Variety of Plants Hit : Growers Assess Loss From Cold as Serious

Growers agreed Monday that last week’s cold temperatures--which dropped below freezing both Friday and Saturday--caused serious crop damage in Orange County, but they said it may be several days before the full extent can be determined.

Dean Buchinger, assistant general manager of the Irvine Co.’s agriculture division, said there had been “some crop damage, but we haven’t fully assessed it yet” on the 8,800 acres of citrus, berries and other crops farmed by the Irvine Co. and by farmers who lease land from the firm.

“It certainly was serious, but it wasn’t as devastating as freezes have been in the past,” Buchinger said. The full extent of frost damage may not be evident for a few days because it takes that long for telltale burn marks to show up or for fruit to fall from trees, he said.

Some Can Be Saved

Operators of nurseries said that while some of the frost damage to plants was immediately apparent, it will be a few days before they can determine which plants can be cut back, salvaged and sold later.

“A lot (of the plants) are set back--their sale will be set back,” said Dominick Carissimo, general manager of Capistrano Gardens, where smaller plants suffered. “We can’t sell them tomorrow, but maybe by the summer. It’s not like we lost a whole crop.”

Walt Bartlett, a National Weather Service meteorologist specializing in agriculture, said Friday morning’s temperatures were in the mid-20s, but the wind came up later and warmed the air. However, on Saturday morning, the wind didn’t blow, and the 25-degree and 26-degree temperatures thoroughly chilled the plants, Bartlett said.

“In my recollection, I haven’t noticed a freeze like that in some time, maybe once every 10 years,” said a spokesman for General Growers, a nursery in Tustin that lost several thousand dollars worth of crops to the frost. “We’re close enough to the coast to be protected by the offshore breezes, but it hit us this time.”

Temperatures on the Irvine Ranch dropped as low as 24 and 25 degrees in the orchards, Buchinger said. He recalled that in 1976 and 1979 the area recorded temperatures of 21 and 22 degrees for extended periods and that the temperature dropped as low as 19 degrees on one occasion.

The Irvine Co. farms about 5,300 acres of avocados and citrus products and leases another 3,500 acres to farmers who grow ground crops, such as berries.

Plantings Damaged

“Some of the strawberry plantings were severely damaged--from 25% to 80% loss or even higher in some places where no protection was available,” Buchinger said.

When pickers began to harvest avocados Monday, they noticed frost damage to some of the fruit and the harvesting was curtailed, he said.

“We’re out cutting fruit now (for examination),” Buchinger said. “We plan to resume harvesting on Thursday.”

At this time of the year, harvesting normally is conducted five to six days a week, he said.

While a few nurseries emerged from the frost unscathed, several others in the county reported damage to hibiscus, bougainvillea, flowering bushes and other plants in pots.

Employees at Loma Vista Nursery in Fullerton sprayed plants with a frost-guard solution, covered up foliage and lit fires to warm the air, but about 10% of the stock still sustained mild to severe damage, said co-owner Mark Clear. Among the hardest hit plants were about 3,000 pots of honeysuckle, he said.

“It’s hard to assess how much we lost. A lot of it we’ll be able to salvage,” Clear said. “It’s going to hurt us, but not so bad that we can’t come back.”