Most retailers who had hopes for California strawberry promotions for Valentine's Day were probably disappointed as late plantings and late January rains made supplies tight and prices high coming into the Valentine's Day pull.

But as of Sunday, Feb. 3, the Accuweather 15-day forecast showed no further rain for the next two weeks, and growers were optimistic that fields would quickly dry out and plants would start putting out lots of beautiful fruit by mid-February or shortly thereafter.

Although some ripe and coloring fruit on the plants was lost as a result of several inches of rain over a period of about a week, growers in Southern California say that fields and plants were undamaged. Barring further inclement weather, there was optimism that March and April would provide retailers with plenty of promotional opportunities for strawberries.

The early-season woes actually began last summer when hailstorms clobbered fields in the northernmost parts of California and the southern part of Oregon where nurseries were growing millions of young strawberry plants for Southern California growers. As a result of those losses, when fall planting time arrived, many growers found themselves short on transplants, and much of what they did get came later than they hoped. As a result, much of the strawberry acreage in the Oxnard district and elsewhere in Southern California was planted two to three weeks behind schedule, and some even later than that.

Growers who would normally expect to begin harvesting a few berries as early as mid-December often didn't get their first crops until into January.

Then, just as volume started to build toward mid-January, a series of rainstorms disrupted the harvest. Oxnard got seven inches of rain over several days, and other strawberry-growing areas in Southern California received lesser amounts.

The tight supplies have kept prices in the mid-$20s. "The market for us has stayed at $26.90 since we have been picking, so we have had a good market," said Russ Widerburg, sales manager at Boskovich Farms Inc. in Oxnard Jan. 28. "From what I am hearing now, most of the retailers are saying that they just don't have any commitments on volume, so they are going to have to pull their ads for Valentine's Day."

"Rain aside, the berries that are coming out of Southern California and Baja are absolutely gorgeous, I don't care what label you are talking about," said Mark Munger, vice president of marketing for Andrew & Williamson Sales Co. Inc. in San Diego, which grows berries in Baja and Oxnard. Once the rain ends and the sun comes out, "as an industry we are going to see some really nice berries," he said.

"We got a late start like everyone else," said Rick Hearst, a salesman at Eclipse Berry Farms LLC in Oxnard. "It has just been one of those years." But once the rain ends and, the fields dry out and the weather warms, "we will have a lot of fruit."

He said he expects March and April to be very good months for the Oxnard berry deal.

Total California strawberry acreage continues an upward trend in 2008, according to an acreage survey from the California Strawberry Commission. A total of 35,696 acres have been or will be planted for the 2008 harvest, an increase of 1,055 acres over 2007.

Strawberry acreage in Orange and San Diego counties actually increased slightly for the first time in at least five years. Acreage had been declining due to pressure from urban development. However, the recent downturn in new housing construction has made some land again available for agriculture that had been slated for development.

"I think there will be another [400-500] acres down here that people will grow on," said Ed Haft, president of Sunrise Growers in Placentia, CA. "We were all worried that there wouldn't be any land down here for growing, but I think that for at least another five years, we are OK."

Strawberry acreage in Oxnard declined slightly in Oxnard for winter, spring and summer harvest. Summer plantings for fall harvest were expected to be down 421 acres, a 12 percent decline.

Santa Maria experienced a slight increase in fall plantings for winter, spring and summer harvest but expects an 847-acre increase in summer plantings for fall harvest, and increase of more than 92 percent.

Acreage in Salinas-Watsonville is up 757 acres or 5.93 percent.

Proprietary varieties account for 40.1 percent of the state's strawberry production. The major non-proprietary variety is Albion, which (exclusive of proprietary varieties) dominates the northern districts. A number of growers in Oxnard and the other southern districts are testing the variety there this year.

Ventana and Camarosa continue to be the major varieties grown in Orange and San Diego counties, at 36.4 percent and 35.2 percent respectively. In Oxnard, Camarosa has declined sharply, now representing only 7 percent of the district's volume, Ventana declined slightly and accounts for 28.1 percent of the acreage, and proprietary varieties represent 61.5 percent of the total, a modest increase over last year.