Harsh Weather Jeopardizes Local Strawberry Crop

Orange County’s delicate strawberry crop is being threatened by Mother Nature’s double whammy of repeated rains coupled with chilly temperatures and frost, farmers and agriculture experts said Wednesday.

A series of storms have dumped as much as 3 1/2 inches of rain on the strawberries since Feb. 1, raising concerns that saturated plants may fall prey to deadly fungus and rot just as workers prepare for the seasonal harvest.

If the rain keeps up, other crops may be imperiled, but for now, the precipitation is hardest on the vulnerable strawberries, which occupy 2,061 acres in Orange County and were valued at $27 million in 1993, the last year for which a figure is available.

Typically, February brings daily highs of 69 degrees and lows of 47 degrees, according to meteorologist Robb Kaczmarek of WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times. But the temperature range has been about 10 degrees colder, and some areas have gotten it even worse.

“We’re taking a real beating,” said Mike Beauchene, a salesman at a Nurseryland located in a portion of San Juan Capistrano where the overnight lows have hovered near freezing, causing thousands of dollars in damage.

“The cold damage is getting to the young plants, like strawberries, tomatoes,” he said. “At this point, we’re just throwing stuff out.”

For most of the county, temperatures have dropped just low enough to make room for damaging frost.

“Right now, we’re losing the ripe fruit that’s on the vine,” A.G. Kawamura of Orange County Produce said of his strawberry crops. “If it continues raining through the weekend, the situation will be much worse.”

Some farms have been running their sprinkler systems throughout the night because the added moisture staves off frost--but the downside is a continued soaking, said Kathy Nakase, manager of the Orange County Farm Bureau, a nonprofit organization that provides services for the agricultural community.

And that’s not the only threat.

“When you have constant rain, there’s erosion; some of the plants literally get washed away,” Nakase said. “The strawberries are very delicate right now.”

Agriculture experts say a true portrait of crop damage will not be available for several days, since a break in the rain is finally allowing workers to get back into the fields and assess the weather’s impact.

The forecast is for warmer temperatures over the next few days, with a mix of clouds and sun and scattered showers. Lows today will be in the upper 30s to mid-40s, and highs will be in the mid-50s to low 60s. The warming trend will continue Friday and possibly into the weekend, also with a chance of showers, Kaczmarek said.

Since the county’s acres of strawberry fields yield a new crop of fruit every few days, damage may be limited to just a few harvests, said Teresa Thorne, spokeswoman for the California Strawberry Commission.

Some farmers may ultimately have to cut their losses and strip all the plants of their fruit to prevent spreading decay. Fruit that cannot be placed on shelves or turned into juice or another byproduct would be thrown away, said John Ellis, the county’s deputy agricultural commissioner.

Orange County’s winter weather woes may be mild compared to those in New York. But the impact on the county’s agricultural industry shows why farmers never rest easy. Too much sun, too much rain, too much anything can spell disaster for the county’s total 50,281 acres of farmland that brought in $218 million in 1994.

“It’s one of those situations where you’d like to sit at home and enjoy a frosty, clear night,” said Thorne, explaining that weather is a constant concern for those in the agricultural industry. “But you can’t; you don’t have that luxury. Instead, your first thought is ‘Oh my God, the strawberries!’ ”