Irrigation can’t shield tomatoes from extreme heat California processing tomato growers
tomatoes grown in California. They ana- lyzed data from hundreds of commercial farms in the Central Valley from 2011 through 2021. “We find that extreme tempera- tures cause both lower yields and lower product quality, causing lower grower revenue as a result,” Whitnall and Beatty wrote. Their findings challenge the assumption that irrigation can largely
protect tomatoes from extreme heat. “There is a long-held belief that irriga- tion mitigates the negative effects of ex- treme heat on agricultural crops,” the re- searchers wrote. But their analysis found that “extreme heat conditions affect pro- cessing-tomato plants despite growers’ use of irrigation.” Whitnall and Beatty compared fields across growing seasons while accounting for factors including irrigation technology,
tomato variety and soil type. Tomatoes are planted between February and June, with harvest extending from July through October. This production sched- ule exposes plants to some of the hottest temperatures of the year. The study found that tomato yields are highest when plants are exposed to tem- peratures around 82 degrees Fahrenheit. An additional 24 hours above 104 degrees See TOMATOES, Page 16
could face significant losses from rising temperatures, even with ir- rigation, as extreme heat reduces crop yields and tomato quality, ac- cording to a new University of California study. Researchers Sarah Whitnall and Timothy Beatty exam- ined how temperature affects the quantity and quality of processing
IRRIGATION
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4 Ag Alert September 16, 2026
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