An intense hailstorm swept through the heart of the central San Joaquin Valley north of Visalia on Wednesday afternoon (11 April), causing major damage to stonefruit, table grapes and other fruit crops.
Some industry veterans characterise the storm as “the worst in a generation”. Early reports on damage orchards and vineyards range from “slight” to “100 per cent devastation”.
“The amount of hail on the ground was so thick, the only way I could get around to survey the fields was by four-wheel drive,” Vincent Balakian of Fruit Patch Sales, a major stonefruit grower based in the Kingsburg area, told Asiafruit. “In some cases, trees have been stripped clean of leaves with baby fruit lying broken on the ground. And this is on the heels of a frost we had about three weeks ago.”
Stonefruit wasn’t the only crop affected as table grapes were also at a vulnerable stage.
“There were lots of vineyards in the Kingsburg-Dinuba area that had already pushed out several inches of new growth,” another grower told Asiafruit. “Those shoots contain the flowers and they’re now on the ground as well, so many `growers` aren’t going to have much of a grape crop this year.”
Reports are that the hailstorm spared the primary table grape growing areas around Bakersfield and Delano, however.
Another storm, potentially even colder, is due to move into central California on Thursday night, lasting through Friday.
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