Plant
Late blight: fast & very destructive
Late blight in potatoes is caused by airborne spores of the Phytophthora infestans fungus. The disease manifests as irregular dark lesions on the stems
Plant
The risks of nematodes in potatoes
Nematodes are often referred to as ‘eel-’ or ‘roundworms’ because they resemble the common earthworm, but these parasites belong to a different grouping
‘Know your vineyards and workers well’- top grape farmer
Award-winning table grape farmer, Pieter Joubert from De Doorns, says that attention to production detail and a professional and dedicated workforce are equally
Free State apple farmers’ climate-smart management
Pitso Sekhoto and his daughter Nono farm apples near Senekal in the Free State. The Sekhotos spoke to Gerhard Uys about orchard production, climate change
Producing real vanilla on Réunion Island
Cultivating vanilla on Réunion Island – and elsewhere – is a drawn-out, specialised process done entirely by hand. Even the pollination is painstakingly carried
Growing apples in the Malutis
Maluti Fruit’s high-risk but focused decisions are paying off for producers, placing the eastern Free State firmly on the apple map.
Better soil with summer cover crops
Swellendam farmer Hoppies Uys has started a new farming trend in the Southern Cape by planting a summer cover crop directly after harvesting a silage crop
Seedlings: Balancing fertility & hardening
To ensure successful fertilisation, you need to do more than simply carry out a soil analysis to determine the crop’s basic requirements.
Sharon fruit in SA – growing local and export sales
Exotic Sharon fruit was introduced to South Africa in the late 1990s, but it took years to establish in which regions the trees would produce optimally
How helping soil life can boost farm profits
The key workforce in the soil consists of some of the smallest plants and animals on earth. How helping soil life can boost farm profits
Selecting a suitable soil biofumigant
The phasing out of methyl bromide and pressure on various synthetic nematicides and other compounds have sparked global interest in the use of certain brassica
Sugarcane: lessons from Australia
Situated along 2 100km of the continent’s east coast, Australia’s 385 000ha sugar industry was producing a whopping 32 million tons of irrigated sugarcane
Introducing guar – a resilient, versatile crop
Long grown in India and Pakistan, and more recently in the US, Australia and other parts of Africa, guar is now being introduced to South African crop farmers