FROST-BITTEN.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 226, 24 September 1929, Page 5

FROST-BITTEN.

POTATOES AND TOMATOES. CHILLY SPRING SNAP. CITRUS ORCHARDS SUFFER. ESCAPE OF NURSERIES.

Sunday morning's frost has probably done more than all the arguments of experts to show the need of a thorough frost survey of the Auckland district. Acres of potatoes and tomatoes scorched to the ground, in the Mangere, Otahuhu and ' other suburban districts have demonstrated the importance of making a careful selection of the localities suitable for early crops and citrus orchards.

Men who have many years of experi- ! ence as market gardeners and orchardists say the frost was a record for this time of the year. It played havoc with crops that small farmers had carefully nursed to the stage when spring would bring them > along, quickly, and gave the tender foliage a bite from which it will not recover. To make matters worse, if anything, the suburbs in which the desolation occurred experienced a noticeable frost against yesterday morning, and, in some cases, even this morning. Saturday's South Breeze. • Cloudless and fine though Saturday was, the chilly breeze from the south was the beginning of trouble. During the night southern slopes and low-lying areas, were exposed to a frost that no one guessed would be experienced at this time of the year.

Imagine the surprise of a grower at Glen Eden who left 20,000 small tomato plants uncovered on Saturday night, and found on Sunday morning that half the number had been destroyed. Potatoes that were nine inches high in the Mangerc district were wilted, scorched and blackened. They are ruined completely, said Mr. S. W. House, president of the Auckland Provincial Fruitgrowers' Council, this morning. In 30 years, he added, he had not known a frost so severe in late September. "The frost seemed to be confined to the western and southern districts," was the opinion of Mr. A. G. Becroft. "Avondale was only slightly affected." Mr. Becroft explained that the seasons had been somewhat unusual.' First of all the autumn was too favourable. It caused an amount of growth that exposed the soft wood of tender shoots to heavy frosts in May and June. To add to the tale of damage there was a frost in. early July that was the heaviest Auckland had known for a long time. After an interval of almost eleven weeks the frost of last Sunday had come when the spring crops were well started. Lemons had been immaturely ripened in July, and the trees were coming out in their spring growth when they were cut back on Sunday morning. Drainage at Henderson. One of the. largest citrus growers at Henderson, Mr. C. R. Scott, reports the total loss of the new season's crop. He. had not. experienced as severe a frost in ten years. Many passion vines had been wiped out, and the district had suffered heavily.

"There is great need of a frost survey in districts where sub-tropical fruits and early crops are grown," said Mr. Geo. A. Green, secretary of the Auckland Fruitgrowers' Council, and organiser for the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture. He added that the damage done to fruit not only proved the temperatures had been exceptionally low this winter and early springs but fully established the case for a thorough survey by the Government, in order to determine what areas were liable to frost. Such a survey would probably extend over three or four years. Frost-fighting Equipment.

Continuing, Mr. Green said there were large areas of ooast and other land practically frost-free, where no damage had been done this year, and attention should be directed to those localities by growers who wished to supply the early market. If men were determined to plant on areas subject to late frosts, appliances should be provided to combat the serious effects. Smoke screens and other methods had been found practicable in other countries, and would serve to avert serious damage. In making'an estimate of the damage, Mr. Green said, it should be remembered that many orchards had been untouched. iln others the damage had been only

slight, and a proportion of the autumn set of fruit had fallen. Nurseries on

the higher levels near the salt water had escaped, and others had reported the slight scorching of particularly delicate plants.