An unexpected frost that hit California’s central valley two weeks ago may have caused sporadic damage to California stonefruit, cherries and blueberries, according to industry sources.
In some growing areas damage looks to have been significant, with temperatures reaching -2ºC south of Fresno on the night of 10 March. Growers are currently surveying fields and orchards to assess the extent of their losses.
“There looks to be some significant problems in the Kingsburg and Hanford areas,” said Gary Van Sickle of the California Tree Fruit Agreement (CTFA).
“Other areas seem to have only spotty damage and will amount to nothing more than a natural thinning of trees. We’re still a week to ten days from know just how much fruit set has been affected, however.”
The California tree fruit industry packed over 59m cartons of peaches, plums and nectarines in 2008 – the most since 2002. The CTFA had a preliminary estimate of 50m cartons for 2009 or 15 per cent below last year’s level before the frost.
“That number was conservative, however, as there has been a lot of acreage pulled since last season,” said Mr Van Sickle. “It’s too soon to say for certain, but we may be down to around 48m cartons now.”
Jim Culbertson of the California Cherry Advisory Board says that his industry also sustained damage, but like the tree fruit industry it is too early to know how much.
“There was damage to orchards both in the northern and southern growing districts,” said Mr Culbertson.
“It’s hard to pin it down at this early date but, then again, we don’t need every flower to become a cherry either. I understand that some growers have filed crop insurance claims, however.”
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