Ryan Jacobsen with the Fresno County Farm Bureau has been following the weather's impact on Valley crops. He says local farmers are now hoping for the recent temperature variations to stabilize. To a certain degree everything is impacted a little bit. The trees need time to adjust to this so your tree fruit, your vines, strawberries, they all take a little bit of a beating when you get these extreme up and downs," said Jacobsen.
Third generation Fresno farmer, John Marthedal primarily grows grapes for raisins and blueberries. He says this year's later than usual rain mixed with warm weather increases the risk of mold damage. Marthedal said, "When we get rain, wet weather, especially wet, warm weather on new growth, we will have trouble with botrytis, with mildew." He added "If the rain comes in the form of hail, we can end up with significant crop damage."
