Processing tomato production continues to be an important industry in Colusa County. The 1999 season was not without problems. Substantial rainfall in February prevented entry into many fields, interfered with ground preparation and created havoc with many beds that were formed the previous fall. While some early-season fields were planted in January, we did not get going in earnest until early to mid March. Further complicating matters, a killing frost was received in early-April. Both of these factors resulted in delayed early-season growth. Later planted fields received hotter than normal temperatures in July and August, which advanced crop maturity to coincide with the early-season crop. There were nineteen days that exceeded 100^"F during July and August. As will be discussed, fruit yields and acreage were up significantly from 1998. Despite the uncertain start, 1999 turned-out to be an outstanding year for processing tomato production and an all-time record tonnage was delivered.

Local fruit yields were up sharply from 1998 and document the excellent post-April growing conditions. The 1999 county average fruit yields for the season were 35.7 tons per acre, up 4.6 tons (14.7 %) from 1998's depressed 31.0 ton per acre yield. The average Colusa fruit yields for the past ten years are presented in Figure 1.

As noted, the harvest began late, due to early-season rains and unfavorable planting conditions. The first loads from Colusa were delivered the week ending July 17, fully two weeks later than "normal". We had a 17 week harvest period in Colusa County this year, which is 3-4 weeks longer than usual. During this period, there were a total of 39,345 loads delivered. This compares to 29,421 loads delivered from Colusa in 1998, or a 34 % increase. The total tonnage produced in 1999 was 1,001,600 tons, compared to 1998's 708,478 tons (up 41.4 %). Colusa County produced 8.2 % of the 1999 state total of 12.24 million tons. Figure 2 indicates the importance of early-season production in the area. Excluding the first start-up week, 18,700 loads were harvested during the first four weeks, which represents over 47 % of the total loads delivered during the season.

Colusa grew 28,400 acres in 1999, compared to 22,750 acres in 1998. This 24.8 percent increase was unanticipated, and was due to replanting and "insurance acreage" resulting from early-season cannery concerns about obtaining production requirements. The processors made these magnitudes of increases across the state. As the early-season fears did not materialize, a record production year occurred. The state production of 12.24 million tons was considerably greater than the announced processor intentions to pack 11.0 million tons. While this was good news for individual growers and allowed processors to operate their facilities at full capacity for much of the season, it may turn-out to have negative longer range implications, as it caused a significant processor inventory increase, which will impact prices and acreage in 2000 and beyond. Figure 3 reports the local processing tomato acreage for the past ten year period.

There were in-excess of 56 different processing tomato varieties grown in Colusa in 1999. The number of loads for specific varieties ranged from 1-5707. The top five varieties, ranked by the total number of loads of fruit delivered, are listed in the following table. These five varieties provided over 48 percent of the total loads. The numbers in parentheses are the state values.

All of these varieties are hybrids. This list includes both early-maturity lines (‘H9280' and ‘Hypeel 45’), as well as mid-season cultivars (‘H9492', ‘H8892' and ‘Halley 3155'). It is informative to compare the predominant varietal make-up for the county with statewide percentages. We plant less of ‘Halley 3155' and ‘H8892' than other areas. Due to our early niche, we are more heavily invested in ‘Hypeel 45', ‘H9492' and ‘H9280’.

The table also reports soluble solids and color results for the area and the state. In general, our soluble solids are lower than the average, but not significantly so. Solids for ‘H9492' are actually higher than the state average, while ‘H8892' is the same. State soluble solids for the remaining three varieties are higher than those in Colusa. Color readings for Colusa are consistently poorer, across-the-board, than the state average. Improving fruit color and soluble solids continue to be major challenges facing the local processing tomato industry. Color readings were high in the early-maturity crop, as indicated by the data from the early test (Table 3), while those in the mid-season test were more acceptable (Table 9). There appears to be an ongoing trend for poorer early-season color readings in this geographic area and it is probably a reflection of air temperatures during fruit maturation, as well as, perhaps, soil nutritional levels.

New and existing processing tomato varieties need to be continually evaluated in field tests to ensure that they perform as expected across a wide range of growing conditions and that they have an advantage over established industry standards. This is where the Farm Advisor Statewide Variety Evaluation Program comes in. Comparative information is obtained by conducting uniform tests in major California production regions. A common set of varieties are grown in multiple locations and evaluated, using the same criteria. The varieties are evaluated for horticultural characteristics, fruit quality and yield potential. This process identifies cultivars which will perform well across the state, as well as those adapted for specific geographic locations.

Send mail to jlschmierer@ucdavis.edu with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 1999 Colusa County Cooperative Extension, Univ. of California
Last modified: August 16, 2000