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Wet spring spears asparagus yield Bing Turkby’s new book
Asparagus – that piercing green spear and old summer favourite – is in short supply as North Island farms fight a cold and wet spring.
Too much rain has caused a soil-borne fungal disease affecting the growth of about half of the asparagus yield at a Mangaweka asparagus farm.
Phytophthora, Greek for ‘‘the plant destroyer’’, is notorious for causing enormous economic losses on crops worldwide, as well as environmental damage. It is the main disease of asparagus in New Zealand.
‘‘We have seen patches of [Phytophthora] before, but never to the extent we’ve seen this year,’’ said George Turney, owner of Mangaweka Asparagus, located 30 kilometres from Taihape.
The farm harvests 45 hectares of asparagus every year, generating about 300 tonnes. Turney said they might be lucky to yield 200 tonnes this summer.
Phytophthora causes the spears to rot in the ground and it cannot be controlled chemically.
‘‘With our good draining soils, we don’t normally see it too much.’’
At an elevation of 450 metres, Turney said his crops started at least a month later than New Zealand’s main growing areas because the area was prone to rain and cold temperatures.
The farm employs 44 Vanuatu workers during the harvesting season.
‘‘The biggest effect is on the staff. We’ve had to top [employees] up so they make more than the minimum wage.
‘‘We just don’t have the work for them this year that we have in others.’’
New Zealand’s largest producer of asparagus, Tendertips in Levin, laid off 18 staff members this week due to the lack of production.
There was no sign of the fungal disease, but owner Cam Lewis said the lower volume meant they couldn’t export as much asparagus overseas, which would usually be labour-intensive.
‘‘We supply New Zealand first and if there’s a surplus then we look to export. There’s been a lack of heat and a lack of sunshine and as a result Japan are going to get a significantly low volume from us,’’ Lewis said.
‘‘We don’t have the work. We’re not having the quality issues the Turneys are having, but production is very low.’’
Farms in Waikato are also feeling the effects of a wet spring, although warmer temperatures have kept Phytophthora rot away.
New Zealand Asparagus Council chairman and Waikato asparagus farmer Tony Rickman said due to the weather their crops were suffering by 20 to 25 per cent.
‘‘In the Waikato our issue is the spring to date, which has been cold and wet and that slowed growth down.’’
However, Hastings farmer Lindsay Kay said Hawke’s Bay was not affected.
‘‘It’s a totally different animal here. We’ve got light, free-draining soils and we just don’t get the rainfall.’’
Kay said the asparagus shortage nationwide would have benefits for him as 80 per cent of his yield is exported overseas.
According to Metservice, the Manawatu region had 147 millimetres of rain in November. The optimal amount is 90mm.
‘‘It’s just kept the ground continually damp and it’s also the coldness of it,’’ Turney said.
Due to the shortage in supply, the market for asparagus had shown a slight increase in price, he said.