Week 2 At The Source

A real roller coaster of a ride is the best way to describe our weather in the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica – this week 02, a total of 1 mm of rain was reported which compared to prior week is quite dramatic. While the weather had a very positive change in terms of lower precipitation and more solar radiation a decrease in our minimum temperature may bring an  increase in the risk of a new event of NDF. So far we have identified four NDF events, starting on W46-47 continuing on W48-49 and W50-51 of 2011 and another event on week 01/2012. This possibility of another event on W02 would be considered as a continuation of the event identified in W01/2012. Based on the climatic variables we monitor and believe are the primary causes of plant stress we conclude that events W50-51/2011 and W01-02/2012 have been the most severe  so far. The farms are planning to start the identification program of the “natural” fruit next week using different ribbon colors to identify each event..