After Recent Storm Damage, Santa Maria Valley Strawberry Crop Beginning to Enter Peak Season
SANTA MARIA, Calif. (KEYT) - After sustaining damage from recent storms, the Santa Maria Valley strawberry crop is rebounding and ready to begin its all-important peak season.
"You always start off on a high note, which is we have water in the ground, water in the reservoirs, so we'll be able to irrigate," said Satellite Farms owner Randy Sharer, who has farmed the Santa Maria Valley for more than 40 years.
"The precipitation always helps. Rain is pH neutral, so you always begin at a balanced note within your soil profiles, so we're really optimistic on, what the year looks like for the berry industry."
While last week's rain storm has helped in many ways, it also came with some negative impacts too, especially the hail that fell throughout the valley according to Sharer.
"We had, conditions at the end of last week where a hail storm came up the Santa Maria River, really affecting all the crops that we had in the ground, specifically the strawberries," said Sharer. "Strawberries are not a fortified product. Very light damage really creates an issue, so the damage we had to strip all that fruit off and then just wait for the next push of fruit cycle to make what we can get to the market."
Sharer indicated the storm damage pushed production at this farm back about two to three weeks.
"There's a lot more green than reds (berries), said Sharer. "But we're just now being at the end of February, just getting into the strawberry harvest here along the Central Coast. This is just the beginning of the season, so for the next months you will have fresh strawberries in the markets that you'll be able to enjoy starting from us starting next week all the way through America's 250th. By July is when we start to ramp down here along the east side of the Santa Maria Valley. We will be providing consumers with an outstanding product that will actually serve their needs."
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