Rain’s Effect On Orchards

Northern Advocate, 31 January 1939, Page 3

Rain’s Effect On Orchards

Orchardists in the Henderson district feel that the ram which fell so heavily during the week-end has come about a week too soon, as the stone fruit crop was almost ready for picking. Brown rot has been the bane of the fruitgrowers’ life for years past, and when peaches and nectarines are near maturity it develops rapidly after rain, so much so that the harvest on a tree may be lost overnight. Last year rain came at an inopportune time for the peaches, and losses were heavy. Nectarines have been so susceptible to the disease that some orchardists have given up trying to grow them for the market. One Henderson orchardist said that during the week-end he picked 120 cases of peaches in order to get them in before the weather broke. He added that he would not know for a day or two how the rest of the crop had fared. Fortunately there had been little wind with the rain, and the trees had not been knocked about. Strawberries had practically finished, but the apple crop would soon be ready, two of the main crops befog the Gravenstein and Cox’s Orange varieties. The main crop of cooking apples was still two months away. Parched Market Gardens. For weeks past market gardens have had a parched appearance, and a number of vegetables, particularly pumpkins and tomatoes, have been backward. Tomatoes are now grown on a big scale in districts adjacent to Auckland, and although ram was needed to fill out the later crops, there is now a danger, unless they are ready to pick almost immediately, that some of the fungoid diseases which attack the plant may make their appearance. Last year A rain caused considerable loss to tomato growers, the fruit rapidly turning black in parts after heavy rain.