George Kendall San Luis Obispo County lemon and avocado grower
We did not get our lemons picked before the December rains. We normally pick three times a year, and we didn’t get the last pick in. The orchard did dry out by the middle of January, and we were able to get the pre-harvest spray on and get a crew to pick then. After that, we had the crew do the annual pruning, and we mulched the cuttings into the drive rows. We had to run the wind ma- chine a couple of mornings in late January, but we did not see any damage in the lemons. With what we picked, we got about what we expected. We get a larger amount of fruit in May; that’s our main harvest, and then we get smaller pickings in September. Then in December or January, we get another smallish pick. The quali- ty was good. Our next harvest will be most likely in May. In the avocado orchard, the recent warm weather that we’ve had in February has caused us to step our irrigation up a little bit. We had 88 degrees on Feb. 8 and 9. We use a lot of wood chips in the grove, so we don’t have too much weed pres- sure. That’ll come a little bit later. This week we started to pick some of the green- skin varieties, specifically the Zutano. But the main half harvest won’t begin until after we prune in April and May. This year’s crop is smaller than last year’s crop. We had quite a bit of cool weather last spring during bloom and fruit set, so we didn’t set a lot of fruit until late in the bloom period. Quality looks reasonable, but the volume, in our area at least, is going to be down. We will begin our fertilizer program in March. We’ll prune in April/May, and then we’ll pick after that.
Photo/Richard Green
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February 16, 2022 Ag Alert 5
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