Now Great Fungal Weather.

Anyone for a sauna? That's what we are getting now. The rain has stopped: the heat is on. I know you folk in the ( snowy ) Northern Hemisphere would love it but it's not actually good for our crops.We are at geat risk of losing fruit with fungal problems. My strawberry patch is the same. Commercial growers of strawberries have had their Christmas crop ruined.

 It is all go in the orchard. We have a gang in pruning all the male vines. ( letting in the light and air and sun - which is good! )This is how the ground looks.

R is mulching it up ( with the big mower behind the fergie tractor) right behind them to try and minimise the spread of fungal problems. This is what a male vine looks like after - short back and sides.

We are both working long sweaty hours to try and make up time lost during the wet.

I'm trying to show you the size the fruit has got to. But we have all sizes. The tiny, only just set ones, will never catch up. So lots for me to do.

It's a silly time of the year to be so busy but that's how it is ( and has been ) when Christmas comes during the summer time on a farm or orchard in NZ.