Rainfall in last two days has been 6.22 inches at the farm with 4.78 inches falling yesterday. One would probably expect an NDF event with this much rain but the minimum nighttime air temperature did not drop below 21 degrees C and the minimum nighttime soil temperature was only 27.5 degrees C. The resulting growing degree days based on min/max air and soil temperatures was still 4.1 and 3.0 which would lead us to believe that this will not be a significant NDF event. However, the sun has not been seen since Tuesday afternoon so this low light intensity may increase somewhat the NDF risk which will be monitored in the next three weeks to acertain the incidence.
Harvest age must be watched carefully following this rainy period to avoid the developement of translucency as much as possible. Shell color will be difficult to impossible to achieve for fruit harvested next week.
Dr. Lloyd