Nunes died Aug. 5 in Carmel Valley, California. His farming career stretched to more than 70 years.

Conventional and organic Foxy-branded produce is grown on more than 20,000 acres. Third and fourth generation Nunes family members run the company.

The Nunes Co. markets its vegetables and strawberries under the Foxy brand. Nunes’ farming career stretched to more than seven decades.

“Tom began his farming career over 70 years ago in the Salinas Valley and is known for his leadership and innovation in the produce industry,” family members said in a company news release.

In the early 1930s. Tom Nunes Sr. planted the family’s first seeds in California’s Salinas Valley. The Foxy brand was born when second-generation brothers Bob and Tom Nunes formed the Nunes Company in 1976.

Born into a farming family of Portuguese immigrants in Chualar, California, from a young age Nunes helped his father riding tractor and worked with him in the field. From those humble beginnings, Nunes started two successful grower-shippers and garnered produce industry awards and honors.

Despite the honors, Nunes would have said his greatest achievement and pleasure came from his family, including his three sons, daughter, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, according to a news release.

Nunes graduated from high school in 1946 and attended Stanford University, graduating with an economics degree. He married soon after graduation.

In 1955, after farming for several years with his father under the mantel of T. Nunes & Son, a friend, Bill “Chopper” Brown, suggested Nunes start a new company growing, harvesting, and shipping Iceberg lettuce. Nunes and each of five other partners invested $5,000 and grew 400 acres of Iceberg lettuce for their new company, Growers Exchange.

At Growers Exchange, Tom and his brother Bob Nunes began their life-long partnership, working six years together at Growers Exchange. In 1966, they left to form Nunes Bros. of California, an integrated grower-shipper of fresh vegetables.

The Salinas Valley Produce Industry recognized Tom’s leadership at Nunes Bros. by electing him to the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California’s board of directors, where was chairman 1967-1968.

After selling the brothers’ company to the United Fruit Co. (Chiquita), the two left the industry, but after no-compete contracts returned five years later to start The Nunes Company, in 1976.

Eventually the Company became an integrated grower-shipper which included shipping, cooling, growing, and harvesting operations.

“We had a great advantage of building a company and then selling it and getting to start over,” Tom once said. “It allowed us to look at what we did right and look at what we did wrong and build a better company.”

The company is run by the brothers’ sons, Tom (T4) in sales, David in growing and land base, Jimmy in farming, and Bob, Jr., Bob’s son, in cooling and harvesting. Tom M. Nunes (T5) is also involved. They have been instrumental in growing the company from a modest 1,200 acres to more than 20,000 acres in California, Arizona, and Nevada, according to the release.

The company’s Foxy brand has become recognized globally. Value-added operations, organic production and strawberries extended the reach of the brand in the ensuing years.

In 2018, Tom M. Nunes (T5), representing the third generation of the Nunes family, became president and carries on the traditions and culture created by Tom (T3) and maintained by his father, Tom (T4).

“One of the last things my grandfather said was ‘trust’ was the key to life,” Tom M. Nunes (T5) said in the release. “Grandpa lived that, and you can see it in the loyalty of employees returning to The Nunes Co. after the five-year hiatus, the growers’ willingness to accept a structure built on trust in the company, the many long-term employees, and the customers who trusted that the right high-quality product would be there every time. Our family lost our pillar, and the industry lost an important and influential leader.”

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The CCOF endowment was created to ensure growers can remain growing organic in perpetuity.

The CCOF Foundation is undertaking a $5 million campaign to raise funds for the endowment to fund CCOF Foundation’s programs which provide scholarships for future organic farmers, organic grower disaster relief, and wrap-around services for farmers transitioning land to organic. Also included are unrestricted funds to enhance the CCOF Foundation’s ability to support famers as they go and stay organic, according to a news release.

Becky Blythe, one of the CCOF’s most tenured staff, bequeathed a $100,000 gift to the CCOF Foundation. The CCOF Foundation launched the endowment through the Becky Blythe Endowed Fund as the inaugural gift.

An endowed gift helps maintain a steady level of funding for the CCOF Foundation, ensuring that the Foundation can support organic farmers in perpetuity, according to the release.

Based in Santa Cruz, California, CCOF Foundation advances organic by supporting the people and communities who care for the land. CCOF Foundation unites the organic community to advance organic agriculture through education, financial support and growth opportunities for organic professionals, according to the release.

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With prolonged triple-digit temperatures pummeling the state’s key agricultural regions—topping 110 degrees in some areas — farmers are irrigating fields more frequently, deploying misters and fans to cool livestock, and shortening daytime work for agricultural employees or working after sundown.

Persistent, scorching temperatures can put crops such as table grapes at risk. At Mirabella Farms in Fresno County, grower Philippe Markarian said he was working to prevent damage to the fruit. But he said he anticipates some crop loss.

“The vines will be under a significant amount of stress,” he said.

Last week, most of the varieties Markarian grows were going into veraison, when the grapes begin changing color and ripening. With high-enough heat, the berries will cook on the vine, especially if they’re in direct sunlight, making the fruit unsalable.

Markarian said he was increasing irrigation to help the vines weather the heat. He was also experimenting for the first time with applying a polymer coating designed to prevent vine stress by mitigating transpiration, helping the plants regulate their internal temperatures.

He typically begins picking Flame Seedless — the first variety to come off each year — around July 10-14, but heat stress on the plant will delay harvest, he said.

For Dave Vierra, who grows fresh-market fruits and vegetables in Yolo County, the growing season is still early enough that the heat won’t be too detrimental to his crops. He said he expects “minimal loss” on his watermelon, which might get a bit sunburned. His sweet corn will fare OK, he said, as will his tomatoes, which are still on the green side, with the plant’s huge canopy to protect the fruit from sunburn.

With high heat, there is concern of increased pest pressure, especially mites, worms and moths, all of which he’s monitoring for in his corn crop, he said.

Perhaps his biggest heat-related impact so far is on sales, especially at farmers markets, which have seen attendance drop. To maintain his presence, he said he continues to participate in all his usual markets. His on-farm fruit stand also remains open, he said, though sales have not been as severely impacted as at farmers markets. He credited the installation of shade and misters at his fruit stand for keeping customers and employees comfortable.

One bright spot has been watermelon sales, which he said benefited from the heat. Sweet corn and watermelon are typically big sellers during the summer, but he said sales of sweet corn have been sluggish due to higher prices at the retail level.

“It’s an interesting landscape at the moment, to say the least,” Vierra said.

With harvest crews working fewer hours due to the heat, he said there’s more spoilage in the field.  Trying to keep crops cool through the heat will add to his costs, Vierra said, noting the increased energy used for cold storage and other cooling equipment. Because they are running full throttle, he said, they tend to need repair.

“We rarely get out of a heat wave like this without some sort of equipment failure,” he said.

— Ching Lee is an assistant editor of Ag Alert.

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The Washington State University (WSU) Center for Precision & Automated Agricultural Systems (CPAAS) and AgWeatherNet (AWN) are planning to host an Open House the afternoon of July 12.

The event is scheduled from 2:30 to 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

The outing is scheduled to begin at the WSU Roza Experimental Orchards at 115005-115001 W Kuhlman Road in Prosser, Washington.

The event, open to growers, agricultural professionals, crop consultants, government representatives and researchers, will showcase advancements in weather and crop sensing and cutting-edge agricultural technologies being developed at WSU.

Highlights include exhibits on robotic pruning, thinning, pollination, nutrient application, harvesting, site-specific frost/heat stress management, precision crop protection technologies, mesoscale weather mapping and integration of private weather stations within the AWN ecosystem.

Bernardita Sallato, a WSU tree fruit Extension specialist, is the event’s organizer.

Registration is now open online.

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Scheduled for Oct. 22-24 in Woodland, California, 11 miles from the Sacramento International Airport, FIRA USA is set to provide growers and other industry personnel the opportunity to view new agricultural technology in action in the global ag robotics sector.

The core focus of the conference is to afford growers the opportunity to network, exchange feedback and to learn more about existing solutions through grower roundtables on specific crops sponsored by commodity boards, said Gwendoline Legrand, co-director for show sponsor FIRA and GOFAR (Global Organization for Agricultural Robotics).

“The end-users are the key. You can not develop disruptive solutions without having them in the loop,” Legrand said. “They need to share their vision, they need to touch, to test, to say ‘No, I want this that way’ and finally, get the exact systems that work for them. The growers’ needs is where everything started for FIRA. We are not showcasing and presenting robots and autonomous solutions as an end by themselves. Those machines need to represent a proper solution to specific needs, as diverse as the farmers are. The manufacturers understand that, and are very often building the solutions together with the growers, directly operating in the fields.”

Free grower admission

This year growers will receive free admission, a longtime World FIRA Europe policy that allows even more industry stakeholders and small to large-scale growers to leave the event with more autonomous and robotics technology information and vision, Legrand said.

To address the tree fruit industry’s automation needs, the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission and the California Almond Board are signed up as new sponsors.

Both organizations have long been part of FIRA USA support, promoting the event to their communities and visiting the show. This year, however, will be the first year the grower organizations decided to sponsor the event, to highlight the problems faced by tree fruit and nut growers, and to help them discover stand-alone solutions already on the market, Legrand said.

The sponsorships also prompt interest from other commodity boards and research institutes and motivate them to organize specific programs for their growers, she said.

As previous FIRAs explored many topics relating to ag robotics, organizers want this year’s education component to be as relevant as possible for growers, and include sessions designed to discuss issues growers are facing and existing autonomous solutions for individual crops.

Commodity group and research involvement are critical. Panelists are set to share stories on how the industry is “automation-ready” and provide examples of vendors working in the space with commodity groups and universities.

Tech solutions

The educational portion includes crop-specific themed roundtables covering topics including tree fruit automation and reducing spray drift and improving spray coverage in the almond and tree nuts industry. To address the tree fruit industry’s tech needs, sessions will include strategies, failures, plans and expectations and be focused on priority areas and timelines to affect crop load management and harvest labor, Legrand said.

Real-life demos will occur in the fields, displaying existing autonomous solutions from a variety of agtech firms. FIRA plans to include suppliers of autonomous irrigation solutions, a big leap forward for this year’s edition, she said.

To allow growers to lace their boots and trek through fields to see automation in action, a new event is being offered — a pre-show bus tour, Oct. 17- 21. The Cal Ag Robotics Discovery Tour is scheduled to show growers and other industry participants the latest in agricultural technology by visiting a wide range of farms and crops using tech across the Sacramento, Central and Salinas valleys.

Through viewing the operations’ daily challenges and the solutions they use, the California Ag Robotics Discovery tour will allow participants to immerse themselves in and deepen their market understanding of tech in California’s leading and most powerful growers, Legrand said. The five-day tour will bring a broad vision into fruit and nut trees, vineyards and berries, vegetables, including tomatoes and leafy greens, and supply a network of growers and participants at the stops, she said.

“This is what is impressive with many ag robots: They are versatile, they can adapt,” Legrand said. “This is also what we do with FIRA, through traveling across California to meet different growers, and present what could be their next-gen machines.”

The show will also tackle commodity commission funding, industry collaboration and automation readiness, with sessions showing participants the need for funding and investment to move products across the finish line, Legrand said.

France-based GOFAR is a nonprofit organization that promotes and develops the agricultural robotics sector at international level.

For more information, visit fira-usa.com.

—  By Doug Ohlemeier, Assistant Editor

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“It is critical for growers to supply melons, especially watermelons, to retailers in time for the July Fourth holiday,” said Bryan Van Groningen of Van Groningen and Sons, a grower, packer and shipper of watermelons based in Manteca. “Much of the summertime watermelon demand is dependent on family consumption and people having parties and picnics.”

Van Groningen, whose family grows and ships seeded, seedless and miniature watermelons to retailers in California and other states, said crews began harvesting watermelons last week near Manteca.

Early-season miniature watermelons are packed under the Yosemite Fresh label and sold in supermarkets in California and across the West. Photo by Christine Souza.

Melon season has shifted to the San Joaquin Valley as harvest wraps up in the Southern California desert in the Imperial Valley and in Yuma, Arizona. Harvest in the San Joaquin Valley is expected to continue through October and resume in the desert from October to December.

In mid-March, when planting typically begins in the San Joaquin Valley, Van Groningen said wet weather and soggy field conditions interrupted ground preparation and delayed planting.

“This year, we had to wait to plant until the third week of March because it was too wet and cold,” he said. “Due to the delay, we only got a chance to plant about two-thirds of our acres for the early marketing window, so our volume is probably going to be down a little.”

Because the late-season melon market is usually not as lucrative, Van Groningen said he was concerned that he would not be able to supply the volume of watermelons he initially planned for June and July. With the supply of watermelons short right now, he noted, “the price and the demand are very good.”

“I’m kind of afraid for that August to September market, but we’ll see what happens,” he said, adding he hopes the market will continue to be strong in July. “August is when demand starts to slow because there are more watermelons available.”

Producing some 100 million pounds of watermelons annually, Van Groningen said about 80% of the family’s watermelons is shipped to retailers in California, with additional volume distributed in Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Utah and Colorado. He said he anticipates a grower price of $450 to $500 per ton, which he described as about average for watermelons.

While figures are not yet available for the San Joaquin Valley watermelon crop, prices for the Southern California desert region are running below last year’s pace, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service.

As of mid-June, a 45-count carton of seedless watermelons was selling for $154 to $189, while the 60-count carton went for $105 to $155. This was a slight drop from the 2023 price, according to USDA.

Brawley-based farmer Joe Colace of Five Crowns Marketing, which grows, packs and ships watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydews and specialty melon varieties, said he expects to finish melon harvest in the Imperial Valley in about a week.

“There’s just a little bit of an oversupply here in the desert, but it has been a very nice year for quality,” Colace said. “Our sugar, or soluble solid levels, seem to be above average.”

When harvest began in the desert region in early May, Colace said many cantaloupe and honeydew growers reported smaller sizes and less production due to wind and below-average temperatures through late February and into April. He noted that he “saw size and production pick up in the middle part of June.”

“One thing about cooler-than-normal temperatures: Quality typically tends to be a little better because you don’t have nearly the stress on the plant,” he said.

Colace said he is pleased with two new specialty melons—the Picasso and Picasso Sunrise, available from late May to early July. The Japanese-origin Picasso variety is a white-flesh melon with a high level of sugar. The Picasso Sunrise has similar traits but with salmon-color flesh. Colace said he worked with seed company breeders to develop the new varieties that are exclusive to Five Crowns Marketing.

“We try and develop varieties that check off all of the critical boxes for delivered product to the stores, and Picasso and Picasso Sunrise, right now, are checking all the boxes,” Colace said.

In the Imperial Valley, Colace relies 100% on water supplied by the Colorado River. “There seems to be not an abundance of water, but water is available, and that has taken some of the pressure off all the respective growing areas,” he said.

Growers in all regions tend to agree that costs to grow, pack and ship melon crops have escalated.

This includes Stanislaus County farmer Matt Maring, a partner in Patterson-based T&M Farms, which grows watermelons, cantaloupes, honeydews and mixed melon varieties. He estimated the cost to grow watermelons is about $4,000 an acre, while growing and packing can run about $12,000 an acre.

“If you don’t have historical sales and relationships with chain stores, you are crazy to go plant and pray that you have a market,” he said.

Maring said he expects to harvest melons from early July to November. The westside region had good growing conditions this spring with mild temperatures, Maring said, noting he observed no pest or disease issues. In addition, the region had more water this year.

Much of Maring’s water is supplied by the federal Central Valley Project, which received 40% of requested supplies this year. The number of acres he planted this year was not based on water availability but demand from the company that markets his crop.

As the season progresses, Maring said there may be a surplus of melons on the market. “It’s definitely setting up that way,” he said.

Due to his location, Maring said it is not always easy to supply melons to customers by July 4. But he said he is impressed with melon quality this year, adding flavor is “ridiculously good.”

“I do a lot of shopping at my house,” he said, “and when stores have six pallets of watermelons at the store entrance at $6 or $7 each, that sparks interest.”

— Christine Souza is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. 

This article was originally published by the California Farm Bureau Federation and permission was granted for its use.

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He’s not just a user of biologicals, however. As the former CEO of AgraQuest, a biopesticide company, Meadows-Smith is recognized as a pioneer, selling the company to Bayer CropScience in 2012 for almost $500 million. This signaled the first major investment in biologicals by a traditional chemical company.

Now he is the CEO of BioConsortia, a Davis, California-based company that discovers, designs and licenses microbial products.

Marcus and Jenny Meadows-Smith share a passion for wine and food, which led to them develop Great Bear Vineyards. The winery hosts events ranging from wedding receptions to comedy nights and birthday parties.

As a boutique winery, Great Bear Vineyards produces about 2,000 cases a year, most of which are sold at the winery and through a wine club it runs. The winery has gained a reputation for its grapes, some of which are sold to Napa Valley wineries, a 45-minute drive from Davis. Marcus Meadows-Smith and his wife, head vintner Jenny Meadows-Smith, bought the former tomato, sunflower and corn ranch about 10 years ago, incorporating historic buildings into the business, including the barn and original homestead, built around 1860. Jenny Meadows-Smith, a chemist, attended the University of California- Davis’ renowned viticulture and enology program. The couple planted 10 acres of grapevines, about 600 olive trees, lavender and assorted fruit trees around the property. They process and sell olive and lavender oils and donate fruit to local charities.

Great Bear Vineyards offered its first wines for sale in 2018, and quickly became noticed, earning silver, gold and double-gold medals at the San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition. Great Bear Vineyards was voted Best Local Winery by Sacramento Magazine readers in 2020 and 2021. Its Chardonnay, Roussanne varietals and Grand Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon have received high ranks from Wine Enthusiast Magazine.

Great Bear Vineyards kept the original barn and homestead at the former ranch. Marcus Meadows-Smith and his wife Jenny, who own and operate the winery, also live at the property.

The winery attracts visitors from UC-Davis, including international visitors, who are interested in Great Bear’s sustainable and organic growing practices. Weeds, wildlife, water and more Davis has hot, dry summers, so pest pressures are low, Meadows- Smith said.

Permanent cover crops include a mix of ryegrass, wildflowers and clover. Under the grapevines, weed control is critical because a grape’s flavor can be affected by plants touching the fruit. As an organic grower, Meadows-Smith said weed control is the most difficult challenge. “In the first year, you have to protect the very young vines, because if they get an insect attack, then you can lose the flowers,” he said. “Now that they’re mature, a small amount of insect pressure on the leaves does not affect the quality of the grapes at all. And then we tend to do like a lime sulfur (application) when the vines are dormant and then through the growing season, it’s mostly just a natural oil that is sprayed.”

To be effective at limiting pest damage, the treatment has to be repeated during the growing season. “Is it better for the environment? I don’t know, because we have to go through the vineyard more frequently,” Meadows-Smith said. “So you’re using more fossil fuels by taking the sprayer through on a more regular basis.”

Great Bear Vineyards uses Bayer’s Serenade ASO, a biological fungicide developed by AgraQuest, as well as Pyganic Crop Protection EC, a bio-insecticide derived from chrysanthemums, the biofungicide Regalia and a microbial insecticide containing spinosad, which has been used by organic growers for more than 20 years. Meadows-Smith describes himself as a “keen ornithologist,” and the property is home to owls (including a pair of great horned owls), kestrels and hawks, and other assorted wildlife.

If coyotes aren’t keeping the wild turkey population in check, they’ll eat the grapes, so a friend with a crossbow is invited to hunt them. “So having those birds of prey around is certainly a deterrent for other birds that come in,” Meadows-Smith said. “The problem you have is, once they’re pecked, the sugary liquid comes out, and then you can get disease, bunch rot. And then as an organic grower, it’s almost impossible to control that.” The winery stopped growing Petit Sirah and Zinfandel grapes, because they’re thin-skinned and prone to bunch rot.

Marcus Meadows-Smith tests winegrapes to to determine when they are ready for processing.

To ensure the grapes receive enough water despite the dry climate, Meadows-Smith employs deficit-irrigation techniques to train roots to grow deep. Quality, and not tonnage, is a goal in growing winegrapes.

“You’re looking to have small berries with intense flavors, and therefore you don’t actually want to fill them with water because then the berries just swell up,” he said. “Then you get a lot of juice, which means you can make a lot of alcohol, but you lose flavor.” Genetic editing Meadows-Smith said BioConsortia uses gene editing to maximize the beneficial potential within a microbe’s genome. For example, the company’s work on nitrogen-fixing microbes uses a proprietary research and development platform to improve a microbe’s nitrogen- fixing capabilities.

“Microbes are very clever, and when they detect ammonia in their immediate surroundings, they switch off nitrogen fixation because nitrogen fixation is very energy intensive if you do it in a factory or if you’re a microbe doing it, because you have to break chemical bonds,” he said.

BioConsortia removes the microbe’s feedback loop that tells it to turn off the nitrogen-fixing process, essentially causing those microbes to continue to provide nitrogen in the soil after synthetic fertilizers would have dissipated. “It’s different from genetic modification,” Meadows- Smith said. “What we’re doing, we are just unleashing the natural power of the microbes so they naturally fix atmospheric nitrogen or they naturally control nematodes — we just help them do it better.”

Field trials and the future

Before AgraQuest, Meadows-Smith led Chemtura Corporation’s plastics additives and crop protection business. Now, he’s helping growers reduce reliance on chemicals at BioConsortia. The company recently closed on a $15 million round of financing, spurred in part by successful field trials, according to the company.

Great Bear Vineyards grows four varieties of white grapes and eight varieties of red grapes, some of which are blended. As a boutique winery, Great Bear produces about 2,000 cases of wine a year.

“Particularly now at BioConsortia we’re looking to produce very high-performing products that are equivalent to the chemistry and their efficacy as (synthetic) products, or in the area of nitrogen-fixing microbes, that will displace a large percentage of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer,” he said. “You know, my philosophy is we don’t want the grower to compromise on quality. What we’re looking to do is to provide an easy-to-use, cost-effective product.”

The first U.S. regulatory approvals are expected on BioConsortia’s products this year and the company has agreements with companies to distribute specific products when EPA approves them. That includes a broad-spectrum biofungicide for diseases in apples, berries, grapes, stone fruits and vegetables from Nichino America, and the biostimulant Zaffre from The Mosaic Co. that has shown average yield increases of more than 15% in fruit and vegetable crops, including tomatoes and beans. Other partnerships haven’t been announced yet.

In recent years, BioConsortia’s products have been through about 3,000 field trials across the U.S., Meadows-Smith said, on a wide range of specialty and row crops. Trials are also ongoing in Europe and South America. More than a dozen seed companies are testing BioConsortia products as seed treatments. After selling AgraQuest, he became head of strategic and business management of biologicals for Bayer for a brief time.

It’s now common for the major chemical companies to have similar divisions, acquisitions or partnerships to advance biological products.

“I think growers are starting to see advantages to soil health, regenerative agriculture, that replacing some of the sprays with biologicals is giving benefits to the soil, to their ultimate yields,” he said. The products are becoming more shelf stable; some products had to be refrigerated, and were not easy to use or mix with other products in the sprayer tank. Inconsistent results concerned growers. But field trials in recent years have proved some biologicals do work as advertised, Meadows-Smith said. “So with the best biologicals, it’s no longer a question of compromise,” he said. “It’s now a question of getting the message out.”

— Chris Koger, contributing editor

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The funding is part of $300 million allocated to 66 U.S. organizations under the USDA’s new Regional Agricultural Promotion Program (RAPP), designed to build demand for American food and farm exports in high-potential markets worldwide.

Fruit concerns include:

• Washington Apple Commission, $7 million
• Pear Bureau Northwest, $4 million
• California Cherry Marketing and Research Board, $750,000
• Cherry Marketing Institute, $450,000
• U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, $1.3 million,
• Cranberry Institute, $1 million
• California Table Grape Commission, $3.3 million
• California Prune Board, $4.2 million
• California Fresh Fruit Association, $1 million
• California Agricultural Export Council, $1 million
• Washington State Fruit Commission, $900,000
• New York Wine and Grape Foundation, $1.3 million,
• Northwest Wine Promotion Coalition, $2.4 million
• Organic Trade Association, $2.5 million

The full list of recipients is here.

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack authorized $1.2 billion in Commodity Credit Corp. funding in launching RAPP to help U.S. exporters expand their customer base beyond established markets, focusing on regions including Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and Southeast Asia.

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In the high desert an hour northeast of Los Angeles, Tenerelli Orchards grows peaches, cherries and other fruit that has earned a loyal customer base, including celebrities. The Littlerock, California, farm and u-pick is run by second and third generation family members. 

In 1932, Peter Tenerelli immigrated to Los Angeles from Italy. After retiring in 1975 from his butcher business, Tenerelli planted 10 acres of peaches. Then in 1981, frustrated by brokers and wholesalers not willing to pay the fruit’s true value, Tenerelli and his youngest son, John, began selling to Southern California farmers markets. 

The switch made sorting and packing fruit in wholesale cartons unnecessary. John Tenerelli would transport the fruit in plastic field totes directly to the farmers markets, fetching $5-$10 a box instead of the 75 cents marketed wholesale. 

Tenerelli Orchards has long grown peaches, nectarines and apricots. Peaches can repel rain, but growing nectarines is more challenging. Heavy summer rains and thunderstorms can destroy nectarines, marking the fruit so badly they are unmarketable. Peaches, however, aren’t as severely scarred. 

Targeted harvests 

John Tenerelli figured a way to grow and harvest fresh peach and nectarine varieties from July through October. Because Central Valley growers produce more volume than his region, Tenerelli strategically plants his crops. 

“I have to be careful with what I grow,” he said. “I have to know what I can grow and what I can move.” 

Instead of planting a limited number of varieties, Tenerelli Orchards diversified by planting 25 peach and nectarines varieties on one acre each. During the season, harvesting is constant. The staggered varieties ripen at particular times and are picked, for example, four days apart in three cycles, which provides a constant flow of fruit. 

Tenerelli concedes such a system could be difficult for most growers. 

“For quality, we are growing fruit a little riper than everyone else, but the main thing is keeping it fresh,” he said 

Through the years, Tenerelli learned how to correctly prune peach trees. Thinning is one of the biggest costs of growing fresh-market Firestone peaches. Correct fertilizer applications that vary by variety and allow the trees to produce the proper amount of fruit, which could be 200 to 400 pieces, ensure proper fruit counts. 

For cherries, Tenerelli learned how proper pruning can control harvesting too many or too few fruit. He learned from earlier mistakes and discovered that more pruning can lead to higher fruit counts. 

Once properly trained, cherry trees grow well and don’t require much trimming, unlike apricots and peaches, which can be pruned as a grower wishes, Tenerelli said. The tedious work of picking is expensive and constitutes the main cost of cherries, he said. 

Carefully hand laying the fruit in totes also ensures ripe fruit is being picked. 

“We know when to pick peaches, when they’re ripe and don’t throw them in the picking tote, we lay them in there nicely,” Tenerelli said. 

Initially planted as a bird decoy for the cherries by Tenerelli’s father in the late 1990s, Persian mulberries have joined the farm’s harvest schedule. 

A downside is harvest difficulty. Workers must climb ladders, picking and turning the fruit so the berries aren’t crushed. The expensive harvest is rewarded by high prices paid by his upscale customers, wealthy individuals who reserve the fruit two weeks in advance. Tenerelli’s mulberries market for $15 for 6.5 ounce clamshells. 

Because of the harvesting challenge, crews pick 50% to 75% of the mulberries, harvesting per order. Workers pick the easier to reach low- hanging fruit. To keep prices high and harvest costs lower, berries are left on the tree. 

To reduce his seven-day-a-week workload from May through October harvest, Tenerelli stopped growing apples in 2020. 

Farmers markets pitfalls 

Because popular farmers markets don’t accept new growers, Tenerelli doesn’t recommend growers change their business models to selling exclusively at farmers markets, and instead use them as a supplemental outlet to their own farm stand sales. 

“You can’t do it with just three to four farmers markets,” he said. 

Being close to a city helps, Tenerelli said. Because of small margins, making the change can be tough, he said. Tenerelli Orchards sells in more than a dozen Southern California farmers markets. 

The region’s lack of humidity produces less fungus and mold. Brown rot, a big peach threat, isn’t as big a concern, Tenerelli said. Pests are bigger threats in the San Joaquin Valley, with peach twig borer easily controlled in his region, Tenerelli said. 

Colder high desert temperatures can destroy apricots. In the last two decades, however, fewer frosts have favored apricot blossoms, which appear earlier than peaches. Because trees prefer cooler nights and warm, dry days, high desert growing helps retain fruit on the trees longer. The fruit matures slightly better, producing better flavors than some other regions, Tenerelli said. 

After learning a lot about pests through University of California Cooperative Extension courses, Tenerelli has been able to grow fruit without pest control or farm advisors. 

For years, Tenerelli has deployed mating disruption. To monitor pests, pheromone traps lure pests including the harmful peach twig borers. 

U-pick insights 

In 2020, Tenerelli planted his first cherry u-pick orchard, opening it to customers in 2023. Apricots are also a u-pick option. Because of incorrect pruning and overcropping, the cherry trees took nine years to bear fruit and then they bore too much fruit, which almost killed the trees. 

Tenerelli caters to an above-average clientele, which includes Hollywood actors, via email and a website. Tenerelli characterizes u-pick as a fun experience and said he enjoys chatting with the customers. 

“The people who come out, they’re in such good moods,” he said. “It’s a great clientele to be around.” 

Despite a previous long-term drought, Tenerelli and area growers received adequate groundwater. The 2023 saturation event helped replenish soil and the aquifer. 

Freely sourced from Los Angeles businesses seeking disposal, mulch is placed under trees. On extremely hot days, mulch provides trees moisture, helping Tenerelli save 20% on water costs. A lack of mulch application machinery, however, brings costs as the mulch must be manually shoveled from trailers. 

Tenerelli is grateful for his family members’ help, including his wife Tracie. Daughter Natalie and her partner Dan Cox expanded sales through online sales and delivery. Before joining his dad, John Tenerelli was in the liquor sales business and worked in Hollywood studioproduction. 

He took over operations in 2002 after his father died, and said he enjoys experimenting with new varieties and seeing how they produce. 

“I love the outdoors and not being inside,” he said. “With the u-pick, it’s a lot of fun. People are so happy to be around farmers, which is important. I love going to work.” 

— By Doug Ohlemeier, Assistant Editor

The post Tenerelli Orchards exits wholesale, focuses on farmers markets, u-pick appeared first on Fruit Growers News.

The pilot program, launched and administered through USDA Office of Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) in Fresno County, works to recharge groundwater supplies by flooding crop fields.

The NRCS initiated the program in reaction to groundwater depletion becoming a significant resource concern. The trial is working mostly with permanent crops, including grapes. While NRCS has been testing groundwater recharge for several years, the pilot program began in the fall of 2023, said Dave Krietemeyer, an NRCS area engineer.

NRCS is working with 20 grower contracts, up from 15 in 2023, with four more recharge basins, higher than the sole basin before.

Krietemeyer works with the state’s numerous water districts, which operate differently. Participating water districts are in Fresno, Kern, Madera and Tulare counties, and include Chowchilla, Madera, Delano, Fresno, Tulare and Delano districts. Krietemeyer reports favorable grower interest.

“Some districts operate where they have winter flow deliveries based on their share of what’s in reserve behind dams,” Krietemeyer said. “Historically, irrigation districts’ objective is to deliver irrigation water, not so much with floodwater delivery. Because of SGMA, that is different today.”

“But now that we’re in the mess we’re in with shortages of water, districts are doing everything they can. Some districts, it’s putting on excessive irrigation water. We’re not trying to leach nutrients below the root zone and into the aquifer, but it’s really to recharge water into the water tables by applying winter flood water or excessive irrigation beyond the crop demand.”

Growers are offered a $100 an acre incentive, which can help support labor as growers must employ workers to ensure water doesn’t run outside the bounds of their fields. NRCS requires berms around outside edges, which most operations already have, he said.

Richard and George Matoian of Matoian Brothers in Fresno plan to flood their table grapes and pistachios. Richard said the farm planned to participate in 2023, but was unable to fully implement the program because of lack of floodwaters.

The grant money will help Matoian and other growers fund the labor and time investments needed to perform and monitor the recharge.

Even though Matoian is fortunate to have enough surface water available where he grows, he can’t utilize that surface water for flood irrigation because of managing any number of spraying crews that must be done, he said.

As the program’s rules require the grapes to possess no leaves on vines or trees during recharge, the December or January dormant season would be an opportune time for recharge. Matoian said he hopes to show other growers in the area that recharge can be accomplished during dormant season and that all growers can benefit from the program.

“My interest in this is I want to be part of the solution to help utilize excess water to help recharge the aquifer,” Matoian said. “Our neighbors who do flood irrigation are really doing everyone else a favor because whatever’s not used by the plant is able to go into the aquifer. But, we use drip, and are only putting enough water on there for what the plant needs and uses. I saw this as an opportunity for us during a time of the year that we don’t have people and tractors in the fields to be able to put some water in the ground.”

Matoian said his sandy loam ground is highly conducive to water infiltration and slowly makes its way into the aquifer. In preparation, Matoian mapped his fields and coordinated with the Fresno Irrigation District to use surface water for flood irrigation during the dormant season.

Krietemeyer expects practices employed in the pilots to become permanent next year and hopes to open the program to more California growers.

“It’s all about timing and placement,” Krietemeyer said. “With SGMA (the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act) and the declining groundwater tables, it’s very important. It’s another tool in the toolbox. These GSAs (Groundwater Sustainability Agencies) are reaching for anything and everything they can try to do to mitigate subsidence and declining water tables, while still being able to pump groundwater. In the process of trying to make water available, we don’t want to create a new resource concern, as in degrading the water quality.”

Passed in 2014, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act established a new structure for managing California’s groundwater resources at the local level by local agencies. SGMA required GSAs to form in the state’s high- and medium-priority basins and subbasins. More than 260 GSAs in more than 140 basins were formed by SGMA’s initial planning milestone.

Matoian farms 130 acres of grapes and pistachios. The farm’s roots go back to 1928.

— Doug Ohlemeier

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