record tomato harvest in California drought

[reddread]

http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/11/11/4230288_drought-defying-tomato-harvest.html?sp=/99/217/&rh=1

"Defying the state’s devastating water shortage, California farmers produced a record tomato crop. The harvest came in at an estimated 14 million tons of processing tomatoes. Those are the type used to make sauce, salsa and other products, and represent about 96% of all the tomatoes grown in California."

an interesting snapshot of the immediate dynamics between public demand, profit and resource allocation.
Bit more drought and things will really get interesting around here.
even in the best circumstances, we are headed towards dangerous times
where ag communities benefit very little from their own contributions.
the megacorporate ag world is nothing like the farming we used to do.

talk about security issues.

wolves own the hen house,
and Wal-Mart has the keys.

[B Calm]

1. With the chemicals they put on fields now days, water would be just an added bonus.

[Xipe Totec]

2. The Scarecrow

Yea, I know Chipotle is the pot calling the kettle black. Still, the images are spot on.

[reddread]

4. that is really cool

thanks for sharing it.

[JayhawkSD]

3. More plants are killed by overwatering than by all other causes combined.

That a crop improved when water was reduced does not surpeize me at all. We, as a nation, overwater disasterously. Those managing our farms and landscapes know nothing about the actual needs of plants, and they seem to think that the more water a plant receives the better it will do. It will not. Overwatering makes a plant unhealthy and serious overwatering will kill it.

If you have flowering plants which are not blooming, reduce the amount and frequency of their irrigation, and keep doing so until they bloom. It will work; I guarantee it. Pretty much the only reason for flowering plants not to bloom is overwatering, although sometimes overfertilization of poor soil can be the issue. But if the foilage is good and the plant is not flowering you are overwatering.

When water regulation was introduced in 2009 the homeowners of my HOA were terrified that our landscape would suffer. I had, however, been urging sever cuts in our irrigation because we were wasting a natural resource which was in short supply (I'm something of a tree hugger), and because we were wasting money. I had been being rebuffed but the regulations gave us no choice. As I had predicted the appearance of our landscape did not suffer, in fact it improved quite dramatically.

After regulations were lifted we gradually went back to overwatering and the same thing happened when regulations were reimposed this year. The appearance of the lawns ahe ground covers improved within a couple of weeks after irrigation was cut back.