This past March was one of the warmest on record for Colorado. In Delta County, agriculture took a major blow with fruit trees and gardens going into early bloom. The early higher temperatures were followed by subsequent freezes that killed off delicate blooms, resulting in massive crop failures for growers. The unusually warm weather also depleted snowpack totals statewide, accelerating drought conditions. Earlier this month, KVNF's Laura Palmisano spoke to Laura Parker, the owner of High Desert Seeds + Gardens in Paonia, about the effects this unprecedented year had on her seed operation.
Palmisano: So Laura, what have been your challenges this year with such little access to water?
Parker: Well, first it was just knowing how to plan for it. So that was making some really hard decisions at the beginning of the season because we could tell it was going to be an unusual and hard season. So that was the first thing. It was just cutting back on our operation and cutting back on some of our staffing and making some really hard decisions about what we
thought we could pull off with limited water.
Palmisano: Did this all start back in March when we had a [major] heat wave and then the snow melted off?
Parker: Yeah. So back in March, that was just so incredibly unusual. And when we had like 85 degrees in March, which I don't think [has] ever happened before, and we saw a lot of things start to change on the farm really quickly. Things going into bloom that we never see happening at that time of year.
Palmisano: And then there was a freeze, right?
Parker: It is typical to have like swings and false springs, but usually not that early. And so that was kind of a chain reaction and, and getting those really hard freezes again twice... I wasn't really sure what would happen with many of the seed crops and I think we had some losses from those swings.
Palmisano: What were your losses?
Parker: So because things were starting to bloom early because of that warmth in March and then with the swinging temperatures, a lot of things kind of need more of a stable, kind of cool, but stable climate to really set good seed and pollinate. The thing that we saw it in the most dramatically was our winter radish seed. You can tell there were stems that set good seed, but there were sections that definitely like just aborted their seeds and they're totally empty inside. It's still a little unclear where we are with all of that. Definitely, we saw a lot of stress in our pea seed crops. Just to give some background, I'm primarily a seed grower and it was an opportunity year as well for us because we focus on drought-tolerant short season crops. And so some of the hard decisions we were making was also trying to take advantage of a potential selection event.
Palmisano: How did those drought-tolerant crops do this year?
Parker: So along with all of this chaos, we had chaos that we couldn't predict. We've seen widespread, many different, actually new diseases to us. But one of the most damaging that many, many growers and gardeners across the state are experiencing, and I believe across the Southwest, is curly top virus. There was really widespread beet leafhoppers, which are a tiny little insect that kind of looks like fluff flying around your feet. They come in from the
deserts and have different migrations and different life cycles and they spread. They're the vector for the curly top virus. I've seen a lot of curly top virus over the years, but it's never been super damaging. We did, I think in, in 2018 or so we had a really bad time with it and it probably affected like two crop types, mainly tomatoes and beets. But this year we're seeing it across seven different crop types.
Palmisano: And were those your drought-resistant crops?
Parker: [Yes], some of the ones we were pushing for drought resistance. So yeah, like beans and squash is another drought-tolerant one and orach is actually quite drought-tolerant. It's a green.
Palmisano: And those got attacked?
Parker: Yeah. And people are seeing it in amaranth, also drought tolerant thing. Our later plantings don't have the curly top virus. So that was a learning. It's like we're seeing that we can plant later and maybe miss the cycles.
Palmisano: What have been some of your successes during this strange year?
Parker: Well, we have a really beautiful corn crop and some of our melons for some reason aren't getting the curly top virus. I know some growers are experiencing that. Even though our water got turned off, basically [the melons] are really sustaining. We've gotten a few like very tiny misting kind of rains and I think that's kept those vine crops happy, and then we're seeing some varieties of our tomatoes surviving somewhat. So we might be selecting for some resistance. And also some of the beans aren't affected as much as others. So I think, there's actually some potential for breeding for resistance to the curly top in those crops if like this continues to be quite a problem.
Palmisano: When did your water get turned off and how is that impacting your growing?
Parker: Our water got turned off in like mid-August, which was actually way better than we had predicted. Some of the old timers that are on our ditch were saying we might get cut off July 1st. So that was excellent. But you know, for us when we do biennial seed crops it's really problematic because we need that fall water to establish those crops. And an important part of our produce operation is growing for fall production. So basically, we had to cut those pieces out of our plan for this season.
