RIPON, Calif. — While the almond blossoms in Ripon's orchards are beautiful to look at, third generation almond grower Dave Phippen is looking closely at what could be a crop that is much smaller at harvest.
"Pretty much all of us in the industry, especially the marketing side of the industry, are, 'OK, if the crop is diminished, what percent?' Ya know, so how many pounds will we have to sell next year," said Phippen, of Travaille & Phippen headquartered in Manteca.
The rainy and cold weather is preventing the one thing the blossoms need right now: pollination.
It's a job left to bees in boxes sitting in the middle of an orchard, but so far they're not behaving like they should.
"As you can see, there are absolutely no bees flying on rainy days. And, it probably hasn't been good bee flight weather for at least a week. So, our optimism in the growing industry is fading," added Phippen.
Almonds are a valuable part of the state's economy. In the latest crop report, almonds rank as San Joaquin County's number one cash crop worth more than $453,764,000 in 2021.
Statewide, almonds rank as California's third leading commodity worth a whopping $5.03 billion. However, there is one silver lining for all of these blossoms in this wintry weather: the cold.
"When it's cold the blooms last longer," said Phippen.
Meaning, it gives bees an extra window of time to do there thing, but, on the flip side, too much cold like frost will do damage. So, time is running out.
Still, a positive attitude is in full bloom for growers like Dave Phippen.
"We'll just have to see. We won't know for months from now," added Phippen.
Phippen says there is about a two-week window left for bees to pollinate.
He also says he has lots of almonds from last year's harvest sitting in his warehouse that he speculates may become more valuable if this year's crop doesn't do so well.
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