The district's grape crops escaped largely unscathed from frost damage last week and a "frost warning" for Thursday morning did not eventuate. A growers spokesman said bud burst had gone well.
The district's grape crops escaped largely unscathed from frost damage last week and a "frost warning" for Thursday morning did not eventuate. A growers spokesman said bud burst had gone well.
The district’s maize and squash croppers report outstanding planting conditions while grape growers have had a satisfactory “bud burst” and a good start to their season.
Croppers have described spring planting conditions as “ideal”, thanks to the weather pattern so far.
Frosts have caused little disruption to the grape season as well.
“Overall bud burst [the emergence of new leaves on a plant at the beginning of each growing season] has gone well and the season is off to a good start,” Gisborne Winegrowers chairman and GisVin winemaker Mark Thompson said.
“Everything’s out in terms of bud burst and it looks good so far. We had a frosty morning last week but it caused very little potential crop damage.
A frost warning on Thursday morning came to nothing and there was "very little damage" from this frosty morning last week.
“Also we had no significant reports of hail damage from last week’s hail event.”
Corson Grain has started to plant the first of its maize crops for the season.
“We have had a little bit of crop go in in the last two weeks, but have really started in earnest this week,” grain procurement manager Richard Hyland said.
“This is the earliest we have been planting our maize crop for many years. Ground conditions are the best we have had for years, so it’s a great start to the season.
“The earlier-planted crops always do the best.”
Croppers have been having a terrific spring to date when it comes to ground preparations for planting crops. The maize planting programme for Corson Grain was in full swing this week.
Coxco general manager Omi Badsar said they had started ground preparation for their squash plantings.
“We are definitely doing that earlier than usual and we hope to have the first crops in the ground by the end of this week. The last spring we had like it was back in 2011.
“Warmer temperatures and less moisture are the major contributing factors to what is an ideal spring planting period.”
Cedenco has also begun planting its sweetcorn for the new season.
“The first seed went into the ground on September 3 and we have enjoyed mainly dry conditions so far,” company spokesman Mark Springer said.
“We’re on track with our planting schedule. Based on average temperatures, we would expect the processing season to start around January 10, with planted hectarage for this season of approximately 794 hectares.”
