Strong Hailstorm Damages California Crops Already Ailing From Drought
LODI (CBS13) — Tuesday's storm brought funnel clouds and heavy rain, but it also pounded crops with hail, causing damage across the state.
As far south as Chowchilla, farmers say hail tore almonds off of trees and may have significantly damaged branches.
In Lodi, farmers are concerned about the pounding grapevines took from the storm.
The growers knew before it hit, the storm was going to be trouble.
"I knew there was going to be hail, but I never witnessed hail like that," said Dino Mencarini. "It came down pretty hard. It came down pretty hard. Our parking lot was just white."
The storm swept through his field of petite Syrah, taking out most of it.
"The size of the clusters that have been beat up, I'd say a minimum of 75 percent," he said.
At Lodi Vintners, hail took out 10 percent of the Zinfandel. It ripped apart leaves needed to shield the grapes from the summer sun and brought down full clusters of grapes.
"There's going to be a bunch of grapes at some point, well, it was going to be a bunch of grapes. Now, it's nothing," said Dennis Fagundes.
Across the street, Fields Family Farms also suffered vine damage. Growers in west Lodi were hardest hit, but the damage assessment won't be seen until grapes start to form.
Abundance Vineyards already knows one field won't produce.
"Well, it just won't be there," Mencarini said. "There's not much to harvest. Hopefully these will shoot out a secondary bud."
Growers say they hope the vines don't go into shock and stop producing. They expect vineyards will need pruning later, since the leaves will keep growing without fruit. They just hope the surviving fruit makes it to July harvest.
It'll be another week before the full damage is known, but growers don't expect wine prices to go up, because only a few vintners were hit. Financially, though, this will hurt those growers who are now down on their projected production.
