Technical Articles in this Edition
Characterising bunches with machine vision
Things move fast during harvest season. Table-grape growers must have reliable information on bunch characteristics for each block to ensure the fruit is prepared and handled optimally. This requires ongoing assessment in each vineyard – a time-consuming and labour-intensive activity.
Barcodes for pest
Effective crop protection starts with knowing which pests to target. Incorrect identifications may lead to unnecessary or suboptimal interventions, especially when growers mistakenly take aim at non-pest species.
Die groen sitrusblaarspringer
Tafel- en droogdruifprodusente in veral die Noord-Kaap het in die afgelope paar jaar toenemend uitbrake van blaarspringers rapporteer. Gevolglik het SATI en Raisins SA gesamentlik navorsing befonds om die skuldige spesies te identifiseer en hulle biologie te bestudeer.
Roodehoogte
FruData het Roodehoogte se twee-hektaar African Delight-blok as een van die toppresterende pruimboorde in die bedryf geïdentifiseer. Die boord is ’n V-stelsel wat in 2008 teen 2 x 5 meter op Viking gevestig is.
La Rhone
“Ons is passievol oor die produksie en verpakking van uitvoervrugte,” sê AJ du Toit, besturende direkteur van La Rhone Agri naby Tulbagh. “Elke vrug wat op hierdie plaas geproduseer word gaan deur ons eie pakaanleg.”
Data-driven crop protection
“We’re past the days where you start spraying on a Monday morning because Monday is spray day,” says Nico Ferreira, technical adviser at Fruitmax Agri. “But it also doesn’t help to do nothing, and then you suddenly discover you have fruit damage.”
Mites in pome and stone fruit
“I think people sometimes forget that a mite is not an insect,” says Dr Davina Saccaggi. “It reacts differently, so you shouldn’t be treating it the same way.” Saccaggi is an entomologist and acarologist – she specialises in the study of plant-parasitic insects and mites – with Citrus Research International. So, if mites aren’t insects, what are they? And how should growers approach their control?
Valencia selections on two rootstocks in Mbombela
The Mbombela area represents a mid- to mid-late Valencia production area in SA due to its unique climatic conditions. These include optimal heat units during flower and fruit set periods after winter, to stimulate a good fruit set.
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Extension briefs AUGUST and SEPTEMBER 2025
By Hannes Bester, MC Pretorius, Wayne Mommsen, Coenraad Fraenkel, André Combrink, Natasha Jackson, Jan Landman, Rudolph Strydom (Citrus Research International)…