While the cold snap brought snow to the South Island and isolated parts of the North, the cold air moved up. Unfortunately, it settled in the low-lying areas of this orchard and the vine was “just toasted”.
Trafford said their other orchards in Te Puke and Paengaroa had frost protection, including overhead sprinklers that saved the buds. It was there the attention was turned as the frost settled that early morning.
Image 1 of 4: Kiwifruit orchard foreman Dave Trafford. Photo / RNZ / Leah Tebbutt
It was only when he came to the orchard the day after, he realised what had happened.
“Very rarely do we have a frost here and so it’s one of those ‘once in a blue moon’ occasions.
“As you travel down these edges that were close to the shelter, they survived a bit more.
“It happened just after bud break. Most of the growth we had on the orchard was about two or three inches long and four or five leaves on that - and it all got singed.”
Trafford pointed out an almost two-hectare block between the shelters of a tall hedge. There were probably 0.2 hectares that remained luscious thanks to the shelter and most of the buds had aborted and fallen off, he said.
“In a bay like this, we usually have 1400 flower buds in this 25 square metre type area. And you can probably count maybe 50 fruit if you’re lucky.
“You just have to walk away for a while I think and pretend it didn’t happen.
“But kiwifruit is a weed, it keeps growing, it’s a vine so you’re just going to have to take a hit for a while and hopefully you will survive it.”
Along the sides, near the shelters, a group of workers stand under the vines, with leaves providing them much-needed shade as the sun beats down.
They were bud-thinning the little that remained, Trafford said.
“We’d usually have about 60 people trying to get through this in a day. And these guys will be finished soon, 10 of them.”
Trafford said there were stories he’d heard of an eight-hectare orchard that looked barren right the way through. He said it was hard to find people right across the Western Bay of Plenty who weren’t affected.
“It will fire up because there is no fruit on here so the plant has a lot of energy to do something. It’s going to grow a lot of green growth and by Christmas time it will be pretty green in here and a lot of work to do.
“You can see new growth pushing...but it has no fruit on it.
“Just happy it wasn’t on all of our orchards, just this one.”
