Ag Alert. April 12, 2023

Storms disrupt tomato plantings, raise pest worries By Nancy Vigran

Fresno County farmer Daniel Hartwig was looking to get a good start on plant- ing 3,500 acres of processing tomatoes by the end of February. But the weather had different plans. “It has put us about two weeks behind,” Hartwig said. He hesitated to plant too much all at once, explaining, “We fear too much to harvest all at one time and what does that do to the cannery?” Processing tomatoes are typically planted in California from early February through early June for continuous harvest from the end of June into October. This year is running behind schedule, at least for many early plantings. The weather has changed the planting schedule almost daily, Hartwig, director of sustainability at Woolf Farming in Fresno, said this month. The deluge of recent storms is also heightening worries about the potential of increased pest problems compared to drier years. As for pests, “the concerns we have are the concerns we have annually,” Hartwig said, adding that the highest concern is the beet leafhopper, a serious pest for toma- toes that can spread plant diseases. Hartwig also said the ground beetle is another pest to watch for. He said the pests require extra monitoring and vigilance.

After planting was delayed due to a series of storms, farm employees plant processing tomatoes in Fresno County. Farmers must recalculate schedules for the harvest season, which generally runs from late June to October.

Some 40 miles to the northeast, in the Firebaugh-Los Banos area, A-Bar Ag Enterprises hadn’t started plant- ing its processing tomatoes. Usually, it would have started by April 1, continuing through May. “It could be a lot different this year,” said Jake Barcellos, whose family owns A-Bar Ag. Echoing some of Hartwig’s worries, he said, “I think the real con- cern now is for when the harvest comes

around. A lot of tomatoes will need to be harvested all at once.” Barcellos said he is also focused on potential beet leafhopper problems. The challenge, he said, is that just one leafhop- per will not only feed on one plant but may get to a couple more before stopping. While not a significant threat ev- ery year, the pest could be worrisome this year, said Amber Vinchesi-Vahl, a University of California Cooperative

Extension vegetable crop advisor for Colusa, Sutter and Yuba counties. “You can’t control it because it’s gone by the time you find it,” she said. Beet leafhoppers feed and lay eggs in perennial weeds likely to be enhanced by this year’s rains. They tend to come down from the foothills to the valley floor as the weather warms in the spring. See TOMATOES, Page 18

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14 Ag Alert April 12, 2023