De Rust

Attention to light management sustains high yields and pack-outs in a 27-year-old Packham’s Triumph orchard. By Anna Mouton.

The trees produced 120 tonnes per hectare in 2022 with an average fruit size of 73 millimetres and Class 1 pack-outs of 62%. “Our biggest issue here is wind,” says production manager Jacques van Dyk. “Our defects are mostly wind and rub marks.”

In general, Van Dyk finds Packham’s easy to farm. It has low production costs, does not require thinning, suffers from few pests and diseases, and is easy to prune. These factors have no doubt contributed to the popularity of the cultivar — it accounts for about a third of hectares planted to pears in South Africa.

Let there be light

Technical adviser Piet Nieuwoudt believes that light management is the key to success with Packham’s. “We are all very aware of maintaining open canopies and good light distribution in bicoloured cultivars like Forelle and Rosemarie. But a Packham’s tree also needs good light distribution.”

The orchard at De Rust is planted 3.5 x 1 metre on BP 1 rootstocks. Over the years, the trees had expanded until it was almost impossible to drive an orchard tractor down the work rows. Fruit was limited to the outside of the canopy. “Those that were on the inside were small and ugly,” comments Van Dyk.

Nieuwoudt and Van Dyk started by employing a tractor-mounted pre-pruner to trim away excessive lateral growth. This allowed sunlight to reach wood closer to the trunk. They also reduced tree heights and removed shading branches.

“When I walk in an orchard, the sun should burn the top of my head,” says Nieuwoudt. “Keep in mind that the Packham’s tree needs 35%–40% indirect light in the bottom third of the tree for it to make good quality buds.”

Reducing the size of the canopy slightly reduced the total yield but has improved the fruit size and Class 1 pack-outs.

Regular production needs renewal

One of the characteristics of this Packham’s block is having neither too much nor too little vigour. A problem with too-vigorous Packham’s is knobbly fruit, whereas too-low vigour predisposes the fruit to russet.

“Less vigorous Packham’s set many pears — more than vigorous Packham’s — but the pack-outs are low,” explains Nieuwoudt.

He recommends renewal pruning to stimulate new shoot growth in low-vigour trees. But he stresses that such trees should also be pruned to reduce flower buds. “You have to cut away spurs and older shoots, and make all sorts of other cuts, because the tree will flower itself to exhaustion.”

Trees that are too vigorous, on the other hand, may set well but are prone to strong bourse-shoot growth which competes with the fruitlets. In addition to structural pruning, such trees should be pruned after fruit set to check bourse shoots and prevent the dreaded so-called November drop.

Under Nieuwoudt’s guidance, the old Packham’s are slowly being renewed and bearing fruit closer to their trunks. The goal now is to keep renewing the wood to maintain fruit size and quality.

“We are doing this in all our apple and pear orchards,” reports Van Dyk. “We’re saying that no branches on any tree are permanent anymore. If we can replace a branch with a better branch, we’ll take the better branch.”

Bud break to blossom

De Rust is situated in the Elgin valley, which has had increasingly mild winters over recent years. All their apple and pear orchards are therefore treated with rest-breaking agents in late winter and early spring to stimulate and synchronise bud break.

Van Dyk uses rest-breaking as a multipurpose tool. He has found that spraying a higher concentration of hydrogen cyanamide stimulates more breaks on the trees than spraying a lower concentration of hydrogen cyanamide in combination with mineral oil. He switches to the latter when he wants fewer breaks.

“The advantage of hydrogen cyanamide is that wet soil doesn’t play a role in application,” he says. “Whereas with oils, the soil can’t be too wet, or you smother the tree.”

Van Dyk adds that the timing of rest-breaking affects the timing of harvest, which can help to stretch the picking window a little.

Once the trees begin to flower, pollination becomes all-important. The orchard contains two rows of Packham’s alternating with two rows of Rosemarie.

“I believe that this is one aspect where you don’t try to make savings,” asserts Van Dyk. “I put seven hives per hectare in pear orchards, compared to 2–4 in apple orchards.”

Picking Packham’s Triumph

Less labour-intensive picking is another reason why Packham’s has relatively low production costs. “In the past six or seven years we’ve strip-picked the orchard,” says Van Dyk.

More recently, they have begun picking earlier to ensure greener pears. Earlier picking sacrifices a little fruit size, but the market demands greener pears, and De Rust pays close attention to the needs of their consumers.

Changing consumer demands have turned the traditional harvest calendar on its head, according to Van Dyk. “In the past we picked Galas, then Packham’s, and then we finished with Golden Delicious. Nowadays, the Galas must be redder, and the Goldens and Packham’s must be greener, so we pick the Galas last.”

Asked whether he thinks Packham’s are still worth planting, Van Dyk answers yes, but admits that they are less profitable than apples. “These days an apple orchard can crop 20–30 tonnes per hectare in the second leaf and start bringing in money, but your return on investment takes much longer with pears.”

Image: The orchard yielded 120 tonnes per hectare in 2022 with 62% Class 1 pack-outs.

Supplied by Jacques van Dyk | De Rust.