David Lloyd
David Lloyd
Some of you may be aware that Northern Australia has suffered devastating rain and subsequent floods. As many of you know I have a 7 acre vineyard and make some wine. I have been receiving a lot of emails from friends elsewhere in the world asking how the rain/floods are affecting me.
As I type we are in the middle of a heavy downpour but its 26C. I Feel like I'm either in Sydney or the tropics not the cool climate Pinot Paradise that I chose to live in many years ago.
This will be the 16th day this season where more than 10mm of rain has fallen in 24 hrs yet temp never drops below 10C . This means that it creates a downy Mildew infection period that will require spraying. We normally have 1 or 2 per season, 16 such events means a very challenging season so far.
At this time we have survived without a major mildew outbreak. I am not going to complain as we will probably get a crop yet people in Queensland have been swept away to their death by sudden Tsunami like flooding and thousands of homes have nothing left but a concrete slab.
Have a look at this http://bit.ly/e3MOha
To put this in perspective it is equivalent to a land mass with combined size of France and Germany being underwater. This is part of the place where we had a long running drought for years that lead to some people downstream trying to mothball their vineyards because of a lack of water. In my state we had huge wild fires this time 2 years ago that killed nearly 200 people and wiped out many vineyards.
Almost ignored on Australian media front at the moment is a similar flood driven tragedy near Rio http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12171710
In Australia we are expecting prices of fruit and vegetables to go up at least 50% as the area flooded is where most of these items are grown. As for grapes and wine, crops will be significantly reduced but generally speaking, this is of minor consequence compared to the loss of farms, homes and lives.
Please visit www.qld.gov.au/floods if you feel like making a contribution.
As I type we are in the middle of a heavy downpour but its 26C. I Feel like I'm either in Sydney or the tropics not the cool climate Pinot Paradise that I chose to live in many years ago.
This will be the 16th day this season where more than 10mm of rain has fallen in 24 hrs yet temp never drops below 10C . This means that it creates a downy Mildew infection period that will require spraying. We normally have 1 or 2 per season, 16 such events means a very challenging season so far.
At this time we have survived without a major mildew outbreak. I am not going to complain as we will probably get a crop yet people in Queensland have been swept away to their death by sudden Tsunami like flooding and thousands of homes have nothing left but a concrete slab.
Have a look at this http://bit.ly/e3MOha
To put this in perspective it is equivalent to a land mass with combined size of France and Germany being underwater. This is part of the place where we had a long running drought for years that lead to some people downstream trying to mothball their vineyards because of a lack of water. In my state we had huge wild fires this time 2 years ago that killed nearly 200 people and wiped out many vineyards.
Almost ignored on Australian media front at the moment is a similar flood driven tragedy near Rio http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12171710
In Australia we are expecting prices of fruit and vegetables to go up at least 50% as the area flooded is where most of these items are grown. As for grapes and wine, crops will be significantly reduced but generally speaking, this is of minor consequence compared to the loss of farms, homes and lives.
Please visit www.qld.gov.au/floods if you feel like making a contribution.