Overheated Fruit Leads One Grower to a Cool Solution

Sometimes it pays to answer those pesky sales calls. Joe Cataldo, the owner of J&M Farms in Lodi, CA, learned as much — the hard way — in 2018. Carrying a bucket of cherries, Cataldo walked into a local restaurant, bearing gifts and bad news. He had recently watched 3 inches of rain decimate his cherry crop. “Whenever I go to an establishment here locally, since it’s cherry harvest and we’re really proud of our fruit, I always bring it in to give to the staff because it’s a small town, and I know everybody,” Cataldo says.

While doing so, Cataldo played the part of “poor farmer,” he says. “I was joking with the owner of the establishment, ‘Enjoy these cherries. They’re the last ones you’re going to get for the rest of the year. Our crop was ruined.’ And I said it kind of loud.”

Loud enough to catch the attention of an unfamiliar patron, who then asked, “Oh, where are those cherries from?” And, “What’s your name?”

“Joe Cataldo.”

“As a matter of fact,” the stranger responded, “I’ve been trying to get a hold of you. And if you would have answered your phone calls, this wouldn’t have happened. It’s unfortunate that we didn’t get to work together this year but let me buy you dinner and explain why next year you should use Parka.”

And that is how Cataldo met Matt Imoto, then a sales rep with Cultiva, the manufacturer of Parka, a proprietary blend (SureSeal) of phospholipids in a cellulosic matrix that was originally approved as a rain cracking suppressant. “I get calls for every single product that’s coming out. I was really busy and didn’t mean to, but I was unintentionally blowing him off,” Cataldo says. “But we became buddies, and then we just started doing trials together, and the rest is history.”

Skeptical at first — “Typically when someone tells me this product does this and that and is kind of jack of all trades, I usually think it’s nonsense,” Cataldo says — he found immediate success with Parka in heat stress prevention and, later, canopy management.

He now uses Parka across a Courtland, CA, property that he purchased in 2022. The farm’s 275 acres consist of a preexisting pear orchard and vineyard and newly planted cherries and wine grapes.

Particularly susceptible to sunburn is an established block of ‘Chardonnay’. The wind and heat on the delta increase stress on the vines, to the point where it stunts growth, according to Cataldo. “When we have a lack of canopy out there, especially since it’s an older, established vineyard, and it’s a ‘Chardonnay’ vineyard, our bunches are exposed, and it happens quick — they get sunburn, they shrivel up, and our tonnage yields go down,” he says.

After applying Parka, Cataldo noticed a significant improvement in canopy development and increased yields, he says. Better yet, “We actually decided to use it on a newly developed vineyard, and we noticed the younger vines we applied it to kind of raced to the top of the stake faster than the rest of them,” he says. “Then we also used it in a younger cherry orchard that was recently planted, and we noticed the same thing.”

Heat stress mitigation, in general, has wound up being the gift that keeps giving for Cataldo. Postharvest applications of Parka typically ensure success the following season, according his current Cultiva connection, Technical Sales Agronomist Ryan McCoon.

“When we talk about Parka performance, and not just sun protection but definitely heat stress mitigation, the postharvest usage in cherries is as impactful for Joe as anything,” McCoon says. “When we talk about reducing stress during bud differentiation, and then also mitigating both doubles and spurs in cherries, Parka is excellent at providing some of the functional support the plant needs during that process to more adequately differentiate and produce a better crop. In addition to that, we know carbohydrate storage in those plants is better. There has been fruit sizing impacts the following season, too, when we evaluate some of the work that’s been done there. So, I think if you were to ask Joe directly, ‘Hey, where do you really love it?’ I think that postharvest cherry applications is what he would be a major advocate for.”