From the Fields

David Schwabauer
Ventura County avocado grower

For the third time in five years, our Moorpark-area avocado and lemon ranch was threatened by wildfire. We were very fortunate; the winds weren't as strong this time as they were last. But, the big issues were instead of clearing 100 feet of brush on our north side we cleared 200 feet. We doubled the area that we had cleared and that made the fire that much farther away. When the fire got to where my guys were with the tank trucks, they were able to douse it. The flames when they were up higher were 40-foot flames. But, by the time they got down to us through that 200-foot buffer, they were only 5- to 10-foot flames and so we were able to douse them with the tank trucks.

We had one avocado tree that was singed, but other than that we were spared, all because of that 200-foot buffer plus the lower wind speeds and my guys being able to keep the fire from spreading into the grove. There is about 150 acres that were threatened. The interior of the ranch was fairly protected this time. I had lots of help. My relatives were here and 30 of my guys and we had three tank trucks.

We're not doing any harvesting right now. We're working on our fall sprays on the lemon trees. Due to the large crop of avocados, we're going to try to start size picking the new crop as soon as we can. But that probably won't be until maybe the end of November or into December. We're not picking any lemons right now.

The avocado crop is tremendous. Last year we had a really light crop. We were fortunate in that we had a little more than some growers. Some of our ranches had no fruit. That was all due to climate and how the trees had taken the hot spell that we had a year and a half ago. Since they were so light last year, they are really set up now. There's going to be a huge crop and the challenge there is a marketing issue.