In recent weeks, rain and wind have watered land marked by a long period of drought. Mushrooms attack the vegetables, the ripest Mirabelle plums burst, the branches bend. Market gardeners and arboriculturists draw up the balance sheet.
FT – Today at 05:00
“If it continues like this, we have to worry about the future. The market gardener René Foetz from Thionville was in the water on August 9th. The weather has always been capricious but the professional is worried to see extreme climatic phenomena repeat themselves for several years. “We are always in excess: when it is hot and dry, it lasts a long time. When it rains, it’s the same,” he explains. These differences are not without consequences for cultures. “We can’t prepare the fields, work the land, it’s glue. The rain came at the wrong time. “Nearly 30,000 strawberry plants are waiting to be planted. “Impossible to harvest the potatoes with the machine, it’s too wet”, adds René Foetz.
The wind broke the leaves of some vegetables. “The plant is not going to die but it grows more slowly. The coolness also slows down the growth of watermelons and other melons. Downy mildew has already made its way into some gardens but not at home. “I follow that closely,” breathes the market gardener. On the other hand, its gourds and zucchini do not escape powdery mildew. The leaves turn white. “And it prevents photosynthesis from taking place. The sector’s market gardeners are not spared from fungal diseases. Monitoring is constant, regular cleaning to limit their impact.
“We prefer a year like this to a year of heat wave like last year, physically it’s less demanding”, tempers for her part, Meghann Christen, installed with her sister in Inglange. Better to be positive: the rain also made it possible to cope with the water restrictions imposed this summer by the prefecture.
“It’s up to us to adapt”
“Since July 21, we have saved 100 liters of water per cubic meter,” reports Gérard Conradt, president of the arboriculturists of Garche. The good news ends there. Water is certainly necessary for the orchards, but the excess of rain and wind damages the most advanced mirabelle plums. The branches of the laden trees have bent. Ripe fruits burst, fall to the ground and quickly rot. “It still holds for jams or pies”, optimizes the president of the arboriculturists of Garche. Not all mirabelle plums are concerned. Some varieties are still green. “The mirabelle plum is a matter of flowering, of exposure,” recalls Gérard Conradt.
Apple and pear trees are also impacted by the weather. “We see the development of scab, a fungus that causes spots on leaves and apples. We didn’t have any last year. The phenomenon can be treated. The arborists are watching him. “It’s up to us to adapt to nature. »
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