Growers wary of wind, extreme heat

A January windstorm toppled orchards, and an April freeze strangled much of the fruit and nut harvest. Now Mid-Valley growers face a third threat – stiff winds and triple-digit temperatures forecast for this weekend.

While growers did not expect major sun damage to Colusa County’s crops, some were wary of the effect of evaporation on their water supplies.

“The next few days it’s going to be hot and we’ll be scrambling for water, and even if there’s enough we may not all be able to get it at the same time,” said Joe Carrancho, manager of some 2,000 rice-growing acres in Maxwell – the last of which were planted Tuesday.

Temperatures will reach about 100 degrees Saturday and Sunday, according to the National Weather Service. Accompanying the unseasonably high heat are northerly winds expected to range from 10 to 20 mph.

Rice growers expected little immediate harm but were concerned a prolonged stretch of high temperatures could speed water evaporation from the fields. That would drive up water use in a dry year when many farmers are making do with half or less their normal allotments.

Walnut groves will be among the Mid-Valley’s most vulnerable plants during the hot weather. The maturing nuts are more susceptible to heat damage than other crops, and many trees are lacking the leaf cover that normally shades the walnuts – a casualty of subfreezing temperatures April 21.

Nut growers can water groves in advance and apply a light-colored, heat-reflecting “whitewash” substance to trees. But high winds could greatly slow down efforts to apply the whitewash by air, according to Raj Kumar Sharma, whose nut-farm holdings extend from Yuba County to Solano County.

Winds preceding the 100-degree weekend could threaten to tear limbs from almond trees becoming heavy with their nuts, said Larry Rominger, whose family farms 3,000 acres of almonds in the Arbuckle area. Almond groves in western Colusa County suffered damage from the massive Jan. 4 windstorm, which uprooted trees from soil softened by winter rains.

Nut growers need to water their groves to help them fend off the heat – and might face a balancing act between healthy crops and limited water, Rominger said this week.

“Hopefully you can stretch it out,” said Rominger. “When you’re low on water, you have to put it on when you guess it’s most appropriate and hope for the best. If you don’t get enough water on it, it’ll hurt you this year and the year after.”

Though the Jan. 4 windstorm overturned nut groves in much of Colusa County, it escaped the worst of a surprise frost three months later. The county was the only one of four in the Mid-Valley not to apply for federal crop disaster relief, while Yuba-Sutter farming authorities estimated their peach, prune and nut losses at $58 million.

Contact Howard Yune at 458-2121 or hyune@tcnpress.com.