FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — The early run of Valley heat this year has crops growing on the Fresno State Farm maturing way ahead of schedule.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Almonds are already forming on trees.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, I would expect this is my first year harvesting almonds in July, whereas normally August is my month of almonds,” Willmott said.<\/p>\n
Willmott says folks hoped other orchards could give them the blossom background.<\/p>\n
“The cherries bloomed so fast this year that they couldn’t take photos in there as well,” he said.<\/p>\n
The orchards now require a deep watering.<\/p>\n
The developing cherries will be available at the campus store a little earlier this year.<\/p>\n
“It looks like the cherries will be at the end of April, whereas normally they would be the first of May,” Willmott said.<\/p>\n
Willmott says in normal years, nectarine trees wouldn’t be forming fruit just yet.<\/p>\n
“I would expect to have a little stonefruit blossom still left on the tree, but everything has shattered and fallen,” he said.<\/p>\n
The citrus bloom was a quick one.<\/p>\n
The mandarins are covered so bees don’t cross-pollinate and produce seeds in what are supposed to be seedless fruit.<\/p>\n
Farmers are always at the mercy of Mother Nature.<\/p>\n
“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.”<\/p>\n
Hopefully, a fan favorite also develops sooner.<\/p>\n
“The cornfields are growing faster than expected,” Willmott said. “The good news for that is, hopefully, we have corn earlier than any other year.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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