PENDLETON — Smoke and wind impacted certain Umatilla County crops this year, while late spring rains were a boon to the wheat industry.

Don Wysocki, Oregon State University Extension Service soil scientist based in Pendleton, said dryland crops, and primarily wheat, had above-average yields and were of very good quality.

“If we get that late growing season rain we usually have very good crops and that’s what happened this season,” Wysocki said. “If we hadn’t gotten that rain we would have had a poor crop.”

Dryland wheat is grown in a field every other year so the soil can store additional water for the next crop. Wysocki said the particle size of the soil in some parts of the county is particularly suitable for raising dryland crops.

“The texture is ideal for good water-holding capacity,” Wysocki said.

The late spring rains were crucial after a dry winter.

Because of the late season rain and the soil’s water-holding capacity, Wysocki said this year’s weather contributes to a positive outlook for the 2021 crop as well. Winter wheat was planted around Labor Day, a little earlier than usual, and he said the stands of wheat are looking good. These crops will be harvested between July 10 and Aug. 10, 2021.

Wysocki said, “A few fields have some issues, but the majority have good stands and are off to a good start.”

As for frost, Wysocki said late freezes affected some of the winter wheat fields, though not extensively.

But the chilly mornings did hurt some fruit orchards in the Milton-Freewater area.

Wine grape yields were not terribly good this year, as well, and there were issues with the fruit reaching maturity. There is also a concern that wildfire smoke affected the quality of the grapes.

Most of what Wysocki called the region’s high value crops are irrigated in sandy soils with relatively low water-holding capacity. Scott Lukas, an OSU horticulture faculty member at the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center, said the irrigated crops, such as melons, blueberries, hemp and onions, are more susceptible to wind than to water shortages.

“In terms of other weather, we had a particularly windy year and the crops I work with were severely impacted,” Lukas said.

One storm in late spring brought gusts strong enough to rip roofs off houses.

“Windstorm damage highlights the importance of planting windbreaks of wheat or grass to break up the wind,” Lukas said.

In the coming years, he said, farmers will need to be prepared for increasing winds with good soil management and cover crops. Winds pick up a bit of topsoil, essentially sand-blasting crops.

“Our climate is adjusting in certain ways and we will experience more extreme weather,” Lukas said.

Wildfire smoke damage

Smoke, especially when it lingers for days or even weeks as was the case in 2020, can wreak havoc on fruit crops.

“What we see the most is later in the season when we get the smoke layers that create thermal inversions,” Lukas said. “This raises the humidity in the crop canopy and later in the season more fungal infections and different types of pathogens can occur.”

Bronzing on leaves can be caused by the reduced photosynthesis and indicate a plant is not following its process of energy creation.

In some fruit, especially wine grapes, the smoke can also alter chemical compounds that affect flavor, leaving wine with a toasted or ashy taste.

Lukas said researchers are not sure about how smoke affects blueberries and other small fruits, or hemp. This year, he said, samples of hemp flowers were taken right after wildfire smoke blanketed the region and sent to OSU in Corvallis to have compounds extracted and tested.

If producers are concerned about the effects on their crops, Lukas recommends having samples tested because some diseases mimic smoke impacts.

“Speckled browning on the surface can resemble serious pathogens,” he said. “It’s important to bring samples into the lab to get checked.”

In terms of temperatures, Lukas said he felt like it was a normal season. The significant flooding in February was early enough to spare many of the county’s crops, but he said there were some alfalfa field losses.

Weather conditions were favorable for the fruit crops around Milton-Freewater and Walla Walla, Washington, this year with no winter freezing or spring frosts, said Clive Kaiser, interim director for the Hermiston Agricultural Research and Extension Center.

“We had a really good year for climate, and we were owed one,” Kaiser said.

Smoke from wildfires in Western Oregon impacted human health, but according to Kaiser the smoke was far enough away that he said he didn’t expect to have any impact on this year’s fruit crops, including wine grapes.

“The Oregon wine board doesn’t allow vineyards to submit grapes for processing if they were within 20 miles of a forest fire,” Kaiser said. “I don’t think it’s going to be a major impact.”