– Rain: This was a much drier week with only one day that brought moderate precipitation; the rest of the week was bone dry! Total rainfall for the week was 10.8 mm (0.43 inches)
– Temperature: Both minimum air temperature and the weekly average temperature remained stable and very similar to prior week. The minimum air temperature reached 23.4°C (74.2°F) and the average was 26.7°C (80.1°F). The soil temperature also remained stable at 26.1°C (78.9°F). Relative humidity was identical to last week (82.9%). Solar radiation was varied – some days were low to normal but some of them were very sunny and hot!
– Observations: Our weather continues unseasonably mild so we have continued to reduce harvest age which has brought about an improvement in the internal quality of the fruit harvested during the week. Regarding NDF, the farms have reported the presence of the first natural fruits but the volume is far very small. The first natural flowering event seems to have occurred towards the end of 2013 – we await the mergence of visible buds to inventory the extent of NDF. The good weather that has followed the New Year leads us to believe that natural flowering will continue low!