DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. — The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality issued a drought warning for most of the Commonwealth on Friday morning.
The drought watch and warnings across Virginia are due to low rainfall, which leads to dry soil and creates major problems for area farmers. Virginia generally receives over 40 inches of precipitation every year, but droughts are not uncommon.
CBS 6 senior reporter Wayne Covil spent the day at Adams Acres in Dinwiddie County as they worked to keep their strawberries and other crops from drying up.
Todd Adams said the dry weather started last fall.
"We planted in September. We started watering them then," Adams said. "About 1st of March, we started watering pretty heavy again."
Ponds are key to the success of this year's strawberry season.
"The point with the drip pump with the strawberries is down probably 18 inches already, just running drip, which doesn't use very much water, not like the overhead irrigation," Adams said.
The pumps use a lot of diesel fuel, making watering expensive.
The long bout of dry weather concerned many regular customers.
"I called a couple of weeks ago to see if they had them ready, because it's been so dry and I didn't think they would," one customer said.
"Oh, they are delicious. Very sweet," another customer said.
It is not just the strawberries that have to be drenched.
"This is to water the blueberries because they got little tiny blueberries out there now for the summertime. They should be ready probably middle of June if everything goes smooth," Adams said.
The dry weather may also cause problems with the other crops they grow throughout the spring, summer, and fall.
"We also have blueberries, blackberries, butterbeans, sweet corn, tomatoes," Adams said.
Rain is needed to make sure this growing season is successful.
"It slows everything down because you've got to pick and choose what you're going to do, try to plant where you got some moisture at to plant," Adams said.
Adams said without rain and cooler weather, this could be a very short strawberry season, lasting about two weeks. With cooler weather and rain, the season could extend to about six weeks, which would also benefit his butterbean and blueberry crops.
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