Organics – Harvest started last week and is going well despite the extreme heat we’ve experienced. It’s been hard on the plants and fruit.
Excessive heat such as we have been enduring, causes a bit of fruit softness in some instances, as well as incidents of tomato external sunburning. In some extremes, the high, prolonged heat can cause foliage to collapse, eliminating the natural shade that a tomato plant provides. We have completed 35% of our organic tomato harvest and are looking forward to temperatures below 100°F this weekend.
San Marzano Style, Pear Tomatoes– The fruit has been holding up through 10 consecutive, extreme hot days. We are hopeful that our San Marzano style pear tomatoes will stay strong enough to outlast the recent oppressively hot mid-July temperatures. Harvest for this commodity should begin on or around July 27th.
Conventional Tomatoes – We began harvesting July 17th with 4 of our PCP tomato growers. So far, the crop looks good. Yields average to slightly above average with an expectation of a decent, adequately yielding mid-season tomato crop. Our late season plantings have been affected somewhat by the above mentioned high heat days of mid-July. We have some apprehension this noted wave of high central valley temperatures may reduce California’s overall tomato tonnage.
Modesto/Madera/Kingsburg – Our peach harvest is well underway, with the South now about 50% through their Extra Early varieties. The first pick Loadels were rough with heat damage from the latest heat wave, but fruit quality has improved in the second pick Loadels and the Stanislaus and Carson varieties. Mixed maturity, size and split pits continue to be a challenge for growers. Trying to pick the ripe fruit without getting too much green has been a huge challenge. To achieve the best quality, growers will have to pick their orchards a second time. So far labor has not been an issue. Cultural practices continue.
Marysville/Yuba City – The northern harvest is ramping up with Loadel variety finishing up by early next week. Since it was a heavy set this year, we are seeing undersized peaches and with the extreme, prolonged temperatures, we are also seeing heat damage on the fruit. In certain areas of the North District, growers are having to sort a lot of the peaches out of the bin that could negatively affect their grade. With more heat on the way, we will be on the lookout for bruise, overripe, and heat damage in the peaches.
Organic Peaches – Kingsburg – In Kingsburg we are curently picking the Stanislaus variety. Quality and size have been good. We will second pick the Big Ben variety then go into the Kingsburg Kling variety by July 30th. In Madera we finished the first pick on the Stanislaus. We should finish the second pick early next week. The upcoming varieties will be Kader and Vilmos. They are slow to ripen due to the heat but we hope to get a border pick late next week.
River and Linden Districts – Harvest for the fresh market got off to a slow start this week. Growers that are harvesting are taking their time and picking the bottoms of the trees first. Hoping to leave the top fruit and give them time to size more. We won’t see any field deliveries until the end of the week of July 22nd.
Mendocino and Lake Districts – Fruit continues to grow. Fruits in these districts are still small, but they have a minimum of three weeks to gain size before harvest. Growers continue to irrigate and maintain other cultural practices.
Pacific Northwest – The Northwest Bartlett pear crop is developing well. It experienced a short heat wave which slowed the growing and will possibly delay the harvest by a couple of days. The quality looks good. Growers are continuing with their cultural practice of crop protection and irrigation.
Grapes continue to look good. The extreme heat has caused some sunburn, but not as much as expected. We will be testing for Brix (Sugar) in the coming days to determine when harvest can begin. The tentative start date before testing is July 29th. Irrigations and all cultural practices continue in both districts.
The Northwest cherry crop continues to be good quality for us. This past week, shed pack outs were lower resulting in generating more brine cherries. Many packing houses will finish July 24th-30th. The only cherries after July 26th-28th will be of the highest elevations in Northern Washington.
Harvest began on June 10, 2024 and completed on June 28, 2024.
The Pacific Northwest apple crop is an average crop. Evaporative cooling during last week’s heat wave protected the apples from sunburn. The only heat related concern is sizing the apple. Growers are continuing with their cultural practice of crop protection and irrigation.
