Stunting growth

MAT-SU — A chilly and moist spring has forced farmers to plant crops late, and means Alaska Grown products will hit store shelves and farmers’ markets later than usual and at higher prices.

Farmers have cautioned it’s too early to worry about the absence of sunlight, but recent weather has certainly been cooler than than some Palmer farmers would like.

“It’s been way behind on heat units,” Ben VanderWeele said. “We plant every week, and [those crops] are sitting there not doing much.”

VanderWeele Farms grows a variety of produce.

Department of Agricultural Statistics’ Suzan Benz said data backs up the notion that it’s been a colder-than-normal spring.

By using 40 degrees as a baseline temperature, Benz said the average growing degree-day tally, a measure of the number of days where the temperature is a degree higher than the minimum temperature to grow crops, is negative in all but one of the state’s 14 stations that crunch agricultural numbers. With stations reporting GDDs of –17 in Talkeetna, -20 in Sutton and –29 in Palmer, crop growths in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley are unusually low for this time of year when compared with more than 40 years of statistics the department has on record. Only Willow, at +7, registered a positive number of GDDs.

Farmer Arthur Keyes, who plants squash, corn and garlic, said his crops were planted about a week behind schedule.

“We had mud a little bit later than I liked,” Keyes said, explaining that the land can’t be prepped for planting until the ground is free of mud.

That wetness can pose a problem, Palmer Produce owner Paul Huppert said, when farmers are trying to get their products on store racks.

“When the housewife walks into the market, she doesn’t give a damn if you were out there in the rain the day before. She just wants her fresh produce,” Huppert said.

The recent stretch of wind and dryness does not bode well for new crops either, Keyes said, by blowing around dust and drying out the soil. Without an irrigation system, some farmers could be in trouble.

But the real trouble may be in the pocketbooks. No crops could mean no food on the table — but it will also mean the farmers will be dipping into any money left over after growing expenses.

“It’s going to affect the bottom line,” Keyes said. “Losing a week in the spring – it’s going to shorten the season that much more.”

Farmers’ market outlets like Palmer Produce need those products on the shelves so they can see some green for their greens.

“We don’t get a paycheck until we start selling,” Huppert said. “Everything in the field is an expense up until that point.”

And poor financial picture will paints a blurry outcome for buyers of Alaska Grown products at the supermarket.

“Usually we have leaf lettuce for sale by the longest day, but we won’t make that this year,” VanderWeele said. Huppert doesn’t anticipate selling Matanuska Valley head lettuce, leaf lettuce, romaine and cabbage before the first week of July. When he received a call from Wal-Mart in Fairbanks looking for some leaf lettuce for the grand opening of its location, Huppert simply didn’t have any ready.

The prices of those fresh vegetables could rise for consumers, too. Huppert noted the price of fertilizer has almost doubled, and with gas prices skyrocketing each day, it’s created the perfect storm of expenses for farmers looking to ship the fruits of their labor to the Interior and the Kenai Peninsula. He said shipping companies have been tacking on as much as a 34-percent surcharge for locals on freight for fuel, up from 20 percent last year.

With such a short season, another problem looms on the horizon.

“My only concern is how soon it is going to frost,” Huppert said, as he thinks a cold spell could bring the growing season to an abrupt end as soon as August.

Good news may be on the horizon for the folks who till the land, however. According to the National Weather Service’s National Centers for Environmental Protection’s three-month outlook, the Southcentral region should see temperatures on par with normal for the months of June through August. While Benz agreed it has felt much cooler than it has been at this point historically, it’s too early to make any definitive statements about how the summer’s weather is shaping up. Benz said nobody should be worried at this stage.

“I don’t expect that it will stay this cool,” Benz said. “I don’t think anybody does. It’ll warm up.”