Bay of Plenty orchardists will be watching the skies anxiously on Wednesday, when forecasters are predicting yet another hail storm.

Last Thursday a localised storm caused damage to kiwifruit orchards in the Welcome Bay area and Neil Trebilco, president of New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Inc, says more hail is likely later this week.

Hail at this time of year is potentially less serious for Hayward green growers as fruit has yet to set, but storms can nonetheless cause significant damage and growers who are affected should contact Zespri to discuss insurance.

“Last week kiwifruit and apple growers in the Riwaka region of Nelson were hit with hail,” says Neil.

“For some apple growers the storm was catastrophic, but not quite so bad for gold G3 and Hort16A crops which are not as far advanced.”

Hail netting is one of the measures growers can take to protect crops but in Nelson the hail was so heavy, it collapsed some of the netting structures.

Neil says the concern now for growers is that hail or any damage to vines opens them up to infection by the bacterial diseases Psa.

“Growers have to consider what options are open to them to protect their vines,” he adds. “If they haven't started pollination they can apply copper.”

Source - http://www.sunlive.co.nz/