Grower expects higher yields and good quality crop from raisin harvest
By CnAgri
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Trusted farming industry news for: commodity information, growing analysis, news, and grape production trends
Next year, he plans to be one of the earlier growers to plant a new self-pollinizing variety of almonds. It’s designed to reduce the need for bees to pollinate the crop, he adds.
The unusually warm and dry weather at the start of season, accelerated insect growth and development in his fields this year. As a result, pressure in his vineyards from mites began building earlier and heavier than usual, Sanga notes. Normally, he can control this pest with one insecticide application. This year he had to spray them twice, once in early May and again in July.
He was able to control powdery mildew with his normal program of alternating sulfur applications with fungicide treatments.
As of mid-September, the Raisin Bargaining Association and packers were negotiating the price for this year’s raisin crop. Like other growers in the state, Sangha looks for the weather-related drop in the size of Turkey’s raisin production this year to impact the price of California’s 2015 raisin crop.
“We’re waiting anxiously, hoping the price goes up,” he says. “The smaller crop in Turkey, a main competitor, should help better match world supply with demand. However, if the raisin prices do go up at the supermarket, our industry needs to explain to consumers that higher prices will enable growers to better afford to continue producing raisins in the future.”
