Herald and News: Late frost damages Basin crops June 12, 2008

Late frost damages Basin crops

Plants struggling without warm days

By DD BIXBY

H&N Staff Writer

June 12, 2008

　　　Temperatures hit freezing or below for six of the last eight days, and area growers are concerned about the cold weather’s impact on crop growth.　

　　　Harry Carlson, director of the University of California’s Intermountain Research and Extension Center, said this year the area has had only about 71 percent of the hot weather required for average alfalfa growth and about 88 percent of the heat for barley growth.　

　　　Midland farmer Luther Horsely said he’s expecting the first cutting on his hay crops to be down by about 600 pounds per acre.　

　　　In the early season plants are building, developing leaves that will photosynthesize and grow, Carlson said. With so few warm days, the plants haven’t been growing.　

　　　“So it’s hard to catch up,” he said. “The (warm days) we’ve lost, we can’t make them up.”　

　　　The National Weather Service predicts higher temperatures in the coming days and weeks.　

　　　Other crops, including potatoes, also have been harmed by the colder weather.　

　　　John S. Cross, who farms in Newell and manages the Newell Potato Coop, said the combination of rain and frost has potato growers falling back on frost protection — nighttime sprinkling — late in the season.　

　　　Wet fields　

　　　“With all the rain last month and frost this month, the fields are really wet,” he said.　

　　　The concern with the potatoes is that the cold and damp will promote smaller spud growth, which affects prices for fresh market potatoes, Carlson said.　

　　　Potatoes are about a week behind, he said, which also delayed some management practices that will undoubtedly decrease production as well.　

　　　Normally by now Cross would have applied sulfur fertilizers to his potato rows twice. But those fertilizers have to be applied when irrigating, so the water can wash the fertilizer from the leaves and into the soil before it burns leaves. The fertilizer unlocks nutrients in the soil.　

　　　And there’s really nothing that can be done except wait it out, Carlson said.　

　　　“All the cultural practices from this point on will be determined by the stage of the crop,” he said. “Since the crops are behind, a lot of other cultural practices are behind as well.”　

　　　Cross added that it’s not just the hay and potato crops which are feeling the lack of heat, it’s everything else in the Basin, too. Grass hay does pretty well, and Carlson said the more cold tolerant crops like barley and wheat might spring back. But mint, alfalfa, onions and a host of other crops are looking gamey these days.　

　　　“There’s some tough looking crops out there,” Cross said.　

　　　“It’s still early in the game,” he added. “It depends on what the weather does between now and September, but anytime you loose a day, it sets us back in this country because you have killing frosts in September.　

　　　“So everyday you lose on the front end, the fewer days you have to grow potatoes.”　

　　　There’s also concern of rot, as the seed potatoes sit for longer periods in cold, damp soil.　

　　　But this isn’t the first year summer months have brought icy temperatures. In 1992, Cross remembered frost alarms sounding 22 nights in July, and about 18 of those nights potato growers had to water their fields to keep the plants from serious damage.　

　　　“If I could dial in a temperature for the potato crop, it would be 80 in the day and 40 at night, or 85-45,” Cross said. 　

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