We invite you to watch and share the below video for a sneak peek look into an update on the tomato fields!
Crop Report: May 17, 2023
Tomatoes
Organics –
First day of harvest: 7/17/2023
Plants are looking good and progressing nicely. Starting to see pea size fruit developing in the early fields with some regularity.
Pear Tomatoes – Plants continue to mature as expected and they too are looking good.
Conventional Tomatoes – First day of harvest: 7/27/2023
Transplanting continues and is still going well. We are about 50 percent completed with transplanting. Early plantings continue to grow and develop as expected. Mid-season plantings, which is where we are now, look good. Weather forecast calls for daytime temperatures to be in the low to mid 90’s for the next week to ten days.
Woodland first day of harvest: 7/17/2023
Peaches
Modesto/Madera/Kingsburg – First day of harvest: 7/05/2023
Peaches are progressing well with the recent warmer temperatures. Some orchards still have considerable fruit that needs to sluff so most growers will wait until next week to start thinning. The fruit set appears to be very inconsistent. There are heavy set orchards that will require a lot of thinning and lighter set orchards that will require very careful thinning. Normal cultural practices continue in all orchards.
Organic – Kingsburg – First day of harvest: 6/13/2023
Finished thinning the Ultras. The Kingsburg Kling and Stanislaus are still sluffing so thinning won’t start for another week or so. Normal cultural practices continue.
Madera – Done thinning the American, Calaveras and first block of Vilmos. Started thinning the second block of Vilmos. The set is spotty with some light areas throughout the orchard. Nutrients were applied and disking has started. Marysville/Yuba City – Fruit continues to develop and small fruit has started to drop off in the later varieties. Just a few growers started to thin Loadels with small crews late this week. More growers state that they will begin next week. 1/2 inch of rain fell on May 6th and cooler temperatures have followed. Hot weather is forecast starting May 13th and 90 plus degree weather all next week.
Pears
First day of harvest: 7/19/2023
River and Linden – Leaves are starting to cover up the fruit,
so, the pears are getting hard to see. Trees continue to terminate fruit leaving lots of singles and doubles. Growers are starting to think the crop volume is slightly smaller than last year. Cultural practices continue in all orchards. Temperatures are forecasted to be in the 90’s this weekend and next week high 80’s low 90’s.
Mendocino and Lake – Lake County trees are heavy with fruit. Trees should start terminating excess fruit soon. Growers continue to perform cultural practices. Mendocino crop continues to look good.
Grapes
Bloom sprays should be started anytime in the Bakersfield/Earlimart area. In Madera bunches are continuing to grow and elongate. Irrigation and crop protection material applications continue. Crop potential looks to be
adequate but still early.
Cherries
First day of harvest: 6/26/2023
The Pacific NW cherry crop looks very good for quality and volume of fruit. The bloom was 2-3 weeks behind last year, currently fruit development is close to last year’s timing on May 10th. The warm weather at the end of April closed the gap. Growers are continuing their cultural practices of mowing, irrigating, and using IPM practices for spraying when needed.
Apricots
First day of harvest: 6/17/2023
A recent tour of all PCP apricot blocks showed that although there is some form of hail damage in most blocks it will have minimal impact on production. Pits are hardening and abandoned fruit can be seen on the ground. Warmer temperatures are expected and should reach the low to mid 90’s next week in the Patterson area. Samples will be taken this week to determine the average number of apricots per pound. We still look to be at least two weeks behind normal timing. Cultural practices continue in all orchards.