All but Basin onion crops in good condition

Charles Spicer mows his field in north Klamath County Wednesday afternoon.

August 11, 2005

Despite a late start caused by cool, wet weather in May and June, the quality and yield of crops in the Klamath Basin are expected to be normal - except for onions.

"Potatoes will catch up, but the onions won't," said Steve Kandra, president of Klamath Water Users Association.

Because of the late planting, "some of the onions are not as good as they should be," he said.

"Alfalfa crops are fairly good. It's still hard to tell what the productivity will be, but overall things look good. Our harvest season will be extended this year because of the late start," he said.

He expects to have adequate water supplies.

Sam Henzel of Tri-Cord in Worden reported "a normal quality on what we have received so far. The yield also seems to be normal and we're anticipating everything to be normal this year."

"We don't foresee any major problems."

A number of those contacted said they would have preferred the weather not to be so hot.

"I wish it wasn't this hot for as long as it has been," said Bob Flowers, who grows grain, alfalfa and grass. "The heat has been a little hard to deal with, but it looks like we'll be having a pretty decent year."

"We just finished the second cut of alfalfa and we're pretty much getting close to the end of the season," he added.

Gene Richardson with Basin Fertilizer & Chemicals said "we got off to a little bit of a slow start because of rainy weather, but the growing season has been pretty good and made up for that. I can't think of any particular problems. The lack of frost this year has helped quite a bit."

"It's been a little hotter than I'd like," he said.

The cool, wet weather, although causing a delay in planting, was good for the grain and alfalfa.

"The challenge now in this hot and dry weather is keeping up with the irrigation, especially for the potato, onion and mint crops," said Kerry Locke with the Oregon State University Extension Service.

Rocky Liskey, who grows alfalfa, said "It's been a fairly decent year for us."

The weather conditions have impacted his greenhouse operation, however, with fewer people being interested in planting in the continuing hot weather, he said.

"Things are coming along," said Edward Bair, another farmer. "We're little behind, but we have good weather now so things are catching up. There's water and sunshine and everything's growing."