FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — The early run of Valley heat this year has crops growing on the Fresno State Farm maturing way ahead of schedule.
“The heat that showed up in early March has driven everything forward at least a couple of weeks,” says Fresno State Farm Manager Ron Willmott. “People were calling to take pictures in the almond bloom. Almond bloom had already long passed.”
Almonds are already forming on trees.
“Yeah, I would expect this is my first year harvesting almonds in July, whereas normally August is my month of almonds,” Willmott said.
Willmott says folks hoped other orchards could give them the blossom background.
“The cherries bloomed so fast this year that they couldn’t take photos in there as well,” he said.
The orchards now require a deep watering.
The developing cherries will be available at the campus store a little earlier this year.
“It looks like the cherries will be at the end of April, whereas normally they would be the first of May,” Willmott said.
Willmott says in normal years, nectarine trees wouldn’t be forming fruit just yet.
“I would expect to have a little stonefruit blossom still left on the tree, but everything has shattered and fallen,” he said.
The citrus bloom was a quick one.
The mandarins are covered so bees don’t cross-pollinate and produce seeds in what are supposed to be seedless fruit.
Farmers are always at the mercy of Mother Nature.
“I’m not familiar with this much heat for this long,” Willmott said. “Usually, it shows up for a couple of days and then it goes back down.”
Hopefully, a fan favorite also develops sooner.
“The cornfields are growing faster than expected,” Willmott said. “The good news for that is, hopefully, we have corn earlier than any other year.”
The sweet corn at Fresno State typically is available in time for the Memorial Day weekend, so we’ll see if harvest comes a little early this time around.
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