IFTA wraps up South Aftrica tour with apples, pears and stone fruit under shade netting – Good Fruit Grower

—story by Kate Prengaman—images by TJ MulllinaxGraeme Krige, left, technical director for the Two-A-Day Group cooperative talks to Worldwide Fruit Tree Affiliation tour attendees about the advantages of shade netting for decreasing sunburn on apples and pears at Oewerzicht Farm in Greyton, South Africa. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)You recognize it’s a scorching area day when attendees are hanging out beneath the drape web, attempting to keep away from sunburn, together with the pears. Fortunately, there’s a whole lot of shade netting to be present in South African orchards. Nets had been a scorching matter on the final two days of the Worldwide Fruit Tree Affiliation’s examine tour, which visited apple and pear orchards within the Greyton space and stone fruit within the Nuy Valley on Dec. 9 and 10.Each areas deal with heat winters, however the lack of chill creates extra challenges at pome fruit producer Oewerzicht Farm. The farm, a part of the Two-a-Day Group cooperative, included 55 hectares of apples and 20 hectares of pears. Earlier than putting in the netting, the farm misplaced as much as 30 % of its Cripps Crimson to sunburn. Placing the nets over older plantings on vigorous rootstocks can create some challenges, mentioned Graeme Krige, the technical supervisor for the cooperative who acted as the first tour host. “Now we have the nets, after which we put the sunshine again that you simply take away with the nets with reflective materials and leaf elimination,” he mentioned. Bin trailers ferry Worldwide Fruit Tree Affiliation members round Oewerzicht Farm in Greyton, South Africa. The apple and pear farm featured many netted blocks, together with some drape web methods and a few overhead nets, which they take down within the offseason to scale back UV injury to the material and lengthen the lifetime of the nets, mentioned Graeme Krige, the technical supervisor for the Two-A-Day Group cooperative. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)The nets go up 40 to 60 days after full bloom, and after ensuring there are not any pest issues that would blow up beneath the duvet, Krige mentioned.The farm makes use of each drape web and overhead netting, relying on the preexisting trellis system.In a Packham’s Triumph pear block, drape nets save a whole lot of fruit from being downgraded as a result of yellowing and sunburn. However, employees do a whole lot of summer time pruning, particularly within the vigorous timber, to create extra open canopies that allow mild in. “We’re farming mild,” Krige mentioned.Krige additionally talked concerning the crucial significance of rest-breaking chemical compounds to push the pome fruit cultivars out of dormancy. Why not plant stone fruit as an alternative? Nicely, the area will be hit with bloom-time storms: “A catastrophe to stone fruit,” he mentioned.Within the Nuy Valley nevertheless, growers are spared from these storms, so they’re closely planted with stone fruit. The tour visited Oudewagendrift Farm, residence to about 90 hectares of stone fruit and a dairy operation. Younger nectarine plantings come into manufacturing extra rapidly beneath nets, in keeping with Hannes Laubscher, the technical director for United Exports, and one of many hosts of the go to to Oudewagendrift Farm within the Nuy Valley. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)Hosts Wilhelm Naudé, the proprietor, and Hannes Laubscher, the technical director for United Exports, took the group to see younger plantings of nectarines and flat (donut) peaches. The nectarines, skilled with two leaders in a single planar row, produced 20 tonnes per hectare within the second leaf. “The manufacturing curve is only a lot faster beneath the nets for us,” Laubscher mentioned. Oudewagendrift additionally spends “fairly a bit” on summer time pruning. Laubscher detailed the three passes: the primary one simply after pit hardening, to strip the water shoots that create competitors; the second two weeks earlier than harvest, to chop again to the fruit and assist it get extra colour; and the third after harvest, to work on the tops and the cover of the tree as soon as irrigation has been lowered and the timber have calmed down. •



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