Author Archives: admin

– 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.

– Rain: Our climate during week 5 was the opposite of the prior week because it turned dry and rather chilly. Total rainfall for the week was next to nil – 5.8 mm (less than a 1/4 of an inch) and during one single day of the week.

– Temperature: However, our minimum air temperatures continued to decrease. The minimum reached 20°C (67.9°F) – 1.6°C lower than prior week and we had three days with temperatures lower than 20°C (68°F). The average temperature did remain stable at 25.3°C (77.7°F).  The soil temperature increased to 25.5°C (77.9°F) – 0.6°C higher than prior week due the lack of rain, while the solar radiation was very high.

– Observations: The sunny dry days were followed by rather cold nights and the difference between the high of the day and the low temperature of the night was very significant. These extremes could stress plants and bring on an NDF event. This variability in climate from one week to the next and the extremes in day and night time temperatures undoubtedly have an effect on plant growth, it impacts our harvest age and makes it very difficult to pinpoint with accuracy the harvest schedule.

– Rain: More in line with the seasonal expectations, week 4 had double the precipitation of the prior week with a total accumulation of 86 mm (3.4 inches) of rainfall. We experienced heavy downpours throughout the week but the weekend was relatively dry with only a light drizzle!

– Temperature: Minimum air and soil temperatures continued to decrease. The weekly average minimum reached 21.6°C (70.9°F) – 1.2°C lower than prior week and we had  three days with minimum temperatures lower than 20°C. The average temperature remained stable at 25.4°C (77.8°F) but the soil temperature decreased to 24.9°C (76.8°F) – 0.5°C lower than prior week.  Solar radiation ranged from low to very low for most of the week but increased significantly during the weekend.

– Observations: Cooler temperatures, increased precipitation, and dense cloud cover have made giving external color to the fruit a rather challenging task. Also, we must remain alert as internal translucency has increased so we cannot raise harvest age any further unless we begin to lose control of sugar content and internal consistency – who says the harvest of pineapples is a science?!  This weather has without a doubt now stressed plants and caused an NDF event.  The field samplings performed last week have confirmed that the first NDF event occurred between week 49 and 50 of 2013 but it was very mild. A second event seems to have occurred between week 51 and 52 and we predict that during weeks 3 and 4 a third event  has occurred.

– Rain: Week 3 back at the farm brought an accumulated rainfall of 42.6 mm (1.7 inches), of which 38 mm (1.5 inches) fell in one single day! The remainder of the week was dry or with very light drizzles.

– Temperature: Air and soil temperatures decreased this week. The minimum reached 22.8°C (73°F) and the average 25.4°C (77.8°F) – 1.3°C lower than prior week. The soil temperature reached 25.4°C (77.8°F) – 0.7°C lower than prior week.  Relative humidity decreased to 72.1%, an unusually low level in the tropics! Solar radiation was highly variable with days of intense brightness and days of medium to very low intensity and high cloudiness. Specifically, Thursday and Friday were very dark and cold during the day and night.

– Observations: The announced cold front did materialize during the middle of week 3. While the onset of an NDF event is difficult to predict with certainty, we suspect that conditions during week 3 may have stressed plants with two days of the week overcast and rainy. During this period the difference between the maximum and minimum temperature was small and both the day and the night were cold. The stress level could have been enough to cause an event.

– Rain: This was a much drier week with only one day that brought moderate precipitation; the rest of the week was bone dry! Total rainfall for the week was 10.8 mm (0.43 inches)

– Temperature: Both minimum air temperature and the weekly average temperature remained stable and very similar to prior week. The minimum air temperature reached 23.4°C (74.2°F) and the average was 26.7°C (80.1°F). The soil temperature also remained stable at 26.1°C (78.9°F).  Relative humidity was identical to last week (82.9%). Solar radiation was varied – some days were low to normal but some of them were very sunny and hot!

– Observations: Our weather continues unseasonably mild so we have continued to reduce harvest age which has brought about an improvement in the internal quality of the fruit harvested during the week. Regarding NDF, the farms have reported the presence of the first natural fruits but the volume is far very small. The first natural flowering event seems to have occurred towards the end of 2013 – we await the mergence of visible buds to inventory the extent of NDF. The good weather that has followed the New Year leads us to believe that natural flowering will continue low!

– Rain: The first week of 2014 brought a few days   of moderate intensity rainfall concentrated from the beginning to the middle of the week and a very dry weekend. Total accumulated rainfall was 27.6 mm – 1.1 inches

– Temperature: Surprising turn of events – the air temperatures increased with the  minimum temperature reaching 23.3°C (73.9°F) – 2.7 degrees Celsius higher than last week, and the average was 27°C (80.6°F) – 1/2 degree Celsius higher than prior week. The soil temperature remained stable at 26.1°C (78.9°F).  Relative humidity averaged 82.9%, while the solar radiation was low from the beginning to the middle of the week but became very intense during the weekend.

– Observations: You can tell that this is one of the most challenging time frames in the pineapple production cycle. The expected winter climate characterized by cool temperatures and abundant rainfall has yet to stabilize and we continue with drastic variations in temperatures from week to week. The harvest strategy that was gradually implemented in anticipation of the normal winter climatic conditions has had to be reversed because growth conditions have resembled more those of the hot and dry season!