Business & Tech

Mother Nature Soaks Crops; Strawberries at Risk

Over three times the monthly average rainfall has landed on the North Fork so far this month. In-season crops hurting, while early rain could help grape vines in the case of a dry summer season.

With over three times the monthly average rainfall battering the North Fork this June, local growers are holding their breath that it stops sometime soon, as the recent rains have put a damper on early harvest season.

This time of year, strawberries are the name of the game – this weekend's Strawberry Festival, sponsored by the Mattituck Lions Club, kicked off Thursday night. And while much of this year's crop remains to be harvested, Mother Nature has wrung out a host of products up to this point.

"Strawberries are in now, and probably the one getting hardest hit at this point," said Lyle Wells, of Wells Farm in Aquebogue. "They like rain, but this is just ridiculous." 

Wells said that in some parts of his fields, crops are three to four feet underwater – an area he said, luckily, he has not planted yet this year.

According to the National Weather Service – whose closest monitoring station to the North Fork is located in Islip – as of Thursday, nearly 7 inches had fallen in the month of June. The monthly average up to the 13th of the month is less than 2 inches, and for the entire month of June, around 4.25 inches is the norm. More local data provided by Cornell Cooperative Extension shows that over 8 inches has fallen in Cutchogue to date this month.

Joe Gergela, president of the Long Island Farm Bureau, said that the rain is "way too much" for strawberries, and not only are crops suffering, but retail operations feel the pinch as well.

"People don't come out in the rain," he said.

If weather is dry, farmers can always irrigate, Gergela added. And the good news at least for wineries, said Jamesport Vineyard owner Ron Goerler, is that the hard rains are coming early in the season for grape growers. Prior to June, 2013 on the whole hasn't been much of a soaker.

"We had a dry beginning to spring," he said. "And a somewhat dry winter beside the big storm we had, so the ground wasn't oversaturated. We would rather have it now than later. In the summer, if it's dry out, it could stress the vines out. So we'll go into summer with a good source of water in the ground."

For produce farmers, Gergela said, re-fertilizing may likely be necessary as rains wash away any supplements to crops in the ground right now. And for tomato plants on the way, Wells noted that more fungicides than normal will be needed to quell the easily-spreadable late blight, requiring higher costs for most operations.

"We got a lot of money on the line, especially this time of year. To watch it melt away with the rain is brutal," said Wells. "I've managed to stay sane. But just barely."


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