Plum harvest drops sharply and edamame suffers too; warm winter cold damage and abnormal spring rain are the main causes
With abnormal weather, crops are being hit one after another. Following mangoes going "crazy with dense growth" and lychees producing "chaotic blooms", plums, which are currently in their harvest season, have suffered a major drop in production. The area around Xinyi Township in Nantou is the worst hit, with production only 2 tenths of previous years, while the Southern Cross-Island Highway mountain area in Kaohsiung has about 4 tenths left. Farmers can only sigh and "let nature take its course". In the Gaoping area, edamame, which had already been delayed in flowering due to cold damage, is currently in its pollination period, but unfortunately the weather is uncooperative, with continuous rain. The Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station estimates that edamame pod set may decrease by 2 tenths, and the actual situation will only become clear next week.
Not even one taiwan catty of plums can be harvested from a single plum tree
In the second half of last year, due to El Nino, Taiwan experienced a warm winter. At the end of the year, on the winter solstice, Taipei's temperature soared past 30 degrees, setting the highest temperature in 67 years. Unexpectedly, in January cold damage suddenly struck, delaying flowering for some crops that were in their growth period. Edamame in Gaoping is one example. As for plums in Xinyi Township, Nantou, and the Southern Cross-Island Highway mountain area in Kaohsiung, they were affected by the warm winter, and the flowering period was stretched all the way to early February, which in turn affected the plum fruit set rate.
Taiwan's two major plum-producing areas, Xinyi in Nantou and the Southern Cross-Island Highway in Kaohsiung, have both reported production declines one after another. Liu Wanling of Shangshan Collection Studio recently went to the Southern Cross-Island Highway mountain area to visit farmer friends and found that along the Southern Cross-Island Highway, as long as plum orchards are below 800 m in elevation, there is almost no fruit set, and orchards at higher elevations mostly also show reduced production or chaotic blooming. Some plum farmers even said not even one taiwan catty can be harvested from a single tree.
Wu Yingmei, who grows plums in Jianshan Tribe, Taoyuan Township, Kaohsiung, said that it is currently estimated that this year's fruit set will be only half. Last year, plums had a bumper harvest, with production reaching as much as 3000 jin, but this year there may be only 1500 jin left, and the plums that do set are generally larger. She said bluntly that their situation is still relatively good, and in a nearby plum orchard there is even a plum tree that set only a single-digit number of fruits. "There is no way, this is a test God has given us, so we can only let nature take its course."
The main reason for the major plum production decline is the warm winter and excessive rain. Zhuang Laoda, director of the Southern Region Branch of the Agriculture and Food Agency, said that plum trees are not afraid of cold; they are a crop that blooms more the colder it gets. However, because of last year's warm winter, continued high temperatures caused the plum blossoms that should have opened in December to bloom sparsely. After blooming, they then encountered continuous rain, which affected pollination, so the fruit set rate was poor. Current estimates show that only 4 tenths remain in the Southern Cross-Island Highway mountain area in Kaohsiung.
Zhang Zhixiong of the Plum Dream Factory in Xinyi Township, Nantou, said that this year's abnormal climate caused the flowering period to drag on for a very long time. The earliest bloomed in mid-December, and the latest was delayed until early February. At a production and marketing group meeting two weeks ago, farmers also generally reported poor fruit set, with production on average reduced to 2 tenths remaining.
Edamame is setting pods, and heavy rain comes to disrupt again
Edamame in the Gaoping area had its growth period extended by the sudden cold damage. Zhou Guolong, associate researcher at the Kaohsiung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station, said that at this time edamame should all have finished flowering and finished setting young pods, but because of the cold snap at the beginning of the year, the edamame growth period was delayed by 7 to 10 days. Many edamame plants in Gaoping fields have only now finished flowering and are about to set pods.
However, the continuous rain over the past few days not only made Zhou Guolong sigh: "Heavenly Father, please stop the rain!" He explained that after edamame flowers, pollination is needed, but continuous rain will wet the flower buds and affect pod set. He estimated that originally one plant would set 20 to 25 pods, but it may end up with 15 to 20, and the actual situation will only become clear next week.
Zhou Guolong said that in previous years edamame could be harvested in just 70 to 75 days, but this year because of cold damage it may be extended to 80 to 85 days. If continuous rain affects the normal development of the beans, empty pods may also occur.