Without being catastrophic, the first vegetable harvests were uneven in Quebec, sometimes due to the cold and rainy spring which harmed the proper development of the roots, sometimes because the month of July, very hot and dry, damaged the crops.
“The heat of the last few days has scrapped fields of cabbage, burning the edges of the leaves. As soon as there are peak burns like that, it’s over. The quality is dropping and we are not harvesting,” testified a market gardener from Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, in Lanaudière, Yohan Perreault.
During his conversation with Earthon July 28, it had been a week since the farmer began harvesting napa and flat cabbages, in the middle of a heatwave. If he observed a lot of losses in his fields of early vegetables, due to the heat, his later cabbages, the next of which will reach maturity shortly, have been spared so far, as have his carrots, which he remains hopeful of surviving. “For that, the temperature will have to drop. It’s raining at the moment, so that cuts the fire a bit. We’ve been irrigating constantly for a month, because we haven’t received a drop of rain. The irrigation lakes are empty. »
Credit: Courtesy of Marie-Philippe Dulude
On the Île d’Orléans, a producer of fresh beans, Stéphane Gosselin, was also delighted, on July 28, with rain that had occurred the day before, after several weeks of dry weather. As the cool and very rainy spring undermined root development, they struggle to find water deep in the soil when showers are rare, making crops more vulnerable in arid periods.
“It’s been a checkered start to the season. We had losses in the first sowings due to water stress, but now things are returning to normal. It was high time for it to rain. When the soybeans wilt, it’s because it’s really dry,” says the market gardener who grows beans on 400 hectares.
Two weeks after starting the sweet corn harvest on his farm, a producer from Saint-Rémi, in Montérégie, Éric Vinet, notes that the floating tarpaulins that he puts on his plastic early crops in the spring, as well as his irrigation installations, have given him a chance to start the season with an acceptable yield.
“We have a little less yield, but the harvests are still good. We irrigated twice (in July), which helped. We are equipped for irrigation, because we also make broccoli, but this is not the case for all sweet corn producers,” explains the market gardener, who also says he supplied colleagues from Drummondville, Saint-Hyacinthe, Boucherville and Quebec, who ran out of ears between July 23 and 26.
“It seems to be getting back on track, though. The first planting didn’t look good, but the second one looks better for many growers. Also, scarcity has meant that prices have been good (from wholesalers) in recent weeks,” reports the producer.
Flooded tomato fields
At Fermes Alcaro, in Saint-Rémi, the tomatoes are struggling to recover from a violent downpour in June, which flooded the fields. “The accumulation of water for 24 hours stressed the plants and harmed their development, which means that the yield is less than expected. The plants are smaller, and contain fewer tomatoes,” notes one of the owners, Marie-Philippe Dulude, specifying that they began harvesting on July 27.
Although the farm is equipped to irrigate, the dry month of July has also given its tomatoes a hard time, as well as its cabbages, some of which are late in maturity. As the season is young, however, the farmer remains hopeful that the next harvests will go better, provided that “Mother Nature is kind”.
A producer from Saint-Anselme, in Chaudière-Appalaches, Frédéric Leblanc, affirms that his start to the season is off to a good start overall, without any “extreme” pitfalls.
“We started harvesting turnips and rutabaga last week, and things are going well. In June, it rained enough, so it grew really well. In July, it’s drier, so it grows slower, but the quality is good,” says the market gardener.
In Napierville, in Montérégie, Éric Van Winden reports a good start to the lettuce season and good first harvests of onions and carrots, despite the June flood which flooded his fields. “The fields are clean and beautiful. The caliber is there. It’s a little dry at the moment, but we’re used to it,” says the farmer.