By DOUG SCHMITZ
Iowa Correspondent

ADEL, Iowa — Although the growing season is still a couple weeks away, Greg and Kathy Lewis have already lost more than half of their farm’s strawberry crop, which has been rotting at the roots from sitting in puddles because of the excessive rain so far this season.

“Our problem with the very wet conditions this June really began last November with the heavy early snow we received,” said Greg Lewis, who runs Berry Fresh Farms with his wife in Adel, where they saw a two-week early start to the strawberry season this year.

 “Normally, you wait until killing freezes have occurred to freeze the ground and put the strawberry plants in dormancy, then cover the plants with straw,” added Lewis, who opened their farm for the season to the general public on May 29.

 Then in the spring, the plants grow through the straw, Lewis said, and “the berries develop lying on the straw and not touch wet ground. This helps prevent rot.”
Their black raspberries are dying from the wet ground that’s been causing the rot and their red raspberries that normally grow higher off the ground are developing mold.
The Lewises are one of several of the nearly 50 active fruit growers in Iowa experiencing the aftermath of heavy rains that have been literally drowning – and subsequently rotting – fruit and berry farms across the state. The Dallas County couple started Berry Fresh Farms in 2007 as a family-owned operation, which Lewis said has been a continuing education for them from day one.

 “We are still on a very steep learning curve as to how to run a commercial growing and retail sales operation that is very different from the backyard garden we have always had,” he said.
At their pick-your-own berry farm, the Lewises grow five acres of strawberries and six acres of black raspberries, red raspberries and blackberries, where they also sell jams, jellies and preserves.

The jams come in such varieties as cherry, peach, pear, strawberry rhubarb and triple jam that are sold at the farm’s retail store as well as three area farmers’ markets. The Lewises also hold jam/canning classes and fall school field trips.

The couple have 80 acres of peach trees planted and in the near future, they plan on having a peach and cherry tree orchard. Their peaches, sweet cherries and sour cherries, however, aren’t due to arrive until 2012.

Because of the early snow, Lewis said he and Kathy didn’t get the straw down and their berries had contact with the wet ground conditions this June, causing some of the rot.

“Secondly, the heavy moisture and morning dews caused the rest of the rot and the berries swelled because of the wet conditions,” he said.

He said the dew also resulted in grey mold developing on the strawberries, raspberries and cherries. “Finally, all the rain and wash killed most of the new planting we put in this spring in the raspberry beds,” he added. “As a last consequence, the muddy fields prevented us from working in them on most days and the weeds quickly became an issue.”

Kathy added they had very little damage from a recent frost and the strawberries turned out great. But now, the only action Lewis said they could take after the strawberry season ends is spraying the raspberries to prevent further spread of the mold.
“We don’t normally spray anything on the plants when they have fruit so people can eat as they pick in the fields,” he said.
“Currently, we are waiting for new raspberries to ripen – and salvage what we can from the black raspberry field.
 “It looks like the blackberries, which are the last of the summer berries to ripen, have been least affected. The fall red raspberries
should also be unaffected by the molds.”

Matt Russell, state food policy project coordinator at Drake University’s Agricultural Law Center in Des Moines, said customers can count on the best strawberries for only about three weeks in early summer.

 “But if you aren’t paying attention, you might miss those three weeks,” he said. “This year is a good example.”

Judy Henry of Berry Patch Farm in Nevada, Iowa, said her crop “looks really good, and we’ll have (a lot) of strawberries at the downtown farmers’ market.”

In nearly daily weather updates posted on their website at www.berryfreshfarms.com the Lewises wrote the incessant rain reminded them of the floods 17 years ago: “The rain continues,” the June 22 entry read. “(It) reminds me of 1993. We have 1.75 inches this morning … Strawberries are very spotty and raspberries are having a difficult time maturing with little sun and lots of water.”
In the end, Lewis said normal summer sun, warm temperatures and timely normal rain should let them finish out the year with about a 50 percent loss of planned total production.

 “But like all farming operations, we learned from our mistakes,” he said. “We’ll plant in different areas, and maybe look at some different varieties and think next year will be better.”