Big Chill Closes Roads; Inland Areas on Alert : Farmers Braced for 1st Serious Frost in Years

Farmer Ben Hillebrecht has endured some killer frosts.

Take 1969, for example, when the temperature at the Hillebrecht place here plunged to 32 degrees before sundown. That frost did in the navel oranges overnight.

Then there was that memorable winter day in 1978 when Hillebrecht didn’t believe the weather man. Better than a third of the farmer’s 240-acre avocado and citrus crop was ruined by the freeze, and it took some groves two years to become productive again.

Today, Hillebrecht, 56, listens to the weather man. And with temperatures expected to fall to the mid-20s throughout inland North County both Wednesday night and tonight, he and other growers have been bracing for what they fear could be the first serious frost to strike the region in seven years.

“It’s cold and clear and calm, and we’re definitely nervous,” said Hillebrecht, a third-generation California farmer who is president of the San Diego County Farm Bureau. “But bad weather’s part of the risky business of farming. We just have to take our punches.”

Avocados, oranges, tangerines and other citrus fruits and strawberries are most vulnerable to freezing temperatures. Flower growers, who lost huge numbers of blooms in the 1978 frost, also have cause to worry. A spokeswoman for Mellano & Co. in Oceanside said workers would be patroling the farm’s 150 acres of chrysanthemums and other flowers Wednesday night to monitor field temperatures.

During a frost, cells inside citrus fruit will burst and then granulate, causing dry spots and effectively ruining the product, said Charles Woods, the county Farm Bureau’s executive officer. The same process occurs with avocados, which drop from the trees prematurely and turn black inside.

Tomatoes and strawberries in warmer areas should be safe from the chill, Woods said, and apples, walnuts and other deciduous crops thrive in cold temperatures.

They may not be able to control the elements, but farmers, armed with ingenuity and an unusual array of devices, can attempt to blunt the weather’s impact on their crops. Half a dozen farmers contacted throughout North County on Wednesday said they planned to do just that.

The most common defense against freezing temperatures is a battery of wind machines--motor-powered devices that use a propeller mounted atop a 30-foot-high metal tower to stir up the air above the trees. The machine, often connected to a sensor that turns it on when the mercury drops to a certain level, can increase temperatures in the groves by pushing warmer air down to the crops from higher elevations.

A more high-tech--and high-priced--substitute for the wind machine is the helicopter. Jim Deaver, harvesting manager with Cal Flavor Inc., an Escondido company that grows, packs and ships avocados, said a grower can hire a helicopter to hover over his grove for about $400 an hour.

“It’s expensive, but when you’re talking about saving a whole crop, it’s worth considering,” said Deaver, whose father farms in Valley Center and has deployed helicopters against the cold in past years. “My dad’s got the guys on standby tonight,” he said Wednesday.

Other farmers turn on their sprinkler systems to combat the cold, because in severe frosts, water is warmer than air and can protect the trees. Another weapon against the frost is the once-popular, but now prohibitively expensive, orchard heater, commonly known as a “smudge pot.”

“It’s like a big barrel with a stack like a chimney, and it burns 10 gallons of diesel oil,” said Deaver. “One of those will heat about four trees. But people don’t use them much any more because of the cost of fuel.”

The smudge pot also fell out of favor because of its reputation as a polluter. State environmental quality standards now require that the heaters be equipped with smog-control devices.

Finally, prayer also appears to be popular among farmers fearing a frost: “We’re just praying that Nature’s good to us and gives us some rain, clouds or a breeze to move the air around,” said Rick Opel, farm manager with the Henry Avocado Co. in Escondido.

The threat of a major frost is most distressing for avocado farmers, who have done only limited harvesting to date and already have been plagued by thieves. Once the rich kings of agriculture, avocado growers have suffered severe losses during the last four years, due mainly to bumper crops and sagging demand.

But this year, a small crop and healthy public appetite are helping the avocado enjoy a renaissance of sorts. Only recently, the fruit has sold for upwards of $1.50 a pound at supermarkets.

A bad frost, however, could wipe out entire crops and send a grower right out of business, farmers said.