hailstorms also hit processing tomatoes. The USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service reported Monday that hail damaged several hundred acres of tomatoes, with damage occurring in both Colusa County in the Sacramento Valley and Fresno County in the San Joaquin Valley. In many areas, tomato leaves were shredded, leaving only the stems, USDA reported.
Fresno County farmer Don Cameron, a processing tomato grower at Terranova Ranch in Helm, reported that rainfall in the Fresno area caused problems for tomato transplants.
Source - freshplaza.com
