This article is courtesy of my friend Bill Schodowski and was featured in his latest weekly broadcast…
Transflora CA’s Jose Escudero took a trip down to Baja recently to check out some farms. Before he left on his trip Jose was getting some valuable “Intel” that the farms in the area were starting to face some significant water issues and many of the farms were making some decisions. According to Jose…”One major problem is the water quality has become real salty and the the other is the Mexican government has started to strictly enforce water regulations and limiting the amount of water per hector that can be used. Some of the farmers will move further south were the quality of water is better and less farming being practiced. Others are thinking of shrinking their hectors and buying higher quality seed to produce better product. If they plant more per row they will use less fertilizers and pesticides and be able to work with the water allowed. They may have better quality control since they are not looking after so any hectors of product.”
At this time of year there is not much grown in Baja other than sunflowers and green mist. You may see some eucs and product bought in from other cooler growing areas. The sun flowers looked very nice and there were some new varieties and tinted suns that stood out. Jose reported that there are 11 varieties of sunflower in the trial stages, hopeful if all goes well we will see some of these new varieties next year.
