’Crops will rot’ — rain hits growers hard

Press, 5 July 1977, Page 6

’Crops will rot’ — rain hits growers hard

Christchurch market gardeners. particularly potato growers, expect to lose a lot of their unharvested crops after the heavy rain in the last few days.

The president of the Canterbury Growers’ Society (Mr L. McFadden) said although it was still too soon to know just how much damage had been done, there was a lot of water on many paddocks, which did not give much hope for many crops. The serious effect of the flooding would be the delay to spring crops, he said. “Young plants cannot be put into such wet soil, so the whole growing cycle will be affected.” About half the total carrot and parsnip crop around Christchurch is still in the.

ground. The season does not end until October. .

Carrots and parsnips would last a few days in very wet ground, and if the ground did not dry out they would rot. said Mr McFadden.

Cabbages and cauliflowers would keep fresh for a few days in the wet soil, but as soon as there was any heat they would wilt.

Some growers were trying to sell cabbages from the roadside yesterday. “It has been bad all over the growing area, with conditions equal to those of Cyclone Alison in 1974,” Mr McFadden said. The Cranford Street area was probably one of the hardest hit areas, but virtually the whole potato and onion crop from that area had been har-

vested, he said. There was little hope for the carrot and parsnip crop along Marshland Road.

Potato growers could write off most of their crop anywhere that water was lying for more than 48 hours, according to the chairman of the Waimairi Potato Growers (Mr Colin East). There might be up to 350 acres of unharvested potatoes in the Rangiora-Belfast-Wood-end area, and there would be substantial losses after the flooding, he said. “There is quite a substantial acreage not yet harvested, more than usual for the time of the season because many growers have been leaving their crop in the ground while waiting for prices to improve,” he said.