Crews were harvesting olives before the skies opened up over the orchard. Once that happens, the harvest can't resume until the ground dries.
[Ads /]
Dropping temperatures were also a concern for olive growers.
"It's kind of a dance that we do with the cold every year. You get too hard of a frost and you do get some frost damage on the fruit," said Rolland Rosenthal with San Joaquin Valley Harvesting. "Usually when you have a big mature tree it can self-insulate."
Rosenthal said the cold helps raise oil levels in an olive, which serves as a kind of anti-freeze.
The rain can make a mess, though.
"When you harvest those olives and it's wet, the leaves tend to stick to them so you get a lot of "Moo," materials other than olives. Yeah, that's what it's called," said Robert Willmott, manager of Fresno State Farm.
[Ads /]
Some citrus growers have started to run their wind machines to raise the overnight temperature in their orchards. California Citrus Mutual said it costs growers over $22 an hour to run them.
Farmers also irrigate when it's extremely cold because the water released helps create a micro-climate since the water is warmer than the temperature outside.
Rows of mandarins have also been treated.
"In preparation for the cold weather, we have ordered the anti-stress 550, which is a polymer that we coat on the fruit to give it a few degrees of protection against the cold," Willmott said.
He added irrigation could raise the temperature of the lower portion of a tree by two to five degrees.