Growers Reap Record $806-Million Harvest : Agriculture: Bad weather damaged strawberry crops, but nursery stocks, flowers and celery provided Ventura County farmers with a $20-million increase over 1988.

Ventura County farmers produced a record harvest of crops worth nearly $806 million last year despite a disastrous year for strawberry growers, Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner Earl McPhail said Friday.

It was an increase of about $20 million over 1988 and was the first time the harvest topped $800 million, a mark achieved primarily because of a $27.7-million rise in the county’s nursery stock and cut-flower crops.

Celery growers saw a $4-million increase in their annual harvest, with total county production at $85 million.

But many farmers would not agree that it was a good year, McPhail said, because disastrous freezes and searing temperatures in 1989 caused the worst strawberry harvest in recent history.

Strawberry plants that froze in January wilted in March and April during a heat spell, he said, contributing to one of the worst years for crop damage in county history with a total loss of about $45 million because of bad weather.

While strawberry plants were the most heavily damaged by bad weather, citrus and avocado crops also suffered, McPhail said.

The production of lemons, which regularly tops the list as the largest crop in the county, declined by $2 million to $164 million.

Orange growers had a $4-million decrease in agricultural production, raising $66 million in navel and Valencia oranges.

Avocado growers saw a nearly $3-million decline in the value of their harvest, which dropped to $55 million.

Agricultural officials had feared that total production in Ventura County would decline, but a $24.7-million increase in nursery stocks and a $3-million increase in cut flowers helped offset the drop reported by fruit growers.

That increase raised the total dollar value of bedding plants and ornamental trees produced in the county to $94 million.

The total dollar value of fresh, cut and dried flowers increased to $22 million.

“We’re very pleased with the fact that it did increase. We thought for a while that the crop report might go down for the first time in a long time,” McPhail said.

Ventura County ranks 10th in agricultural production among 58 counties in the state, said Mike Henry, a spokesman for the California Farm Bureau Federation in Sacramento.

Last year, Ventura County farmers grew $84.5 million worth of strawberries, about a quarter of the state’s harvest, Henry said.

Strawberry growers all over the state were hard-hit by the drought.

Growers saw their strawberry harvest plummet in 1989 by about $6.5 million compared with the previous year, Henry said.

Strawberries were also knocked from a second-place ranking among the 10 largest crops in the county, dropping to fourth place behind lemons, nursery stocks and celery.

Production of strawberries declined to 98,500 tons.

Statewide, the strawberry harvest declined by about $34 million because of bad weather.

McPhail pointed out that farmers, particularly strawberry growers, face a continuing threat to water supplies from weather conditions and the drought.

They are now attempting to conserve water as their underground sources dry up and salt water contaminates underground aquifers.

Strawberry plants require more water per acre than celery, citrus or avocado groves, said Lee Waddle, an irrigation management worker with the Ventura County Resource Conservation District.