Second Freezing Night Has Growers Burning Midnight Oil

A numbing freeze returned Thursday night, seriously damaging strawberry crops and sentencing growers to a second sleepless night fighting the arctic weather.

Damage from the winter’s first serious cold spell began Wednesday night and struck from just south of the Orange County line to Otay Mesa, on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Strawberry growers were hit hardest because the freeze destroyed much of the first crop, now being picked. This first crop sells for premium prices because it hits the market before berries in other areas are ripe.

The damaged fruit and frozen blossoms signal at least a month’s delay before another strawberry crop will be ready for market, growers said. By then competing berries will be ripe.

The freeze brought low temperatures of 21 in Escondido and 22 in Valley Center. National Weather Service forecaster Wilbur Shigehara predicted Thursday that overnight temperatures would moderate only a degree or two and that a slight warming trend would move into the area today, raising overnight lows tonight into the high 20s and low 30s.

“By this time of year, we are usually packed up and out of the fields,” Escondido grower Ben Hillebrecht said Thursday of the all-night battle with the elements. Instead, growers were using every method available to raise the grove temperatures above danger levels.

Winds that would have helped move the colder air out of low-lying pockets died down around midnight Wednesday as temperatures in the inland valleys dropped to near-record lows in the low 20s early Thursday morning. The late freeze caused avocado growers to strip their trees of all remaining sellable fruit in advance of the cold front, and to use grove heaters, wind machines, irrigation and even helicopters to prevent serious damage.

Flower growers received a break because the cold spell hit after their peak Valentine’s Day season, and few fields of blooms remained.

An entire crop of cauliflower plants, newly transplanted outside from a greenhouse, was destroyed at San Clemente Ranch near the Orange County line, said Bill Snodgrass, assistant county agricultural commissioner.

At Otay Mesa, near the Mexican border, about 50% of the cucumber crop was destroyed by the freeze, Snodgrass said.

In Valley Center, Mike Horwath reported his acreage of rhubarb weathered the first night of freezing well, but he worried that added bouts might damage even the hardiest plants.

Warren Henry, an Escondido grower, used 500 orchard heaters on his 2,500-acre property and supplemented the protection with two helicopters that hovered over their groves to circulate the warm air through the trees.

Avocado and citrus growers predict moderate to serious damage to their crops and possible damage to the trees, but results won’t be known until signs of the damage appear in four or five days.

Hillebrecht said Thursday that he found ice crystals in oranges in his Escondido grove, an indication of crop damage, but he could not judge the extent of the damage for a day or two.

Nurseries are reporting high fuel usage, and outdoor ornamental plant growers say it is too early to determine whether serious damage has occurred.

Growers hoped cloud cover would move into the area late Thursday to prevent continued freezing, but Shigehara said the needed blanket probably will not appear until late today or Saturday in advance of a storm front.