From the Fields - Doug Phillips

By Doug Phillips, Tulare County fruit grower, shipper and packer

All our kiwis have been pruned and the canes tied down. We’re just now entering bud break. We harvest in September and October, and they’re sold October to February. Some of it may spill into March. It’s been a good crop and good pricing. Our red and gold kiwis are all sold out. There’s a few green kiwis left in cold storage. I have new gold kiwis that we’re ramping up production on. We’re also planting a few more red kiwis. The red kiwi is hard to beat in terms of sweetness and appearance when you cut them open. We’re excited about both of those going forward.

We’ve been harvesting lemons, navels, Minneolas and mandarins. The citrus crops are a little bit lighter than the previous year but with better sizes and a pretty good market, especially lemons, which are better than the previous few years. Market conditions look pretty good on the rest of the citrus too.

Peaches, plums and pluots are blooming. The blooms have actually finished on some early peaches. I also have cherry plums, and they’re pretty much in full bloom. In between rains, we’ve had above-normal temperatures, which is good for bee activity. I’m optimistic we’ll have a pretty good crop. We’ve got some more rain coming, but I think our bloom is going to be past its peak, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

We’re blessed that we had some of these later storms after a pretty dry start in November and December. We’re anticipating getting enough surface water to get through another year. We’re optimistic that we’ll have enough water this year to where we won’t have to pump much out of the ground.

We feel pressure from the cost of labor, materials and everything we use in farming. Prices have all gone up. Everything we need—from PVC pipe to metal to fertilizer, fuel, labor—is up by double-digit inflation range.