This winter in northern San Luis Obispo County, we saw warmer temperatures and wetter conditions than usual. As a result, Paso Bamboo Chief Bambusero Gavino Villa said his bamboo is thriving.
“The storms for us are a tremendous benefit. You know, I think it benefits all plants. You can never replace rainwater with irrigation water or groundwater. As the rain falls through the air, it picks up free nitrogen in the air and falls directly with fertilizer, really free fertilizer that the plants readily are able to use,” Villa said.
While rainwater is highly beneficial to most crops, the warmer climate is especially beneficial to bamboo, which is native to warmer regions.
“The bamboo… comes from the mountains of Japan and China, which also see climate extremes like here, and that's why these bamboo trees actually thrive in Central Coast weather,” Villa said.
Just south of Paso Robles in Templeton, Nature’s Touch Nursery & Harvestowner, Melanie Blankenship said the conditions this winter posed a bit of a challenge.
“We didn’t have those deep freezes,” Blankenship said. “Plants actually need that for cleaning the soil or to send a different transition of dormancy.”
However, she added that the rains this year helped compensate for the less-than-favorable temperatures.
“To have that rain back to back, it was such a blessing. Now we have natural moisture in the soil that it gives us so much more opportunities to plant more,” Blankenship said.
This year, she says mint and sage varietals, fruit trees and figs are expected to do well.
