All about pears

The highlights of the panel discussion about the South African pear industry’s status and prospects. By Anna Mouton.

The panel covered topics ranging from rootstocks to netting. The edited transcript below summarises the main points, and the entire session can be viewed on the Hortgro YouTube channel.

Panel members

Graeme Krige, technical adviser, Fruitmax Agri (chair)
Calla du Toit, grower and marketer, Ceres Fruit Growers
Tanith Freeman, cultivar specialist, Dutoit Agri
Piet Nieuwoudt, technical adviser, Fruit Tree Services
Wiehann Steyn, general manager, Hortgro Science
Christo Strydom, general manager, Wolfpack.

Setting the scene

Graeme Krige

Most of the almost 13 000 hectares planted to pears are still Packham’s, Forelle, and the different iterations of Bon Chrétien. Our industry only exports, on average, 45% of what’s on the tree — that’s not great. There’s definitely upside potential, and we should focus on that.

Christo Strydom

Many of the Bon Chrétiens are processed, but we must increase our export cartons on Packham’s, which are affected by sunburn, wind marks, and russeting in some orchards. We see in the field that netting can considerably increase the export cartons per hectare.

In our area [Wolseley] and the Langkloof, orchard culling declined by 20%–25% with nets. In the pack house, pack-outs increased by 20% due to less sunburn.

With Forelle, we must change more of our older orchards from the old BP rootstocks to quince rootstocks. On quince, we see more consistent productions, better pack-outs, and larger fruit sizes.

There are far fewer green Forelle when an orchard is on quince than BP rootstocks — so we have an opportunity to produce more red fruit that fetch a far better price. Unfortunately, Packham’s is not compatible with quince.

Old faithful Forelle

Tanith Freeman

Forelle is still one of the best-earning cultivars we have. When I started my career, I was told that people buy Forelle to put in their fruit baskets because it looks pretty. So maybe the first thing that makes Forelle unique is its attractive shape and colour.

It’s also been around so long that we know how to set it, prune it, and get to the sizes we want. Generally, there are no surprises in growing Forelle.

But even though it’s so old, it’s been a trendsetter, something other blushed pear cultivars aspire to. When Forelle comes into the market, it literally pushes all the earlier blushed pears out.

Piet Nieuwoudt

The total juice percentage for Forelle for the years 2020–2022 was 23%–29%. That’s fruit culled in the orchards and the pack houses. The Frudata survey for 2020–2022 shows that 36%–44% of our Forelle falls in counts 96–120. So, about a third of the fruit is in the group that earns fewer rands per carton.

We all do precision farming with irrigation, fertilisation, and spraying machines, but not when it comes to pruning. I recommend you start counting the flower buds on the trees from tomorrow. You should have 20%–25% more buds than the number of fruit you want to harvest.

Then, follow up with early thinning. My experience is that we still thin too much Forelle in early to mid-January. You need to reduce the numbers as early as possible — 3–4 weeks after full bloom.

Graeme Krige

In a way, Forelle has evolved from one to three cultivars, with 1-MCP [1-methylcyclopropene] in the FEMA [Forelle Early Market Access] programme and controlled atmosphere and dynamic controlled atmosphere storage. The question is how we, as an industry, can maintain Forelle’s success.

Calla du Toit

I think part of the success of Forelle is the industry buy-in from the beginning in the 1-MCP protocol. It was a phenomenal breakthrough in research, and I must give credit to the people involved, especially Ian and Elke Crouch.

It’s important to look back to when we exported the first container of 1-MCP-treated Forelle in 2005. Suddenly, exporters had the opportunity to pick, pack, and ship, whereas before, there was a 12-week period between packing and consumption.

The 1-MCP protocol was never intended for the whole Forelle crop. The plan was to extend our season by starting a bit earlier. Part of the success of the cultivar today is that 1-MCP opened the East for us — we now have many options even from the beginning of the season.

Early blushed pears

Christo Strydom

There’s definitely shelf space for blushed pears from early to late. The specific cultivar you choose will depend on your area, microclimate, and preference.

We must be aware that the later summer blushed pears can clash with the early FEMA Forelle.

Calla du Toit

I agree that there’s a place for early blushed pears. We’ve asked whether Forelle will become a 12-month product. We hope not because it will damage the other early-season cultivars that don’t keep as well or have the attractive appearance Tanith [Freeman] described.

Early-season pears allow growers to win a massive amount of water, and their production cost is lower because of their short season.

Most early blushed pears can be picked, packed, and shipped. You need to get them into the market as soon as possible, but you can start improving your cash flow as early as Christmas.

Early summer pears and logistics

Calla du Toit

A lot of the summer pears were treated with 1-MCP. It might not always be the right thing, but many exporters said we’re not going to take chances.

You must remember that this adds cost for the grower. So, the logistical challenges bring new costs on all levels. But summer pears are like stone fruit — you cannot wait. You need smooth logistics.

Christo Strydom

Regarding the keeping quality of the fruit, I believe that 95% of a pear’s shelf life is determined by the cold storage just after harvest. You can make the logistics chain as short as possible, but if you don’t respect the first 48 hours after harvest in terms of cooling, you will have problems.

This is even more important in a year with logistical challenges. We must always keep this in mind when picking pears, especially our summer pears.

Rootstocks

Piet Nieuwoudt

In the Ceres area, we planted Celina from 2014–2015. Last October, I surveyed the hectares, rootstocks, and productions, and I was surprised to see that only 17% of those plantings were on quince rootstocks. The rest were on BP 1.

That was a shock — we must adopt more dwarfing rootstocks. We know there is a compatibility problem with Packham’s, but we must ask the nursery people for an interstem.

If you look at, say, Cape Rose planted directly on BA29, you must cut off root suckers two or three times every year. It only needs to be done once a season in orchards with an interstem. Cutting away suckers two or three times a year is an extra labour cost, so I think we must look into interstems.

Many of our younger pear plantings are still on BP 1. Remember that 36% of our pear orchards are older than 25 years. If we want to stay in business and are positive about pear production, we must replace many hectares in the next five to eight years.

Graeme Krige

We’ve seen a lot of feedback on apple rootstock trials in the last three or four Hortgro Symposiums, and we know there are many different apple rootstocks available commercially compared to 10–15 years ago. But where are we in the research and development of pear rootstocks?

Wiehann Steyn

I completely agree with Christo [Strydom] and Piet [Nieuwoudt] about where we need to go. We need more precocious rootstocks that will help improve our fruit size, colour, and quality.

But I think the reality is that there’s much less research globally on pear than on apple rootstocks. Apple rootstocks are an exciting space at the moment — pears less so.

There are some breeding programmes — German, Italian, and American. Tristan Dorfling of Provar is planning a rootstock trial with Forelle in all the main production areas. The idea is to include some of the more dwarfing pear rootstocks, and of course, one could look at interstems.

Still, we do have some quince rootstocks, and even in cultivars where we could change to quince, we haven’t seen a big move.

Pros of protective netting

Piet Nieuwoudt

Last January, the International Pear Symposium, held in Stellenbosch, had its field day at Vadersgawe, Ian Versfeld’s farm in the Warm Bokkeveld.

The top third of Ceres growers have Class 1 pack-outs for Packham’s of 52%–56%. Ian put up nets a few years ago, resulting in a 15%–22% increase in Class 1 pack-outs.

This year — the 2024 season — it differed between orchards, but he culled about 7% of the fruit under the nets, whereas on average, 20%–25% of fruit are culled in the orchard.

Another example is Mario du Plessis’ Packham’s. Last year, he culled 50% of the fruit on the farm, and his pack-outs were 77%–80%. This year, the nets were over the Packham’s, and he only culled 24% on the farm with more or less the same pack-outs.

On an orchard of 80–90 tonnes a hectare, this is almost 20 tonnes a hectare better, times R4 500–R5 000 a tonne from the pack house, which is R100 000. The price of draped nets is about R130 000–R145 000 per hectare. The cost of putting nets up with manual labour is about R6 000, and to remove them is R3 000 per hectare.

So, you can deal with the capital expense within one or two seasons. I think it’s also better for the marketer to know what product they get in the bins and to have no surprises when they open the controlled atmosphere storage.

Caveats with protective netting

Christo Strydom

I agree with the figures Piet [Nieuwoudt] presented here, but we must remember that a draped net is not a standalone solution for wind marks, which is one of our major defects. You must still ensure that you have good windbreaks and that your trellis system is in place.

Unfortunately, there are also quite a few Packham’s orchards in different areas which struggle with russeting. I’ve seen that the nets don’t help with russeting — I think that’s caused by microclimate.

Wiehann Steyn

The net reduces light, but we do have a lot of light in South Africa — much more than the plant really needs. In a certain sense, the net can create a better environment and make it easier for the tree, which is why trees sometimes grow so vigorously under nets.

Red colour in pears is a bit more complicated than in apples. In apples, the more shade you have, the less red colour the fruit will probably have. In pears, where the maximum colour develops halfway through the season, it still requires light. Then, the red colour can burn away towards the end of the season due to the same light and associated high temperatures that heat the fruit and destroy pigment.

There’s been some work showing that if fruit has really good colour, shading them toward the later part of the season protected them against heatwaves.

On the whole, though, nets will probably reduce the red colour in pears, so one wouldn’t want dark nets and a lot of shade. Choose the lightest shade factor if your primary reason is to protect something like Forelle against hail.

If it’s Packham’s, the choice is a bit more difficult because you want sunburn protection. The more light you take away, the less sunburn you’ll get, but too much shade can also negatively affect reproductive development. So, you’ll need to compromise.

Piet Nieuwoudt

After two to three seasons, we have seen a reduction in reproductive development in netted Packham’s orchards at Vadersgawe. We started pruning harder — we tried to develop a canopy like a Forelle tree. So, we lowered the trees, removed branches, and shortened the side branches, and two years later, the production is climbing.