Surprise freeze nips local orchards
Agriculture experts are still calculating the losses connected
with an unexpected frost early this week.
Temperatures in the Fairview and San Juan Valley areas dipped as
low as 30 degrees F for several hours Monday night, according to
Bill Coates of the U.C. Cooperative Extension office in
Hollister.
Surprise freeze nips local orchards
Agriculture experts are still calculating the losses connected with an unexpected frost early this week.
Temperatures in the Fairview and San Juan Valley areas dipped as low as 30 degrees F for several hours Monday night, according to Bill Coates of the U.C. Cooperative Extension office in Hollister.
“I’m having reports from both San Benito and Santa Clara Counties for both apricots and walnuts,” Coates said. “They are very susceptible to frost at this stage of growth with damage beginning at 30 or 31 degrees.”
Paul Matulich, county agriculture commissioner, said he is continuing to calculate losses, and expected to have an estimate by week’s end. “It stayed at 30 for quite a while,” he said. “That’s the problem.”
In addition to commercial losses, Coates said home gardeners took a hit.
“Most of my calls are from people with damage to their tomatoes,” he said, “which is why I wait until April 15 to plant. Often, you’ll run into a weeklong cold, wet period this time of year, and the plants just sit there. I follow what the commercial growers do.”
That means that peppers may wait until warm weather makes its appearance, around May 1.
Coates said frost damage to tree crops is detectable now. Walnuts will show damage to foliage near branch tips. Developing apricots with darkening around the pits are damaged. “The seed coat should be white with a little gelatinous layer over,” he said.
The cold snap caught authorities and growers by surprise. A generation ago, cold springtime temperatures sent growers into their orchards to start massive fans or to light pots of oil to save trees from freezing.
Few had that opportunity this year.
Part of the problem, said Matulich, is that changing air quality regulations mandate expensive “smudge pots” with reburning mechanisms. The days when Hollister and San Juan greeted the dawn under an oily black cloud are long gone.
Even without burning pots of oil, there’s much that growers can do, given adequate warning.
Coates suggested that orchard weeds can be mown, disked or irrigated to keep temperatures marginally warmer.
While damage is still being assessed, Coates said he anticipates that some growers will be seeking disaster relief as a result of the freeze.
