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This week we experienced a significant increase in precipitation with a cumulative 104.4 mm – 4.1 inches of rainfall.
· Both air and soil temperatures remained stable
o The average minimum temperature reached 23.6° Celsius degrees (74.5°F)
o The average air temperature remained stable at 27.2°C (81°F)
o The soil temperature remained stable reaching 28°C (82.4°F)
o Solar radiation was mostly moderate with some cloudy days of very low solar intensity. Risk of sunburn and “corky fruit” is not expected.
o The relative humidity jumped up to 89.4%.
· Large (4,5,6 count) fruit dropped at 46.6%
· Large 5 counts declined significantly to 20.2% of our harvest.
· As in previous weeks, the vast majority of our fruit continues to be harvested at 21 WAF – 72.4% of the total. The rest corresponded to 20 WAF fruit with 26.5% and a negligible volume of 22 WAF (1.2%).
· Crownless fruit volume this week was 11.5% of our harvest.
· Sugar content: Despite the stability in age at harvest, the average sugar content of our fruit continued to increase and this week the volume of fruit with Brix degrees higher than 15.5 jumped to 48% of the sample. The variability between Brix readings increased significantly this week.
· The internal coloration of our fruit was pretty high.
· Fruit samples with psi less than 2.7 increased significantly to 9.4% of the sample.
o The minimum was 2.6 psi
o The average reached 3.3 psi
o The maximum was 4.4 psi
· The week brought a significant change in the rainfall pattern that was more typical of the season. Variable intensity rains most days of the week and flooding in some low-lying areas of the northern region and the Caribbean took place by the weekend. Fortunately, our farms did not suffer the negative effects of these increased rains. Only the stoppage of the soil preparation work, but it was something already considered in our annual program. The volume of naturally differentiated fruit (NDF) represented only 3% of the total harvested this week. Therefore the harvest of the naturally differentiated fruit (NDF) is almost finished. This week a high percentage of fruit with a brix greater than 15.5 and a fairly high external coloration on average was reported. Fruit hardness was also lower than the previous week. Even so, the average quality of the fruit was quite acceptable.
· Expect supply volumes for weeks 28-31 to drop to unusually low levels. It is a post-NDF (Naturally Differentiated Fruit) period event.