From the Fields - Dick Peixoto

By Dick Peixoto, Santa Cruz County vegetable farmer

We transitioned our production from the desert to the Pajaro Valley about the first week of April. A lot of the leafy greens, lettuce, spinach, cilantro, chards, kales, collards and bok choy have suffered from the excess rain. We put the seed in the ground in January and couldn’t get in for a month. It would rain every five to six days, so the ground never dried out. We couldn’t cultivate, couldn’t fertilize, couldn’t spray. People think when the rain is over, then all of a sudden, the crop is going to be better. But the crop has stunted growth. They’re not the normal-looking product we’re used to.

It’s been a battle this spring even for our pest control, like with the beneficial habitats that we plant to attract beneficials. The beneficial activity hasn’t been what it normally is. It was so wet that a lot of the plants didn’t survive the winter. Normally by April, the good bugs are pretty active going after the bad bugs. But that’s not really happening yet. They’re just now building a population for the natural beneficials that we rely on. Their populations are getting built back up to where they can fight the battle for us.

It’s been overcast all week in the low 60s. The 70s would be the best (for crop growth). The problem is not so much the cold weather as much as the wet weather. Even a couple weeks ago, we got rain, and that slowed us some more, so it’s really frustrating.

Markets are up because supplies are down. It’s not just us; it’s across the board. Everybody’s struggling because we all have the same weather through the Salinas Valley down to King City, which is where most of the production comes from right now. We all suffer from the same rain and cold weather. I think we’re still about two or three weeks from getting into good, normal product.