Hollister
– San Benito County farmers suffered relatively minor damage
from the recent cold snap that devastated California’s citrus
crop.
Hollister – San Benito County farmers suffered relatively minor damage from the recent cold snap that devastated California’s citrus crop.
For the county’s orchard keepers, cold weather is necessary to allow their fruit and nut trees adequate hours of chill time, in which the trees prepare to bloom. But county row crop growers are experiencing a delay in the germination of recently sowed seeds.
San Benito County Farm Bureau Vice President Richard Silva, of Top Flavor Farms, said his romaine lettuce seeds have yet to germinate due to the cold spell. He said the farm will have to wait and see if the seeds have entered dormancy or have actually died.
But Silva and other row crop growers sow extra seeds not only for a higher quality crop, but to make it through plant-damaging pestilence as well.
“Usually we plant romaine at two-and-a-half inches apart in hopes that we’ll be thinning and selecting the best plants at 10 inches apart,” Silva said.
Silva said growers are cautiously optimistic and will not know the full effect of the cold spell until the weather begins to warm up.
But orchardists like Paul Hain, an organic walnut grower, welcome the dropping temperatures.
“This is probably the best chill we’ve had in the decade,” Hain said.
