Top-fruit growers in New Zealand’s principal growing area of Hawkes Bay are looking at a very promising crop on their trees despite extremely dry conditions.
NZ met authorities are forecasting near-drought conditions for the third year in a row in the area, but growers have enough water for their trees. Peter Beaven, ceo of industry body Pipfruit New Zealand, told freshinfo: “It is not an issue here because there is a huge amount of water available in aquifers that run under the Heretaunga Plains, where all the orchards and vineyards are located. All orchards have bores to obtain water.”
According to NZ MetService, rainfall in September, October and November has been well down on an average year. And the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research said that soils in Hawkes Bay were dry and needed above-average rainfall to get back to usual moisture levels.
But as far as apple and pear production is concerned, the prospects at this stage in the NZ summer are promising.
Beaven said: “The crop is looking fantastic - a good flowering and set, very clean fruit and lots of sunshine hours during the critical cell division phase. This will be one of our best-quality crops.”
No comments yet