– Rain: The dry and cool spell continued! The total rainfall for the week, although a little more than prior week, was concentrated during the weekend so most of the week was rather dry. Total accumulative rain for the week was 16.6 mm (0.66 inches).
– Temperature: Minimum air temperature continued low. The minimum reached 20.7°C (69.2°F) – 0.7°C higher than prior week, but again we had three days with night temperatures lower than 20°C (68°F). The average temperature did remain stable at 25.5°C (78°F), and the soil temperature was also stable at 25.6°C (78.1°F). Solar radiation during the week was variable with days of very high intensity and other days of low solar radiation. No data for relative humidity is available.
– Observations: Our farmers’ intuition is that natural fruit this year will come later than usual. We experienced low night temperatures during week 6 that may indicate the occurrence of a stress to plants that can result in NDF. Fortunately, precipitation has been low and this could be a factor that reduces the intensity of the event. We will not know for sure until enough time has elapsed to see fruit during our field sampling. We continue to be frustrated by the variability in our weather pattern and the fact that it continues to be atypically dry for this time of the year. We expect precipitation to increase from one day to the next and we want to be cautious with our harvest age.