This report covers conditions and observations made on Thursday, February 18, 2016.

The first two photos in today’s report show down-the-row shots of the advanced stages of bloom and petal fall caused by high winds and rain in the Durham area of Butte County. The first photo is of a Butte and Padre orchard, followed by a Nonpareil and Aldrich orchard. The third photo illustrates the bloom and petal fall stage in a Nonpareil and Fritz orchard in the Williams area of Colusa County.

Cloudy, stormy weather blanketed the Sacramento Valley on Thursday. Overnight lows in the mid 40s slowly gave way to highs in the low 60s. Intermittent showers and high winds brought in excess of 0.5 inches of rain. Bees were only able to work for a few hours in the southern half of the valley and none in the north.

Bloom is plummeting in the northern region, as the recent storm system is blowing petals off of trees rapidly. Just under half of the flowers on the early blooming Sonora have lost all of their petals while 40% of the flowers have begun to shed. Half of the Nonpareil and California-type pollinizer flowers are losing their petals due to the high winds. Monterey and Carmel are a day behind and still have half of their flowers presenting for pollination. The later blooming Butte and Padre varieties will reach maximum number of flowers presenting for pollination in the next couple of days.

Wet weather kept growers out their orchards. Planting of new orchards has stopped until soil dries out enough to work.

By Brian Noeller