Strawberries, Nurseries and Citrus Frosted by Cold Snap

Workers at Bordier’s Nursery in Irvine scurried about the 240-acre farm just before sunrise Saturday trying to keep frost from damaging flowers and plants.

The mercury had plummeted to as low as 30 degrees in some spots near the Irvine foothills overnight, forcing nursery workers to turn on sprinklers to wash ice off plant leaves. But these frantic efforts came too late for some plants, which ended up suffering minor frost damage, said Luis Velati, a nursery supervisor.

Saturday afternoon, Velati carefully inspected the leaves of a carissas, a green potted plant with large red berries. He shook his head sadly and pointed to the ring of brown about the edges of the leaves, which indicated frost damage .

Still, he said, protective measures should minimize the damage.

“Even with frost like this, we should be able to save 99% of the plants,” Velati said.

Bordier’s Nursery was one of many truck farms and nurseries in Orange County hit by the pre-dawn temperature drop. The chill caused widespread damage to strawberry fields and lesser damage to nursery plants, said an agent for the University of California Extension Service in Irvine.

Most Susceptible

“I can’t give you a firm estimate (of the extent of damage),” the agent said, “but it’s rough now for a lot of farms around here.”

In addition to the sprinklers, agricultural workers in Irvine were using black nylon netting to protect some plants.

“The crops that are most susceptible to the cold are strawberries, avocados and citrus,” James D. Harnett, Orange County’s agriculture commissioner, said Saturday. “Nurseries also could be threatened.”

He said crops are most likely to be damaged when temperatures plunge below freezing. “But some crops are more sensitive than others,” Harnett said. “A lot depends on whether the wind is blowing and how dry it is.”

Harnett added: “Strawberries are the most sensitive.”

This assessment was shared by the UC Agricultural Extension Service agent, who spent the morning driving around the foothills of Irvine, inspecting strawberry fields.

During a stop at a strawberry field on the Sun World farm on Irvine Boulevard near Jeffrey Road, the agent knelt down, cut a blossom off a strawberry plant and slit it open.

Inside, the edges of the white pod were etched in a dirty brown. “This is the kind of line you get when the temperature drops to 30,” he said.

The bloom will not develop into a strawberry because of the frost damage, he said. But the plant will live and soon sprout other blossoms that will mature into fruit in six weeks, he said.

“Strawberry fields all over the area are going through this,” he said. This weekend’s cold snap was the worst since last January, he said.

At Magarro Farms off Sterling Street in Irvine, a salesman said, “It’ll be a couple of days before we’ll be able to notice if the strawberries have had any damage.”

To prevent damage, Margarro farm workers during the last week have been using the sprinklers and irrigation systems, along with wind machines, in an attempt to keep as much moisture in the air as possible.

“As long as the air keeps circulating, and there’s moisture in the air, the plants won’t freeze,” the salesman said.

Temperatures were expected to once again hover in the mid-30s overnight in many areas of Southern California, while a freeze warning will remain in effect through tonight for agricultural areas. Today’s temperatures are expected to be in the upper 50s and low 60s during the day and low 40s at night.

The winds died near Magarro Farms on Friday night, the salesman said, so sprinklers on the strawberry fields were turned on at 9 p.m. and ran until 8 a.m. Saturday.

Low Temperatures

The opposite problem was faced by Hines Nurseries on Jeffrey Road, where heavy winds Friday night hit the plants located on an exposed hillside, blowing protective netting off some plants and resulting in some frost damage, a worker said.

“There were a few leaves damaged here and there,” he said as he and two other fieldworkers pulled the netting back over the plants.

“We’ve got to be ready for tonight,” he said. “Who knows what can happen in this weather? It’s been crazy.”