A local orchardist has been dealt a cruel blow by mother nature, with 7000 trees and a year’s work battered during a hail storm on Tuesday.
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Luke Ellison lost 6000, 10kg cases of yellow flesh freestone peaches, when “big marble” sized “jagged” hailstones and cyclonic winds tore through his property.
While other neighbouring orchards and houses were unharmed, the “strip storm” cut right through the Ellisons’ property south west of Forbes.
Mr Ellison was due to harvest the last of his season on Wednesday, the day after the storm, but none were fit for market.
He said since he took up the 100 year-family business, he has never seen damage like what he experienced on Tuesday.
“We’ve had bits of hail storms, but nothing like this one,” he said.
“It’s very disappointing but that’s life. We’ll just start again.”
As well as losing all of their late peaches, the Ellisons also lost “a couple of hundred” tomato plants and had buds damaged on their plum trees, which will most likely affect next year’s harvest.
While there is no more picking for the year, the work is not done, with the damaged fruit requiring constant fungicides and spraying for fruit fly until the end of the season.
For other orchards in the area the stone fruit harvest is expected to continue until the end of February to early March.
