Orchard Management

left-arrow-sketch

General Info:

  • Bees are foragers and need several sources of pollen and nectar (Botha, 2020; Masehela, 2019)
  • If Eucalyptus trees are planted as windbreaks or near an orchard, do not fell them – they are excellent for bee forage (Botha, 2020; Masehela, 2019)
  • Consider including the following plants to sustain and supplement bee colonies: litchi trees, citrus trees, African blue basil, lavender, bottlebrush, aloes, flowering blackjacks, clover, vetch, and lucerne (Botha, 2020)
  • You can plant these on rocky outcrops, road verges, or in areas adjacent or near to orchards (Botha, 2020; Masehela, 2019)
  • Place bee hives so that bees have to fly over orchards to reach attractive forage areas (Botha, 2020)
  • Ensure that these plants have minimal exposure to insecticides and fungicides, both from direct spray and indirect via drift. Other recommended practices can be found in Botha (2020) and Masehela (2019) at the end of both articles.

Supporting Documents:

General Info:

To promote soil microbiome diversity, one has to add plants such as cover crops and flower strips into orchards. Cover crop introduction promotes soil  microbial diversity which, in turn, suppresses soil-based pathogens.

Flower strips have also been incorporated into orchards, based on the principles that a variety of pollinators (including honeybees) are needed for successful pollination, and that these pollinators need a variety of food resources  throughout the year.

Supportive Documents:

* Cover Crops posters used with permission.  ©Levubu Centre of Excellence

 

Windbreak Fact Sheet

Cultivation:

The main cultivation features of Maluma Hass include the following:
  • High density plantings are possible.
  • Planting densities lower than 408 trees per hectare (7 m X 3.5 m) are not recommended.
  • Pruning by machine or by hand is recommended.
  • No growth retardants (e.g., paclobutrazol and uniconazole) are needed.
  • 1 Copper spray per year for Anthracnose control in dry to regular rainfall – years.  More sprays might be needed in stressed orchards to contain pepper spot. Two to three spays are required in wet years.
  • Picking should preferably be managed carefully to ensure top quality.
 
Irrigation Management:
  • Important times are during flowering and fruit set, as this will aid in the uptake of calcium and boron through  the transpiration stream.
  • Optimum soil–moisture  near harvest will also  reduce the risk of external chilling injury on fruit, which  may be aggravated by water stress.
 
Pruning:

A central leader pruning is most commonly used in both high and low density ‘Maluma Hass’ orchards.

Tree Stress:
Maluma Hass trees exposed to heat and water stress are included to produce fruit with aborted seed coats (“dead seed”).

Fruit nutrient and mineral status:
Maluma Hass fruit should be sampled to determine the level of these nutrients as a predictor of fruit quality.

Sampled orchards should not be under any stress and should preferably be irrigated 1-2 days before sampling. When fruit is picked for dry matter testing, tensiometer readings should not exceed -45 kPa.

No more than 2 fruit from the same tree should be picked for sampling. Fruit should be picked at shoulder height, and from four sides of the tree (North, East, South and West).

Fruit should be picked from the inside and outside of the tree canopy. Orchard numbers should be used as sample numbers.

The sample should be used to determine:
  • Average fruit weight (indicates average fruit size and aids with interpretation of Nutrient analysis).
  • Fruit moisture content (indicates fruit maturity level and gives an early indication of the possible time the season will commence).
  • Mineral analysis (Nitrogen, Calcium and Iron content).

Fruit Maturity & Harvesting:

  • Fruit should be harvested between 23% and 26% dry matter content.
  • Maturity testing should commence 6 weeks prior to harvesting.
Pests & Diseases Solutions:
Anthracnose:
More than two sprays are required in a wet season, as copper fungicides are washed off the fruit when it rains. Three to four sprays may be necessary for old trees with lots of dead branches (which are a source of inoculum) in wet seasons.
 
Dead seed associated grey pulp
Grey pulp in Maluma Hass is often associated with dead seeds, usually in the count 20-24 range and smaller. If the number of dead seeds exceeds 10%, then the use of 1-MCP/SmartFreshTM should be considered.
 
Vascular Staining
The pigment anthocyanin is responsible for vascular staining. The incidence and intensity of vascular staining decreases as the fruit matures and is not a major concern for exporting.
 
Vascular Browning
Failure to cool fruit soon after harvest is one of the primary post-harvest causes of vascular browning. In some situations, it may develop pre-harvest due to water stress. Fruit displaying vascular browning are not suitable for export.
 
Cooling requirements:
  • Fruit should reach the packhouse within 4 hours of harvesting.
  • Small trucks and trailers should be used to shorten the window from picking to cooling.
  • Fruit temperatures should be within 2 – 3 °C of the cold room’s air delivery temperature within 24 hours after packing.
  • Fruit should be transferred from regular cooling to controlled atmosphere storage in 4 days.

Temperature Requirements:

For Maluma Hass with a fruit dry-matter content of 23 – 26 % are:

  • Cold room/Packhouse: +7.0°C
  • Cold Truck: +6.5°C
  • Holding Store: +6.5°C
  • Vessels: +6.5°C
  • Last week: +6.0°C
Supporting Documents

Harvesting:

  • Earlier harvesting than the then norm of 75% fruit moisture was better in terms of internal and external quality

Diseases and their causes:

  • The late set still had an influence on external quality matters (Black cold injury)
  • Fruit load on a tree also had a marked influence on Grey Pulp, with heavy-bearing trees having fewer problems than light-bearing trees.

Nutrients:

  •  Nitrogen and calcium seem to play a role in the fruit quality.

Irrigation Management:

  • Important times are during flowering and fruit.

Disease Control:

  • As Pinkerton is less susceptible to Cercospora producers tend to spray less copper during the season. However if a wet late season is experienced care should be taken
    to ensure that post-harvest disease does not increase during export. It is therefore recommended to do at least two proper copper sprays on Pinkerton to lower the risk of
    post-harvest diseases and packhouses should also make sure that proper post-harvest treatments are done on Pinkerton.

Supportive Documents:

home-sketch