Some strawberry growers say the berries are already starting to rot, but others are happy with a decent harvest because they managed to pick the strawberries in time. Moreover, the rains have flattened the grass – making it difficult to mow, and the same threat looms for the cereals.
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According to farmers, what the late frosts only managed to damage, the rain finished off – breaking flower clusters, buds, or already formed fruit or grain ears. Farmers fear greater consequences if the rain continues and water remains in the fields and ditches – rot will set in the root crops.
Too much rain, lack of warmth
According to Brigita Mosiejauskė, chairwoman of the Lithuanian Organic Farms Association, plants now lack warmth: “Precipitation and warmth are very unevenly distributed – too much rain, too little warmth.”
“If it continues to rain like this for another week, it will be difficult to harvest legumes, and if it lasts two more weeks, cereals will definitely suffer,” B. Mosiejauskė explained to BNS.
She said that this year work on organic farms is not happening on time, which will affect the harvest despite the prolonged rainy period.
“Sowing of later crops, such as buckwheat, was already delayed in spring, so the crops will be damaged, but winter crops are not much affected because they are already established. If someone had previously sown legumes – beans, peas, or others – and they were already flowering, the heat negatively affected the flower clusters – they dried up and fell off,” said B. Mosiejauskė.
She added that the rain also stopped fodder production: “You can’t drive into the meadows to mow, or where the grass was already cut, you can’t take away the bales, the hay is spoiling, and it’s hard to maintain the quality of that fodder due to the excessive rain.”
No blueberries, strawberries are rotting
Vytautas Buivydas, vice-chairman of the Young Farmers and Youth Union, says this year is not the best for farmers growing blueberries and strawberries.
“We are doing poorly. It seems there will practically be no blueberry harvest in Lithuania because, as far as I talk to blueberry growers, all flower clusters are frozen. The frosts and heat were devastating for berry bushes, and the current heavy rain has finished off the blueberry harvest,” he told BNS.
“Strawberry growers are also complaining about massively rotting berries – after the first rains, such spots appeared, and now, as the rain continues, the strawberries are starting to rot – it’s even sad to watch: beautiful berries, but they already have spots, with the onset of rot centers, and farmers are picking them to prevent fungal infection, removing those berries and disposing of them,” V. Buivydas said.
He said grain growers were worried during the heat – they even irrigated the fields: “If they had dried it out like that and the heat had lasted longer, the grain harvest would have been hit. There were even some larger farmers who had already started irrigation because they feared losing 15–20% of the harvest due to the heat.”
Now grain growers fear that heavy rain and wind will not lodge the cereals: “One farmer growing alfalfa says: the heavy rain has already started to lay the plants down on the ground.”
According to V. Buivydas, currants damaged by frosts in spring were further harmed by drought: “The flower clusters that had started to form simply curled up, twisted, and the fruit itself did not develop. The harvest will not be large.”
The vice-chairman of the Young Farmers and Youth Union also fears that if water remains in the fields and the rain continues, potatoes may suffer.
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Rain has claimed up to 40% of the harvest
Paulius Preibys, owner of 4.5 hectares of strawberry fields in Klaipėda district, estimates that he will lose 30–40% of the harvest due to the rain, but losses could be even greater.
“The amount of rain is abnormal. Up to 40 millimeters of water fell, where the monthly norm should be, but here it came in one day. Water stands in the ditches, although they are raised and made so that strawberries would not be flooded. It’s very close to overflowing the ditches. The entire harvest has not yet been picked, the season is only halfway through, and I am already talking about harvest losses. The losses are large – 30–40% due to the rain,” the farmer told BNS.
He said that soaked berries also need to be picked to prevent rot from spreading and damaging the plant.
“Just shake them out. Or they should be processed, but that costs money. I am not yet at the scale where I can process them. I would like to have the opportunity to process after such rains, but at this moment it just doesn’t work out. Maybe I lack initiative in looking for partners to cooperate or work with, but such a thing requires a good partner if you want success,” said the strawberry grower.
According to P. Preibys, there have not been such fruitful years yet to invest income into strawberry processing. When one year is better, another brings losses. For example, last year, 80% of the strawberry field did not yield: “The strawberry field was completely underwater, I had to buy seedlings and replant some parts of the fields.”
Meanwhile, some other strawberry growers say they managed to avoid the consequences of the rains because they picked the early berries in time.
Ritas Kvietkus, who grows almost 2 hectares of strawberries in Adomiškiai village, Šiauliai district, told BNS that this year’s harvest is decent.
“Compared to other years, last year, this year looks good. Last year we hardly picked anything because the temperature stayed low for 10 days during flowering. Everything was damaged by frost last year, but this year there was no frost, although there was one night when some damage was visible, but it was minimal compared to other years, and compared to last year, it’s not even comparable,” R. Kvietkus said.
“We have been growing for 25 years, so we have accepted that you can’t take the entire harvest – some will freeze, some will be damaged by slugs and snails, some by rain,” added R. Kvietkus.
He said the early strawberries are no longer soaked by rain – they have already been picked, but the rain slightly damaged the late berries.
“The berry always stays in water. We don’t pick during rain at all. If you pick, the skin is pressed and then the juice just runs out. We catch every moment when it’s possible to pick. We don’t have many late strawberries,” he said.
Audrius Giraitis, who has been growing almost 1 hectare of strawberries in Pypliai village, Kaunas district for 27 years, also rejoiced that he managed to pick almost the entire harvest: “But I also got some rot. I definitely lost 10%.”
“When you grow several varieties, one is resistant to something, another is weaker to something else, so the overall average is good. Last year was a bit better. No frost damage. And this year no frost damage – I missed the early frosts. Only rot and heat slightly damaged some varieties. One variety rots, another doesn’t. Some years one variety suffers, other years another. Last year was the best harvest, this year I haven’t counted yet, but as I see, one variety was a bit weaker this year,” the farmer told BNS.
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