Why More Fruit Growers Should Consider the Great Indoors

Crazy weather is happening everywhere it seems. The temperature just hit 99°F here on an afternoon in California’s Northern San Joaquin Valley, which wouldn’t be unusual, but it’s October (when I wrote this). We’ve got a heat wave that’s been tickling the triple digits all week. It almost seems normal after such a blazing hot summer. But it’s not, not even close.

I just looked up the October average high temperature, and it’s 79°F, a full 20 degrees lower. But the stunner was the record high was listed as 99°F, meaning numerous websites will have to be updated. It’s supposed to get to 102°F today, and I don’t know if that will be the highest we go this week.

I don’t need to tell you about crazy weather, though, no matter where you live. Maybe it’s not record heat. Maybe it’s a crippling freeze that seems to come out of nowhere. I’m writing this in the wake of this great country’s worst weather disaster in the past 20 years, Hurricane Helene.

It seems every American, maybe every Earthling, has a tortuous tale to tell about a weather experience. It is perhaps the one thing we have in common; we all face climate change. We all know it’s a problem, but as the famous quote goes: “Everyone complains about the weather, but nobody ever seems to do anything about it.”

Incidentally, I was about to attribute the quote above to Mark Twain, but it turns out it was actually uttered by a friend of Twain’s, Charles Dudley Warner. While on the website, I couldn’t help noticing the following actual Twain weather quote, the first half of which has not aged well: “Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.”

Please note that I’m not saying there’s nothing personally you can do about climate change. For example, doing some clever tank mixing to cut down on the number of trips you have to make through an orchard or vineyard doesn’t just save you on fuel, it reduces engine emissions, and slows climate change.

But that doesn’t protect your crops. If you’re going to farm, you’ve got to deal with climate change, or more specifically, the wild weather events it precipitates. You can’t pick up your farm and move elsewhere. So if you can’t do anything about the weather, you’re going to have to figure out ways to control your environment.

I got to thinking about this after reading a story in this month’s issue headlined: “Reasons Behind the Growth of Protected Fruit and Berries in the Southeast U.S.” It originally appeared in CEAg World Insights, an innovative multimedia package launched this year by the parent company of American Fruit Grower, Meister Media Worldwide. It is perfect timing, with growers everywhere looking for some control of their crops’ environment.

Though many of you probably don’t think CEA is relevant to your operation, CEAg World actually focuses on all sorts of environmental control — from the netting and retractable roofs used on the fruit farms of Michigan and the Southeast, to fully automated greenhouses where many are finding climate relief for their berries. It covers other ag sectors too, so we fruit growers can learn what works in some cases that may apply to us as well. I encourage you to take a look for yourselves, at ceagworld.com.

There are a wide range of ways you can protect or even increase your yields by controlling your environment. Because I don’t know about you, but after just seeing the horrendous images of Hurricane Helene on TV, I don’t expect climate change to lessen in the future.

The temperature just hit 100°F!