Rain and heat threaten strawberry crops
By Michael Rosales
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SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, California (KSBW) — Heavy rain and warm weather in Santa Cruz County are creating challenges for strawberry farmers, with mold, fruit splitting, and accelerated growth threatening their crops.
Strawberries are the top crop on the Central Coast, with Produce Business Magazine reporting that 90% of the country’s strawberries come from the area. However, heavy rain could prevent much of the fruit from reaching consumers.
“You got a lot of fruit out there already, and then the rains come in that can just knock those back,” said Santa Cruz County Agricultural Commissioner David Sanford.
Mark Bolda, a farm advisor, described the impact of the recent rainfall.
“The fruit loss is going to be tremendous. Just this morning I measured an inch and a half of rain over the past two days. Usually berries start to break down after half an inch,” Bolda said.
Rain can cause mold and even make strawberries burst or split.
“The fruit, as we all know, have sugars in them. And then that gets drawn into the area of higher concentration. And subsequently that results in the fruit bursting,” Bolda said.
Farmers say hundreds, if not thousands, of strawberries could be wasted after heavy rain. At a strawberry field in Watsonville, piles of fallen strawberries were visible.
Rain isn’t the only concern for growers. Recent heat has accelerated the growing season by about three weeks, which initially helped reduce production costs. However, those benefits may be short-lived.
“All the sudden we were fruiting at the same time that Oxnard was, Baja California, and Santa Maria. So yes, prices will go up, but I think they’re going to go up from—they were pretty low because we had so much production,” Bolda said.
Sanford noted that the Central Coast agricultural industry is accustomed to challenges, pointing to the 2023 Pajaro floods as one of the most difficult events in recent memory.
“You have major losses in the field. You have tremendous flood loss with these kinds of rains in the spring. You know, they’re not entirely uncommon in terms of timing, of picking, slowing things down. Again, thinning of berries have been damaged. But the growers here in the Pajaro and Watsonville area [are] very resilient, very used to this. And I think, as Mark said, they’ll be back, picking fruit very quickly,” Sanford said.
Farmworkers in Watsonville were seen working to clean up the fields, facing the aftermath of the recent weather.
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