After devastating freezes in the South and historical snowfall in the Northeast in the last couple of months, the sudden shift to warmer temperatures might be giving some folks whiplash.
However, in California, table grape growers are celebrating, as vineyards are starting to bloom way ahead of schedule. The phenomenon is giving the industry a two- to three-week head start on the 2026 season, potentially signaling a longer campaign and leading to better promotional opportunities.
The news has been received with fanfare, especially after a 2025 season that ended abruptly due to the depletion of cold-storage table grapes in December.
March 20 marked the official start of spring, and it seems Mother Nature took it seriously in California.
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data, the 2025/26 winter in Southern California was the warmest on record, with an overall average temperature of 49.5 degrees Fahrenheit. For the rest of the state, it might not have been that bad, but temperatures were still among the warmest in the state’s history for that time of the year.
“We've been anywhere from 10 to 15 degrees [Fahrenheit] above normal for multiple weeks. So, we're way ahead of schedule—a good 14 to 16 days ahead of where we normally are,” Pete Hronis, Vice President of Delano-based citrus and table grape producer Hronis, Inc., told FreshFruitPortal.com.
The executive says Hronis vineyards are already blooming, which usually happens between the first and second week of May. This, he says, is the earliest bloom he’s seen in his more than 40 years working in fresh produce.
“If this temperature continues at this pace, we'll probably be picking the earliest we've ever harvested grapes in our company's history—as early as the week of the 15th of June,” he added.
Hronis said it’s not just his vineyards, as other producers in the area and even all the way down to Mexico are reporting similar sightings, with estimated harvest timelines varying by location.
John Pandol, Director of Special Projects at California-based Pandol Brothers, said that grower talk in his area points to schedules being anywhere from 15 to 23 days early, but he’s cautious about the phenomenon overall.
“The San Joaquin Valley has springs like this from time to time, perhaps once every 10 years this early,” he said. “The number we tend to remember is Box 1 of harvest, and that’s still 60 to 70 days away.”
He explained that current projections estimate the beginning of harvest for Week 26, at the end of June. This is still early, as table grape picking typically starts around the first and second weeks of July, he said.
Hronis says an early bloom doesn’t have any agronomic effects on the fruit’s quality and yield. However, Pandol shows caution yet again, warning that the phenomenon might lead to a tighter and more complicated pre-harvest schedule.
“It is more challenging to get all the cultural jobs and chemical applications done in a timely manner—same work, shorter window,” he said. “Growers who have large plantings of single varieties have this challenge magnified, and often don’t have enough labor or equipment to get the jobs done timely, which can negatively impact quality or yield.”
Paradoxically, this time constraint on the production side becomes a commercial advantage, as an early start to the season creates a larger window of opportunity for retail performance.
“It gives us the opportunity as an industry to have more marketing days for our crop,” Hronis said. “If we can start June 20th, for example, that's probably another 8 to 10 million boxes in the industry that get moved that much sooner through the system.”
Ian LeMay, President of the California Table Grapes Commission, emphasizes the benefit this brings to retailers, who have more opportunities to promote the state’s table grapes to their customers.
“Including California grapes in spring and early summer promotions like Memorial Day lets customers know that the season has begun and they can plan to continue to make [them] a regular item in their shopping basket through the fall,” he said.
Putting California table grapes in shoppers’ baskets earlier in the season could also give the sector a better chance at leveraging retail performance at the end of the summer, says John Pandol.
“The biggest effect may be in late summer for Labor Day weekend and Back to School in September,” he said. “The summer fruits with which grapes compete in July and August finish up earlier, so the ‘fall boost’ of grape sales can start earlier—the opposite of what happened in 2025.”
With commercial opportunities ripe for the taking, the California Table Grape Commission is launching an extensive global marketing campaign for 2026.
The effort will target the US and 23 export markets worldwide, including key destinations such as Australia, Canada, Colombia, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, South Korea, Taiwan, the UAE, the UK, and Vietnam.
“Primary shoppers are motivated to purchase more California grapes more often through a variety of activities,” said the commission.
The initiative includes advertising California grapes on multi-retailer shopper apps, sharing grape-use ideas and health information through commission social media, partnering with social media influencers, including lifestyle influencers and registered dietitians, and securing media coverage.
*All images courtesy of Hronis, Inc.
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