Morning All,
At last, a sustained burst of cold weather exceeding the estimates from the 7-day forecast of the Bureau of Meteorology . For the Riverland, the 26th of June recorded 24 RCU in both Renmark and Loxton. It will be important to keep an eye on the 7-day forecasts over the next 3-4 weeks.
The 7-dayforecast is for continuing cool conditions with some possible scenarios:
- Riverland, Swan Hill, Griffith and Sunraysia to have negative chill conditions on Tuesday, but accumulating chill for the remainder of the week. Griffith may have low to negative chill conditions on the 29th of June
- Goulburn Valley: significant chill accumulation for the week (expecting >100 RCU)
While the cool weather has been encouraging, chill units are still low in comparison to previous years. However, if we look at the coming week, it is most likely that we will bank another 70 RCU hours. If we consider almonds with RCU requirements in the 350-550 range (vary by variety). For those using Dormex, hold back until you have achieved the required chill units per variety. For those looking at staggering cross-pollination, the application of 1mlPayback/2L water as a collar drench can be useful in bringing flowers out early if you are looking to have a wider range of cross-pollination opportunities with later flowering varieties. It may be worth trialling on a few trees down a row for flower staggering.
For growers with varieties where the chill units are not well determined recording phenology against chill on bud burst is an excellent means of identifying varietal behavioural patterns going into future seasons. With the large number of new varieties that have been released in recent years in several crops.
Ideally, the Murray Mallee area can continue on the upward trajectory.
The Goulburn Valley region is accumulating acceptable chill, but as the area grows high chill lines, it requires higher chill and also receives later frosts than other regions. These varieties are less prone to frost damage at flowering due to high chill requirements and later bud burst.
Regards,
Shane Phillips | Head Chemist - Research & Development
E: shane.phillips@biocentral-labs.com
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