Harvesting Cherries At Night To Protecting Apples With Nets, Record Heat Takes Toll On Fruit Crop

By Tyne Morgan

July 12, 2021

Record-breaking heat that blasted the West over the weekend is also proving to be lethal to crops. Even with the heat breaking a bit on Monday, daily records were tied or broken over the weekend across California, Nevada and Arizona, with extreme heat also hitting Idaho and portions of the Pacific Northwest.

Much of the West and Southwest have been under a heat warning for more than a week, with more than 28 million Americans seeing triple-digit heat, including Arizona, Nevada, California’s Central Valley and even parts of Washington State.  The relentless heat comes just more than a week after the Pacific Northwest saw a “thousand year” heat wave that killed hundreds.

The heat and extreme drought conditions are also fueling wildfires, as well as causing orchards and farm workers to change their schedules in order to beat the heat. That’s as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says last month was officially the hottest June on record.

Trying to Beat the Heat with Nighttime Harvest

According to Reuters, the hottest days last month forced farm laborers to start picking cherries at 1 a.m., earlier than the normal 4 a.m. start. According to Reuters, headlamps and roving spotlights were used to aid the workers in an earlier start time in order to beat the daytime heat that threatened the workers’ safety. The extreme heat also made the fruit too soft to harvest during the day.

Reuters reports Northwest Cherry Growers still expects to see an average-sized cherry harvest this year.

"We think we probably lost about 20% of the crop," B.J. Thurlby, president of the Northwest Cherry Growers, a grower-funded trade group representing top cherry producer Washington and other Western states, told Reuters.

As reported on "The Packer" earlier this month, the Northwest Cherry Growers said the heat will force some growers to abandon a portion of their crop due to the damage caused by the heat. The issue surrounds quality. The Northwest Cherry Growers says fruit exposed to such a prolonged period of intense heat wouldn’t meet the stringent standards upheld by the Northwest growers. Unfortunately, that means that a few growers lost some or all of their crop this season.

The hot weather taking a toll on the cherry crop comes as USDA's latest sweet cherry production forecast showed production higher than 2020, but down 6% from what producers saw in 2019. USDA says the later blooming varieties were well behind the rest of the crop, which is already leading to lower yields.

Shipping Concerns

Also according to "The Packer," with temperatures topping 105 degrees for several days from June 27-30 in Wenatchee, Wash., shipping was also impacted by the extreme heat. Shippers said the heat wave could reduce the crop volume some and hold back sizing temporarily but expressed confidence there will be plenty of high-quality Washington cherries for retailers to promote in July and into August. Some are even hydro cooling cherries and taking other steps to take the heat out of fruit and using advanced sorting technology to send only strong fruit to market.

Eyes on the Apple Crop 

But it’s also adding uncertainty to what the Washington apple crop will produce this year. Apples are Washington’s most valuable crop, with an estimated revenue of $2 billion each year. Apple harvest is still six weeks away, but the heat has caused the apples to stop growing for now.

"We really don't know what the effects are. We just have to ride it out," Todd Fryhover, president of the Washington Apple Commission, told Reuters.

The Washington Apple Commission says growers are doing what they can to protect their fruit against sunburn. That includes using expansive nets and spraying water vapor above the trees.

USDA's meteorologist Brad Rippey expects the heat to continue in the West for the remainder of July. View his forecast here. 

Lead Photo: Heat and extreme drought are causing orchards and farmworkers to change their schedule in order to beat the heat. NOAA says last month was officially the hottest June on record, as heat continues to blast the West.

Second Greenhouse Heated By Cryptocurrency Mining

Miami-based United American Corp announces the completion of its second BlockchainDome and the full commissioning of 1,500 additional miners for a total of 2,500 miners (3.8 megawatts) now in service in two BlockchainDomes. Pre-installation of 1.5 megawatts of electrical service for adjacent greenhouses heated by the BlockchainDomes is now also complete.

The latest BlockchainDome incorporates a number of improvements in construction and deployment from the first dome which includes mass pre-fabrication of a number of dome components and in-house CNC manufacturing of the mining rig docking stations. Construction logistics have also been refined to include pre-installation of foundations and utilities for future domes resulting in overall lower construction costs and shorter construction timelines.

"We have taken everything we have learned from the construction of the first BlockchainDome and used this knowledge to make the implementation of this subsequent BlockchainDomes faster, cheaper and of better quality," stated UnitedCorp CEO Benoit Laliberte. "Along with the generation of heat from the BlockchainDomes for agricultural purposes, our goal remains to be the low cost and environmentally sustainable standard for the industry."

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UnitedCorp's technology uses the heat from cryptocurrency mining to support greenhouse agricultural operations through the BlockchainDome Heat Station system which keeps greenhouses at 20oC year-round. This represents a simple design solution compared to various alternatives whereby the cost of generating this heat from a single source is shared between multiple use cases.

Commercial greenhouses in cooler climates like in the Province of Quebec typically require a significant amount of thermal energy to supplement daytime solar energy, particularly during the period of September to May, and many older greenhouses utilize inefficient heating systems for this purpose. The dry heat produced by the BlockchainDome Heat Station is also used in the summer to reduce greenhouse mold and fungus caused by condensation thereby reducing or eliminating the need for chemicals to treat this problem and creating a more organic growth environment.

UnitedCorp believes this "Heat Campus" approach for heat generation and utilization is the future for agriculture and any other industry that can make use of low-cost heat with the ultimate goal being to get as close zero waste as possible. This is not only good economically but allows businesses to "green" their operations by significantly reducing the amount of electricity the combined operations require from the grid.

For more information:
UnitedCorp
5201 Blue Lagoon Drive, 8th floor,
Miami FL 33126 
www.unitedcorp.com

Publication date : 9/25/2018 

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"A Heated Greenhouse All Year Round By Using Flexible Residual Heat Computer Servers"

Jeroen Burks, Block Heating

"A Heated Greenhouse All Year Round By Using Flexible Residual Heat Computer Servers"

The greenhouse horticulture has an enormous need for heat, and residual heat as a renewable energy source is considered more often. Computer servers generate a lot of heat which is largely left unused. The start-up Block Heating wants to deploy that heat to heat greenhouses. Not by building data centers near greenhouse complexes, but by bringing servers by mobile containers to growers.

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The idea for deploying residual heat arose about three years ago. Jeroen Burks, the man behind BlockHeating: "I supplied hardware for data centers and noticed that many customers wanted to make their residual heat useful. Most residual heat is still being routed outside. Together with the customer, we tried to find out if we could use residual heat to heat a building. A building of about 400 to 500 square meters is being heated successfully, and the building stays warm even on cold winter days.

Heat for a year

Fact is there are few buildings with a large need for heat in the summer, but greenhouse horticulture offered a solution. Jeroen: "If you know how much heat runs through a greenhouse each year, the deployment of residual heat by computer servers is a good match."

Because growers do not want a data center in their greenhouse, Block Heating aims at servers in mobile containers. Jeroen: "A 13-meter container can fit about 800 servers, worth a capacity of one megawatt per year. Depending on isolation and the sort of crop used, the residual heat of only one of those containers can heat a greenhouse of up to 10 hectare all year round."

Hot water

The focus is on supplying heat through warm water. The heat from the servers can be used to supply water of 60 degrees Celsius. This is considerably lower than residual heat supplied by the industry but more than sufficient to heat a greenhouse. It is important though to keep the distance between heat source and greenhouse as small as possible. Jeroen: "Another reason why containers are ideal because the water of 60 degrees can be supplied directly to the growers' buffer tank, which can then be used as desired."

The grower doesn't need to fear having his greenhouse full of servers, or extra tubing and wiring. Jeroen "With minimal adjustments, we provide energy saving and an opportunity to makes steps towards growing without gas."

Short investment horizon

The building of a data center easily has an investment time of five to ten years, but the investment horizon for the deployment of server containers is significantly shorter. We are going to test a version with 80 servers soon, and at the beginning of winter a container with 800 servers should be ready."

In the coming period BlockHeating hopes to get feedback from multiple growers, so the containers can be developed further. "We are fairly selective for the first versions, but interested growers are always welcome."

For more information:
BlockHeating

www.blockheating.com

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Jeroen Burks
jeroen@blockheating.com
+31 6 470 41000