Desert vegetables on the Arizona desert around Yuma must look like they’ve 
been growing in war zone. Temperatures a week ago approaching triple digits for several days resulted in some dehydration, and wilting with items ranging from leaf lettuce to broccoli and cauliflower. and leafy items. If you plan to load any Iceberg or romaine look for heat related damage such as tip burn, internal burn and even the outer leaves with sunscald.
The hot weather also is causing veggies to mature faster, moving up the schedule for harvesting. Damage assessements continue.
Desert vegetable already were having problems with blisters and epidermal peel due to earlier freezing weather.
Citrus Loads
California citrus shipments are not being significantly affected from that mid January freeze as only minimal damage was reported. However, valenca shipments from the Central San Joaquin Valley will be down from a year ago, primarily due to the variety gradually being replaced with newer varieties with higher yields.
Tje state expects this year’s valencia orange shipments to hit about 25 million cartons, down from last year’s total of 27 million boxes.
Meanwhile, strawberry shipments from Orange County and Ventura County contine to build towards peak shipments in early April.
California citrus – grossing about $6200 to New York City.
Yuma vegetables – about $4800 to Atlanta.