Texas crop, weather

Thanks to favorable conditions, onions and other vegetable crops are doing very well in South Texas, according Texas AgriLife Extension Service horticulturists. (U.S. Department of Agriculture photo by by Stephen Ausmus) COLLEGE STATION -- Whether it rained or not this past week, many areas remained too wet for field work, according to reports from Texas AgriLife Extension Service personnel.

Wet conditions persisted in the Coastal Bend, East, Southeast and North regions, in many instances putting a halt to field work and other farming operations.

Other parts of the state, including the Panhandle, Rolling Plains and West Central, had the opposite problem. Limited soil moisture was the common theme. though in most cases moisture levels were not yet at critical levels.

In contrast, the South and West Central areas reported adequate to excellent soil moisture.

Dr. Larry Stein, AgriLife Extension horticulturist based in Uvalde, said soil moisture levels and the general conditions for the region's growers of spinach, cabbage and other vegetables is better than he's seen in years.

"Things are looking up," Stein said. "After the severe cold, we were kind of concerned about the condition of the crop. We had a little bit of burn on the older spinach, but the younger stuff wasn't hurt at all. So we're back to harvesting fresh-market spinach."

Stein said the cabbage was unharmed as well, and that it was still being harvested. Growers were also planting some more spinach to extend the season.

"Conditions were extremely wet. And now that we've had sunshine and things have dried out, we're back in the fields doing what we're supposed to do," he said. "Really, we're in excellent shape for planting later on in the spring. It's been a while – many years – since we had this good of moisture this early in the season."

Reports from Delta County, northeast of Dallas, and much of the rest of North Texas, weren't quite so sunny.

"In Delta County, its primarily Houston black clay and a lot of other heavy soils, and that gets to be real messy," said Michael Berry, AgriLife Extension agent for agriculture and natural resources.

Berry said the wet conditions have persisted since late summer and the fall, and producers in his county have only gotten about a third of the wheat planted that they would normally.

"The sun will come out and start to dry things out, then it rains again," he said. "People are even having a hard time feeding hay. Even tractors are getting stuck now. It's that wet."