The effects of the four-year drought continues to rock California’s bread-and-butter – the agricultural industry.
Due to water troubles, the drought could force some late summer lettuce production to shift from the Huron area in Fresno County to the south in the winter desert vegetable production areas in southernmost Imperial County and neighboring Yuma County, Ariz.
“Drought conditions in the West are affecting many different cropping systems,” said Kurt Nolte, director of the University of Arizona (UA) Cooperative Extension in Yuma County.
Currently, growers in California’s Salinas Valley grow about 85-90 percent of the nation’s summer supply of vegetables, while Yuma and Imperial county growers produce about the same amount during the winter months. Huron growers help fill in the production slot as production shifts between the two top vegetable areas.
Trials conducted this year focused on several growing options including direct seeding into fields a month earlier than usual.
Premature bolting?
Nolte said, “The challenges we face planting lettuce by direct seeding in July and August resulted in premature plant bolting – triggered by longer day length - where pre-mature flower stalks formed in iceberg, romaine, and leaf lettuce plants.
Nolte compared the problem to a car or truck.
“Turn on the engine for a long day and this triggers the plant to flower. Putting your foot on the gas pedal triggers the rapid growth of the flower stalk in lettuce.”
Besides direct seeding, lettuce transplants were grown from seed for field planting at Greenheart Farms in Yuma, plus at the main UA campus in the Controlled Environment Environmental Ag Center.
Currently, growers in California’s Salinas Valley grow about 85-90 percent of the nation’s summer supply of vegetables, while Yuma and Imperial county growers produce about the same amount during the winter months. Huron growers help fill in the production slot as production shifts between the two top vegetable areas.
Trials conducted this year focused on several growing options including direct seeding into fields a month earlier than usual.
Premature bolting?
Nolte said, “The challenges we face planting lettuce by direct seeding in July and August resulted in premature plant bolting – triggered by longer day length - where pre-mature flower stalks formed in iceberg, romaine, and leaf lettuce plants.
Nolte compared the problem to a car or truck.
“Turn on the engine for a long day and this triggers the plant to flower. Putting your foot on the gas pedal triggers the rapid growth of the flower stalk in lettuce.”
Besides direct seeding, lettuce transplants were grown from seed for field planting at Greenheart Farms in Yuma, plus at the main UA campus in the Controlled Environment Environmental Ag Center.