JULY HEAT WAVE
Temperatures over the past week reached over 100 degrees in many growing regions including Salinas, Watsonville and Bakersfield and up to 115 in Yolo County and Chico. The heat affects our food production, putting not only the plants and fruit at risk but the people harvesting our food. Once the temperature reaches 90-95 degrees it is too hot to be in the field picking and workers need to be sent home. Hot days and fewer hours to pick will affect supply and quality across various commodities.
Some summer fruits such as watermelon, tomatoes and melons like the heat, however if it gets too hot for an extended period of time the plants become stressed, interrupting its production cycle, slowing down the ripening process and preventing necessary nutrients from reaching the plant. For many plants like tomatoes, new fruit will not set in high heat conditions. The flowers will not pollinate leading to gaps in production in the future.
Market Update:
Brassicas are showing signs of heat stress (think broccoli, cauliflower, collards, kales etc). Expect to see a little sunburn on some lettuce varieties. Romaine and Butter lettuce will show the worst damage with browning around the top of the leaves.
Tomatero blackberries are grown under hoops in Watsonville where it is 10 degrees hotter than outside, causing fruit to soften up. Harvest hours are shorter due to the heat so we will see availability, but not in abundance.
The heat wave is potentially going to cause challenges with tomato growing regions such as Capay(Winters) and Comanche (Chico) hitting 115 plus. Extreme heat causes tomato plants to stress out and the fruit gets soft and blossoms will drop. When the heat clears, we could have some tremendous damage when it is not cooling off at night such as soft fruit, splitters and other cosmetic challenges. Tutti Frutti (Lompoc) is located on the central coast and benefits from the Mediterranean climate and ocean breezes cooling down the weather nicely in the evening. Tutti’s Heirloom tomatoes are not getting too scorched out and that is why the fruit body stays nice and firm and develops good color and flavor.
It is unknown the extent of the damage from the heat but there is a good chance we may see shortages in production down the road. We will continue to update you as we know more.
