Click here to read this week’s farm report.
o Some drizzles and heavy downpours for the beginning of the week. However, the rest of the week was completely dry.
o Air and soil temperatures were reported to be:
o The average minimum temperature reached 23.7° Celsius degrees (74.6°F)
o The average air temperature declined to 28.7°C (83.7°F)
o The soil temperature remained stable reaching 28.5°C (83.2°F)
o Moderate solar radiation.
o Moderate risk of sunburnt and corky fruit.
o The relative humidity increased to 84.2%.
o Large fruit (4,5 and 6 count) is now 60.1% and 5 count declined to 27.6% of our harvest.
o This week the fruit with a harvest age of 21 WAF represented 33.7% of the total and the remaining 66.3% was fruit of 20 WAF.
o Crownless fruit volume decreased to 9.1% of the total packed.The sugar content of our fruit remained at a very acceptable level despite younger fruits harvested. Brix greater than 15.5 increased significantly this week.
o The volume of fruit with psi less than 2.7 was 8.2 % of the sample. The minimum was 2.6 psi; the average reached 3.4 psi and the maximum was 4.4 psi.
o All fruit quality characteristics were reported according to our standards despite our efforts to avoid over maturation by harvesting fruit that is relatively young.
o Fruit volume has not increased as we expected but we expect an increase in the upcoming weeks.
o We have another vessel delay in the west coast this week due to port congestions and high seas at port Caldera.
o Due to more severe climate fluctuations than normal, a phenomenon caused by El Nino, the farms are seeing higher temperature fluctuations than normal. Some days as much as 10 degrees Celsius variation. Fruit harvested during these conditions are showing higher external color and internal translucency, like that of the NDF period.
o We are excited to see most you at the IFPA this week. Let’s talk Pineapples.