Cherries Continued from Page 3
stress during bud initiation. Bud forma- tion for the 2022 crop started in mid- March, when “we had plenty of heat stress this year already,” he said, adding that he thinks these quality issues could persist for next year’s crop. Though theearlymarket for cherries re- mains “good,” he said, the price did slip “a little belowwhere we would like to see it,” especially so early in the season. Tesch also markets some cherries at farmers markets, and he said at least in the year-round Bakersfield farmers mar- ket in which he participates, attendance has been down. Though people who bought cherries “loved” them, he said, “we could’ve sold double if we’d had a normal crowd.” His bigger concern now relates to wa- ter availability for his orchards and other crops, Tesch said. With groundwater con- tinuing to drop, he said none of his neigh- bors has beenwilling to sell himwater. On oneproperty that he farms, the landowner “doesn’t want me to drop a well,” he said, and on another farm that receives its sup- ply from the Arvin-EdisonWater Storage District, he’s already paying three times more for his water. (ChingLeeisanassistanteditorofAgAlert. Shemaybe contactedat clee@cfbf.com.)
Memorial Day holiday. Because the Coral harvests earlier than theBing, increasedplantingsof thevariety have moved up timing of peak California cherry season, San Joaquin County grow- er Jeff Colombini said, and Nick Lucich, a sales and marketing representative for Delta Packing Co. in Lodi, said the shift to moreCoralshasalso ledtomoreCalifornia cherries being shipped during themonth ofMay than in June. One big reason farmers are planting more Corals, Colombini said, is because the trees require “much less winter chill.” “In low-chill years, we tend to have smaller crops in Bings, whereas Coral Champagne seems to produce consis- tentlygoodcropsyear in, yearout,”hesaid. Harvest inthenortherndistricthasbeen rampingup, Colombini said, with farmers picking Coral and Chelan, another earli- er-maturingvariety. The small volumeshe hasbeenpickingduring the last twoweeks benefited from the “beautiful weather,” which made for a “great quality cherry” without any problems of rot or fungal dis- eases that couldplaguegrowersduringwet springs,hesaid.Thenumberof sunnydays inMayhasalsoallowedthe fruit tosweeten properly, he added. With about a quarter of the crop picked as of last week, Lucich saidharvest started slowly due tomostly cooler temperatures inApril, with the fruit taking its time color- ing and sweetening. Inmore typical years, full productionusuallyarrivesaroundMay 10, he noted. “Every retailer wants cherries for Mother’s Day. It really wasn’t there this year,” Lucich said. “But there’s going to be a very good supply of red cherries for the Memorial Day pull.” Despite the larger crop this year, Colombini said he doesn’t think farmers will see a big crash in market prices, be- cause of the crop’s “exceptional quality,” whichwill drive repeat purchasing. Lucichagreed.He saideven thoughsiz-
In this file photo, an employee from Tesch Family Farms in Kern County picks cherries from low-profile trees. Farmer Greg Tesch says he finished his 2021 harvest in early May.
ing on cherries has been “smaller thanwe like,”demand inbothdomesticandexport marketshasbeen“verygood,”whichiscre- ating “a very healthymarket right now.” “Shoppers arebuying cherries and then coming back formore,” he added. An estimated 25% of the California cropwill go to exportmarkets this year, up slightly from23%last year, according to the cherry board. Canada, Korea and Japan have been the biggest buyers. Because cherries are sold mainly via retail market channels, Zanobini said the crop did not experience the demand fluctuations that affected other com- modities when food service shut down during the pandemic. He noted cherries were the “first big crop” to harvest during the initial pan- demic lockdowns last year, and credited farmers, shippers and packers for “a phe- nomenal jobof putting invery good safety measures,”most ofwhich remain inplace. In addition to continued testing for the coronavirus at work sites, he said a num- ber of packing sheds have hosted clinics that allowed several thousand people to be vaccinated. “There’s been a huge effort done by the cherry industry to protect their workers,”
Zanobini said. Kern County farmer Greg Tesch said he felt “really lucky” for more favorable weather this year when the fruit was rip- ening, after rain last year damaged some of his cherries. Tesch, who finished cherry harvest in early May, described his yield as slightly above average and fruit quality as below average, due to the number of doubles and spurs, which are influenced by heat
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Proximity to a confirmed find of the citrus disease HLBmay influence the ur- gency with which farmers prepare their operations to limit its spread, according to aUniversity of California survey. UC researchers posed a series of ques- tions to 160 citrus growers, assessing how likely the farmerswere toadopt avoluntary grower response plan for HLB. The disease, also known as huanglong- bingorcitrusgreening, killscitrus treesand has been found in a number of residential citrus trees in California. So far, it has not been detected in commercial California citrus, though the disease has caused sig- nificant losses tocommercial citrus inoth- er parts of the nation andworld. The Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention
Programdescribed results of theUCstudy lastweek. It saidthesurvey indicatedfarm- ers believe the spread of HLB “is not hap- pening as fast as they thought it would” four years earlier. Thoughthestudyshows increasingcon- fidenceby farmers inbeingable tocontrol HLB, the CPDPP warned people in the citrus business to “be cautious andnot fall victimto its own success.” The chairman of the Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention Committee, Jim Gorden, said farmers “must keep our foot on the accelerator tokeep this devastating disease out of our orchards,” by following voluntary best practices and working to manage the Asian citrus psyllid, an insect that can spreadHLB.
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May 26, 2021 Ag Alert 11
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