Navel orange trees are in bloom in the San Joaquin Valley and observers describe the bloom as "good," but farmers say a fourth year of drought and a second year with no surface water deliveries will make it hard to produce a crop. For some, it may be impossible. "It's a heavy bloom this year, which is good," Tulare County citrus grower Matthew Watkins said. "But the trees know what's going on with the drought. They want to fruit and sense the lack of rain." The heavy bloom means there will be fruit, Watkins said, "but the trick will be to keep it on the trees. To do that, we'll have to maintain a lower stress level on the trees, which means water." Blakely said temperatures in the coming week will be critical. "If we're going into a prolonged heat spell, that could put stress on the trees coming right out of bloom," he said. Noting that all Californians are wondering when the current four-year dry spell will end and there are no reliable answers, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said last week that it would maintain the "zero" water supply allocation for Central Valley Project agricultural contractors. The California Department of Water Resources was scheduled to hold its monthly snow survey Wednesday, but electronic monitoring showed snowpack levels hovering near a mere 5 percent of average for this time of year. Watkins said the water situation for growers on the east side of the valley is worse this year, because there is no carryover water. Last year's zero allocation was difficult, he said, but farmers had some saved surface water they could use. "Carryover water gave us a little bit of flexibility, but this year there's none," Watkins said. "Districts are trying to find other sources of water, but there's no guarantee they'll find any, even at extremely high prices. People are putting deposits down in case water can be bought, but we don't think there'll be much unless there's some late snowpack. There's just less water this year and we're running out of time." Tulare County citrus grower Larry Peltzer said he's not sure whether he will be able to keep his full ranch in production through the summer. "It doesn't look good," he said. "We're in a surreal state. We've never been in this condition before and it's disheartening."
"We're drilling holes, but we're having a hard time finding water.""We'll be starting where we left off," he said. "The aquifer is stressed and water levels will continue to drop. That will put a lot of pressure on farmers. We've never been in this position before and I can't predict where we'll end up, because I don't know. I just hope we can make it through this year." Peltzer said his family ranch has survived since 1915, but "I don't know if I'll be able to live out my days as a farmer here. I'm not sure we can hang on much longer. "It's frustrating," he said. "I'm just trying to survive. We have families to feed and if we can't produce a commercially viable citrus crop, we have to do something else. This situation is not sustainable."
http://agalert.com/story/?id=8081Milet
