How Is Extreme Weather Impacting Your Crops? Get Reports From the Field [Updating]

Weather is always top of mind when it comes to ag, and especially lately. That’s why American Vegetable Grower and American Fruit Grower have developed this series of quick updates on the topic from our friends around the country. Springtime can be quite volatile in terms of weather. This season is living up to that statement. Check out what our industry connections are reporting, and let us know what you’re seeing in the fields, too.

West — California

Michael CahnMichael Cahn, UCCE Irrigation and Water Resources Advisor, University of California, Davis
American Vegetable Grower Columnist, California

“Along the Salinas River there were two major flooding events. One event in January and another in March. Along the Pajaro River, the levee broke during the March atmospheric river. Strawberry plants inundated longer than a week were severely set back. Some fields were just starting to show new leaf growth at the end of April, at a time of the year when harvesting should be underway. Flooded vegetable fields had to be abandoned.

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Flooded strawberry field in California after atmospheric river event

Inundated strawberry field in California after recent atmospheric river event.
Photo by Michael Cahn

“Growers are following the leafy greens marketing agreement rules on food safety by fallowing the fields for 30 or more days before replanting. They are also testing the soil for human microbial pathogens, such E. coli 0157 before planting. Besides the direct damage to crops, there were millions of dollars in damage to farm infrastructure, including the levees, wells, irrigation pipes, and farm equipment. In many cases. fields suffered from severe erosion and will need to be releveled before they can be replanted.”

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Richard Matoian, President, American Pistachio Growers
American Fruit Grower Editorial Advisory Board Member, California

Richard Matoian of American Pistachio Growers

“Pistachio trees require dormant chill hours — at least 800 hours — and fortunately, the winter of 2022 and early months of 2023 have provided more than enough adequate chill. Also, when we had all the wet, cold and rainy weather in February and early March, pistachio trees were still dormant. Pistachio weather during pollination has been good thus far, but as always, a lot can happen between now and harvest time that could affect the production of pistachios.

“The only issue that could be negative is the heat expected over the next week — this can affect the pollen viability from the male trees, making pollination more difficult. The great news is we have just learned that water supplies will be at 100% for the various state and federal water projects. This will be the first time in either 16 or 17 years that growers have received 100% allocation. The total water supply, combined with the adequate chill we received during the winter, combined with the good weather during pistachio bloom suggests we should experience a good pistachio crop for 2023. Time will tell.”

5 Voices: What’s Hot in Vegetable Technology?Richard Smith, Emeritus, Vegetable Crop Farm Advisor, UCCE Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito Counties – California
American Vegetable Grower Columnist

“The town of Salinas received nearly 50% more rainfall than normal in the 2022-23 rainy season. However, the Salinas Valley is surrounded by hills that receive much greater quantities of rainfall and the runoff coming down the Salinas River caused it to overflow its banks in many areas in both January and then again in March. The flooding killed crops that were planted and delayed planting schedules for affected farms. Fields cannot be planted to lettuce until 60 days after the flood waters recede due to food safety concerns. As a result, there were reduced acres of lettuce and other vegetables in production at the early end of the season which may affect their supply.

“Growers who have the ability to shift production to other areas on higher ground will do so and will plant other crops in the flooded acreage. At some point during the season, the effect of the flood may diminish to some degree, but growers will feel the economic impact of repairing damage to production fields (e.g. releveling fields, fixing damaged infrastructure, etc.) for the entire season. It is also unclear what the effect of the flooding will have on pest issues such as soilborne disease and the spread of weed seed.”


Pacific Northwest

Lisa Wasko DeVetter, Associate Professor, Small Fruit Horticulture; Washington State University NWREC and Everett
American Fruit Grower Columnist, Washington State

Lisa DeVetter

“We are having a late start to our season in Washington State, and it’s been relatively dry, which is unusual as our cool springs are usually accompanied by rain/drizzle. At this stage, we are ~2 weeks behind our ‘normal,’ but we can catch up later in the season depending on weather conditions.”


Desert Southwest

John C. Palumbo, Professor/Extension Entomologist, University of Arizona, Yuma Agricultural Center
American Vegetable Grower Columnist, Arizona

“Our winter vegetable season is just about complete. However, we had one of the heaviest aphid years in recent memory during January, February, and March. Primarily green peach aphids. This was due primarily to cooler temperatures this winter that were ideal for aphid reproduction and development. About 55°F. Our average temperatures were 3 to 5 degrees cooler than the 10-year average for the desert-growing region. Aphid populations exploded on all our leafy vegetables and brassicas and required more than normal insecticide use to control them. When the weather began to warm up in late March, green peach aphid populations began to rapidly decline, but lettuce aphid populations began to increase rapidly until just recently (late April). It’s been a battle for the growers. The major impact of production was increased insecticide control costs, likely twice as high as normal. Minimal yield loss except for a few late season-organic lettuce fields that had to be disked before harvesting due to excessive lettuce aphid contamination.”


South Central

Bruce Frasier, President, Dixondale Farms, Texas

Bruce Frasier of Dixondale Farms

“We had the worst hailstorm in our history on March 20. It wiped out 100 acres of cantaloupes and shredded all our onion plants. Will make our volume not come in until two weeks later. Overall volume will be impacted because we lost about 20% of our acreage. The onion plants came back, and we are back on track.”

 

Russell Wallace of Texas A&M UniversityRussell W. Wallace, Professor and Extension Specialist, Vegetables and Strawberries, Dept. of Horticultural Sciences, Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension

“In the Texas High Plains, most counties are under severe drought conditions, with little rainfall since the fall. Where needed, pre-plant irrigation is occurring. The lack of rainfall significantly impacts production management decisions, especially as the costs of irrigation continue to increase. Without moisture, vegetable seed bed preparation may be delayed. The drought is also accompanied by increased hot and windy conditions that can result in extended blowing dust conditions, which is damaging to emerging seedlings.

“The lack of rainfall may delay vegetable planting times, as growers patiently wait for moisture. Unless irrigated, deep soil moisture needed for season-long production will be limited. The drought, accompanied by wind and hot temperatures, can alter the plant physiology resulting in excessive flower drop, especially for crops like tomatoes and peppers. Some rainfall is expected next week, which will benefit growers. But it is likely not enough to overcome drought conditions.”


Southeast

Anthony Keinath, Professor – Vegetable Pathology, Clemson University, Coastal REC
American Vegetable Grower Columnist, South Carolina

“Widespread injury to vegetable and fruit crops was observed in mid-April in the coastal plain and midlands of South Carolina and into North Carolina. The first report came on April 12, although one grower noticed similar symptoms on immature strawberry fruit on April 6. Symptoms were small, irregular blotches or bleached areas on the older leaves.

“Tomato was the most common crop affected. Other crops with injury included strawberry, blackberry, cowpea, cucumber, melons, squash, and leafy brassicas. Symptoms were seen on commercial and home garden crops.

“Symptoms that appear on many different plants in different plant families in different locations are caused by an abiotic agent, not a living pathogen. Disease symptoms caused by pathogens tend to occur in localized areas and affect one crop or crops in the same plant family. The symptoms were confined to the older leaves, and new growth that appeared a week to 10 days later is symptom-free. This pattern fits the textbook definition of injury to a plant, which is damage resulting from a one-time event. The Clemson Plant and Pest Diagnostic Clinic diagnosed symptoms on tomato as consistent with ozone injury.”

Ozone damage on young watermelon

Symptoms of suspected ozone damage on the three oldest leaves on a young watermelon plant transplanted in early April.
Photo by Anthony P. Keinath

 

Tim Coolong of University of Georgia

Photo courtesy of University of Georgia

Timothy Coolong, Professor of Horticulture and Vegetable Extension Specialist, University of Georgia Dept. of Horticulture Extension Coordinator, Georgia

“Weather this year has been typical for Georgia, which means atypical. In terms of this area, we had some late freezes that didn’t necessarily impact vegetables that much (growers delayed their plantings), but check with peach growers. I’ve heard the late freeze really hit the peaches at a bad time. We had an early freeze near Christmas that hurt onion crops, but for the most part the plants were able to grow out of the damage. We’ve had rain, as always, which impacts planting and laying plastic, but nothing too unusual.

“The early season, with some frost damage on early planted materials, particularly in Northern Georgia, hasn’t been impacted too much (check about peaches though).

“Overall, we still have a long way to go. We could have heavy rains in June that completely turn things upside down. Weather has been fairly mild so far in terms of temperatures, but untimely heat waves can always hit, particularly during melon harvests in June, which are always a concern.”


Florida

Mongi Zekri, UF/IFAS Multicounty Citrus Agent, LaBelle

UF/IFAS Citrus Extension Agent Mongi Zekri in his office

Parts of Florida are in severe drought status. The wet season in Florida is just around the corner, however. And the Atlantic hurricane season gets underway on June 1. In the meantime, eyes are on crops going through water stress.

“We are doing OK in Southwest Florida in terms of rainfall. It was very dry a couple of weeks ago, but luckily, we have been getting frequent rain lately.”

Jaime Weisinger of Lipman Family Farms

Jaime Weisinger, Director, Community and Government Relations, Lipman Family Farms, Immokalee, FL

“We certainly had some challenges to begin the florida season last September with Hurricane Ian. Every single one of our acres were impacted in some way from the storm. Some were a total loss, while others we were able to replant for a delayed harvest. But we persevered and were able to transition to normal crops by January. We had a pleasantly dry winter after that, so spring crops were robust.

“We are transitioning to our Wimauma and Palmetto area harvest right now and our crops look good. We will make the move to South Carolina in early June for a crop that looks a little early, so were hoping we have enough staffing and equipment to make it all go well.”


Northeast

Jon Clements, University of Massachusetts Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor
American Fruit Grower Editorial Advisory Board Member, Massachusetts

jon clements

“Big news here would be the complete loss of peach crop (and most other stone fruit) in New England because of one record cold night in early February, the 4th to be exact. Most locations were -10°F to -14°F. Peach flower buds are damaged at -10°F. The relatively warm (record in fact in Massachusetts) in January did not help, I don’t think the buds were as cold hardy as they might have been otherwise. Apples are OK up to this point.”

Bill Sciarappa of Rutgers University

Bill Sciarappa, Associate Professor – Agriculture & Natural Resource Agent, Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Rutgers University – NJAES-RCE

“New Jersey/Northeast weather is increasingly erratic. NJ had the mildest winter — hardly any snow except farther north and warm temps hardly freezing.

“Winter weeds are loving it, fruit buds are weeks early, and soils 50°F way early. Good for leafy greens, but farmers fear that late April freeze from Canadian air. We had a few small tornadoes and several warnings, which is rare here.

“Soil Moisture was really good with a recent dry spell 🙁. In my lifetime, I’ve seen NJ rainfall go from 35 to 55 to 75 inches/year. We no longer get 1 inch weekly but 5 inches at once and then nothing for a while. Climate change. [Check out USDA Climate Outlooks]

“Last week in late April, temperatures reached 30°F to 31°F after periods of 80°F and a very mild winter in central and south Jersey. This frost/freeze event happened during the earliest bloom for blueberry, peach, cherry, etc. Smudge pots were authorized for field warming and minor flower/young leaf damage was observed in NJ. Overhead irrigation was used in some areas for blueberry.”

Susan Scheufele of UMass

Susan Scheufele, Production Agriculture Leader, University of Massachusetts Extension – Massachusetts

“We had a mild winter temp wise, and without much snow cover at all, at least in southern New England. Recently we had 1 to 2 inches of rain, and there was a lot of mud right after, but the moisture was needed. People were able to get into fields early because they were not wet, but things were very dry. Now folks need to wait for fields to dry out a little bit before getting back out there to prep and plant.

scouting for onion thrips

Scouting for onion thrips.
Photo courtesy of University of Massachusetts Extension Vegetable Program

“How will this impact the overall season? Not sure. The season is always so variable here, it’s hard to predict what will happen weather-wise. I’d say it’s been an early start, which could be good, getting things to market early. Though we often see things cool off after an initial warm period, and then plants just sit in the field not growing and getting damping off. The “early start” is true in that the planting date was earlier, but the crop growth stays on a similar track as if you had just waited a little longer to plant, if that makes sense.”

Kenong Xu (Photo credit: Robyn Wishna/Cornell University)

Photo by Robyn Wishna/Cornell University

Kenong Xu, Associate Professor, Cornell University, American Fruit Grower Columnist, New York

“I am pretty sure you are aware of that a frost event occurred during the overnight hours between May 17 and May 18, 2023, in the Northeast/Upper Midwest U.S. Now I heard the frost event led to insufficient crop loads in some apple orchards in our region.”


Midwest

Ken Johnson of University of Illinois

Photo courtesy of University of Illinois

Kenneth Johnson, Extension Educator, Horticulture, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois

“Some growers have seen a good amount of bud kill in peaches due to the cold weather around Christmas. This will likely lead to a reduced peach crop in Illinois. With the cold weather this weekend and this morning (April 21-23), many growers were doing frost protection in orchards and strawberries. Time will tell how much the crop is affected.”

How’s the weather been in your neck of the woods lately and how is it affecting your ag production? Leave a reader comment below or send us an email to contribute to the next report.

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Avatar for Gil Schieber Gil Schieber says:

Ref to peach losses, Stone fruit buds (esp apricots) in general may be frost-protected to as low as 18°F by KDL a potassium formulation of Potassium carbonate and seaweed. AGRO-K KDL was tested and trialed by Bob Purvis of Purvis Orchards in Idaho specifically for Frost point control with high effectiveness. Per tech sheet:

Frost Control

In case of spring frosts, apply KDL at 2 to 4 quarts per acre (4 to 10 liters/ hectare) within 36 hours of frost event to improve plant tolerance to cold. If day time temperatures remain below 60ºF and subsequent frost events happen within 3-4 days of the first event re-application is not necessary. If daytime temperatures are above 60ºF and or subsequent frost events happen more than 4 days after the first event, reapply at 2 to 4 quarts per acre (4 to 10 liters/hectare) within 36 hours of subsequent frost event.

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