Cover crops in orchards
It takes an ecosystem to grow a tree. By Anna Mouton. We humans often describe a clean floor as one you can eat off. But a clean orchard floor starves soil organisms. Cover crops can boost diversity both above and…
Crop protection in the Orchard of the Future
A changing strategy for a changing world. By Marinda Louw Coetzee. Crop protection is changing due to increasingly stringent market requirements for ethical fruit production, as well as due to changes in orchard structure and ecology. The Orchard of the…
Crown gall
A recent resurgence of galls on apple trees has sparked new interest in an old disease. By Anna Mouton. Plant galls are abnormal growths formed by cell enlargement or proliferation — or both — resulting from infections and other causes…
Crown gall research continues
A Hortgro-funded project aims to isolate the responsible pathogen and investigate whether apple-associated bacteria can help protect trees against it. By Anna Mouton. In the introduction to his 1910 monograph on crown gall in apple trees, plant pathologist George Hedgcock…
Data-driven farming
Real-time information and forecasting of pest and disease development. By Engela Duvenage. Information gathered daily on farms can be fed into effective modelling programmes to take precision farming to a next level. Modelling can help producers time disease and pest…
Debugging pome fruit
What have we learnt about sap-sucking insects in apple and pear orchards? By Anna Mouton. The order Hemiptera contains more than 80 000 insect species that use their piercing-sucking mouthparts to extract bodily fluids from other organisms. Some, such as bedbugs,…
Developments in digital agriculture
New technology offers exciting opportunities to complement traditional practices and optimise crop management. By Anna Mouton. Digital agriculture refers to the application of new technologies for data collection and analysis to help growers manage seasonal and environmental variability. Stellenbosch University…
Everything counts in large amounts
What are collembolans doing in your orchard? By Anna Mouton. Collembolans are among the most common animals on earth — they occur on every continent and in almost all terrestrial habitats. You can probably find somewhere between 10 000 and…
Exterminate grain chinch-bugs
Trials using ethyl formate yield promising results. By Anna Mouton. “Phytosanitary issues are among the many challenges we face in the international trade of fresh fruit,” said Dr Shelley Johnson, research associate at Stellenbosch University. Johnson has been working on…
False codling moth
What growers need to know about control. By Anna Mouton. False codling moth is — you guessed it — a moth and it belongs to the family Tortricidae. Its relatives include other important agricultural pests such as codling moth, Oriental…