Stone fruit harvest looked to be a little late this year, but that has changed over the last month.
Halfway through April, UC Cooperative Extension Tree Crop Farm Advisor Franz Niederholzer thought some stone fruit harvest, including prunes, would be pushed back into September. “You know, that’s what I thought. The month started cool, but it actually warmed up significantly…the second half of April basically,” he said.
According to models, the quick warmup has almost put the season back on track. “The UC’s harvest timing model that’s based on the heat units for 30 days after bloom, so all of April basically, has a lot more heat units than usual,” Niederholzer said. “Which means even though we had a late bloom, harvest won’t be early, but it won’t be super late…The models are showing somewhere around the last 10 days of (August)…not September like I was thinking.”
Niederholzer added that this means it’ll be a short season and there are some decisions that producers have to make with that. Stay with AgNet West for more information.
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