California fruit tree growers see an uptick in demand

If sales at wholesale nurseries offer a guide, California farmers appear ready to plant new or replacement orchards at an increased rate this winter. Two large nurseries told the California Farm Bureau Federation’s Ag Alert that they detect a sense of cautious optimism among farmers, based on renewed demand for their trees. But they say demand varies greatly among crops and regions.

Nancy Fowler Johnson, whose family has grown trees for orchards in the Sierra foothills for nearly 100 years, said wholesale nurseries can serve as a barometer of future strength in the agricultural sector, but cautions about reading too much into it.
Fowler Nurseries, located near Lincoln in Placer County, supplies commercial growers with new orchard stock for almonds, pears, cherries, peaches, nectarines, apricots and prunes. Although her sales have been off as much as 30 percent, Johnson said they're picking up now.
"We're in the 2010 shipping season right now," she said. "Demand is beginning to outstrip supply. The growers we work with seem to have sat back for the past year or so and said, 'OK, let's wait and see.'"
Johnson said her nursery deals with two different grower groups: "Northern California growers who typically have water and then our Southern California growers who are dependent on the water delivery system. It's in the south where we've seen the most significant dropoff in our sales."
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