Storm damage hurts strawberry crop

July 11, 2007

Klamath Falls Herald and News

By Lee Juillerat

A Friday night thunderstorm that destroyed fields of strawberry seedlings in Butte Valley , Tulelake, Malin and Yonna Valley will likely cripple the strawberry market nationwide.

California , which gets its strawberry plants from Klamath and Siskiyou county farmers, produces 75 percent of the nation’s strawberries.

Anywhere from a third to half of about 3,500 acres in the Klamath Basin used for growing rootstock for strawberries were damaged by a combination of strong winds, relentless hail and pounding rain. The storm, which also damaged potato, alfalfa and hay fields, devastated some areas while leaving others untouched.

“It will have a huge effect,” said Scott Scholer, manager for Lassen Canyon Nursery’s Macdoel operations.

Transplants

Strawberry rootstock grown in the Klamath Basin is transplanted to strawberry fields in central and southern California . The Klamath Basin produces most all the plants for California ’s 35,000 acres of strawberries.

At Lassen Canyon , Scholer said about 200 of the company’s 730 acres had serious damage while another couple of hundred acres was “hurt badly.”

On fields that normally produce 300,000 plants an acre “we’re hoping for 100,000.

“There’s no way of knowing,” he said. “We’re losing half our growing season. You just salvage what’s left. I have a couple of fields the storm missed and they’re beautiful.”

Jim Smith, an agricultural biologist with the Siskiyou County Department of Agriculture, estimates about half the 2,300 acres in strawberries in Butte Valley were damaged, some severely. Along with Lassen Canyon , other strawberry growers affected included NorCal Nurseries and Sierra Cascade Nursery, which also has fields in Klamath County ’s Yonna Valley that were damaged.

John Wells, ranch manager for Sierra Cascade, was unsure of the impact.

“It’s pretty early to tell. We’re trying to get the mud washed off everything,” he said. “We’re so far into the season. We’re definitely going to have a yield reduction. It could be pretty high. It could make the planting stock availability for California pretty tight.”

Along with Butte and Yonna valleys, Sierra Cascade has strawberry fields in the Merrill-Tulelake area, but those were not badly damaged.

“We got hit on fields in Butte Valley , and all of our fields in Yonna Valley were hit; and they’re 70 miles apart,” Wells said.

Quarter-size hail also destroyed Sierra Cascade’s alfalfa and seed grain.

“It was all ruined. The hay was just about ready to cut and it’s gone,” Wells said.

Smith said the hail “pretty well beat up” crops while rain-flooded fields and quickly filled irrigation ditches. In addition, the storm also smashed alfalfa, knocked down grain and destroyed potato fields. He said some farmers’ rain gauges measured 3 to 5 inches during the storm.

Brian Charlton, a cropping system research agent for the Klamath County Extension Service, said the Yonna Valley and Malin areas were the hardest hit in Oregon .

“There’s a couple of potato fields that I think are going be close to a total loss,” Charlton said, noting some spuds will likely be lower quality. In addition, the soaked fields and damage could raise concerns for fungal infections.

“There’s a fair amount of alfalfa that was totally defoliated. It looks like the wind came through and stripped the heads off,” he said.

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