I may well have tempted fate by mentioning it the other day, but after two months of almost drought conditions the forecast rain has finally arrived, and it has suddenly turned decidedly autumnal. I’m afraid it was almost inevitable that such a late harvest would be affected by rain, and it simply wasn’t realistic to expect this extended dry period to continue into October. Until today we had been anticipating a start to our 2013 harvest at the beginning of next week, but now we will have to wait and see what effect this rain is going to have. It rather depends on how long the rainfall continues that will determine how much is absorbed into the soil, and then in turn, how much finds its way into the fruit. Another important factor will be the temperature – at the moment the thermometer has dropped to around 18°C (65°F). This being the case conditions under the canopy are currently not too humid and sticky, but again this will depend on how quickly things dry up.

I may well have tempted fate by mentioning it the other day, but after two months of almost drought conditions the forecast rain has finally arrived, and it has suddenly turned decidedly autumnal. I’m afraid it was almost inevitable that such a late harvest would be affected by rain, and it simply wasn’t realistic to expect this extended dry period to continue into October. Until today we had been anticipating a start to our 2013 harvest at the beginning of next week, but now we will have to wait and see what effect this rain is going to have. It rather depends on how long the rainfall continues that will determine how much is absorbed into the soil, and then in turn, how much finds its way into the fruit. Another important factor will be the temperature – at the moment the thermometer has dropped to around 18°C (65°F). This being the case conditions under the canopy are currently not too humid and sticky, but again this will depend on how quickly things dry up.