Research

Growing Season Climate

    Of the “serious” pome fruit producers, South Africa, together with Brazil, has the production regions closest to the equator.  This means higher summer temperatures and generally, altogether more plant stress and more fruit downgraded for processing compared to our major competitors.

    The great inefficiency of caring for fruit that ultimately ends up in a juice bin significantly impacts the profitability of the South African industry, especially under the serious cost squeeze conditions that the industry is experiencing.  It should not be surprising that research under this theme is predominantly aimed at decreasing sunburn and internal fruit quality defects brought about by climatic stress.

    A new project utilizes the ProHort ecophysiology platform to study the innate ability of different apple genotypes to tolerate high light and heat. Prof Lee Kalcsits of Washington State University is a collaborator on the project and participated on the project while visiting South Africa on his sabbatical. Dr Tara Southey of TerraClim launched a pilot project to determine the possibility of developing suitability maps for new plum cultivars.

    Jason Ladegourdie’s project showed how Packham Triumph growers may benefit from draped nets while Tara Southey generated high resolution topographical and climatic maps for the EGVV, Langkloof and Ceres production regions. These maps can be of great assistance in site selection for new plantings.

    EXPERTISE: GROWING SEASON CLIMATE WORKGROUP

    Research Team

    • Prof Wiehann Steyn
    • Dr Elke Crouch
    • Dr Tara Southey
    • Prof Stephanie Midgley
    • Dr Esmé Louw
    • Dr Iwan Labuschagne
    • Prof Lee Kalcsits
    • Prof Adriaan van Niekerk
    • Mr Handré Viljoen
    • Ms Heleen Tayler
    • Mr Handré Viljoen
    • Mr Jason Ladegourdie
    • Ms Chantelle Smit
    • Ms Portia Solomon– MSc student
    • Ms Cara du Toit – MSc student
    • Ms Ineke de Jong – MSc student
    • Ms Roswitha Serfontein – MSc student
    • Mr Tristan Dorfling – MSc student

    Projects list

    • Understanding heat and light tolerance of different apple genotypes planted in three contrasting climates (E Louw, I Labuschagne, L Kalcsits and R Serfontein)
    • Assessment of effectiveness of sunburn protectants on apples fixed shade nets (I de Jong)
    • Suitability study for the South African deciduous fruit industry focusing on climate adapted plums (pilot study) (T Southey and A van Niekerk) - see Dormancy
    • Role of growing region temperature and cooling rate on ‘Cripps’ Pink’ membrane lipid oxidation, antioxidant levels and internal browning (H Tayler) - see Storage Techniques
    • Internal browning of ‘Cripps Pink’ apples – effect of growing region temperature on radial browning and effect of canopy position on long-term storage quality (E Crouch, H Tayler and I de Jong)
    • Adaptability indexing of pome (apple and pear) and stone fruit (plum) cultivars in diverse South African growing areas (I Labuschagne, E Louw, P Solomon, C du Toit and T Dorfling) - see Dormancy
    • Evaluate the effect of drape nets on the overall plum fruit quality (H Viljoen)
    • Quantification of the effect of near-harvest temperatures on pitburn and heat damage in cold stored plums and prediction method development (H Viljoen)
    • Climate Change Response Strategy for the Deciduous Fruit Industry of South Africa. (S Midgley)
    • Evaluation of the effect of drape nets on pear quality and productivity (J Ladegourdie)
    • Climate profiling and change analysis of the Elgin-Grabouw-Vyeboom-Villiersdorp (EGVV), Koue Bokkeveld (KBV) and Langkloof (LK) production areas specific to Pome fruit (T Southey) - see Dormancy
    • Historic and future modelling and mapping of early season temperature patterns and extremes, and impacts for pome and stone fruit production in South Africa (S Midgley)
    • Adaptability indexing of cherry cultivars in diverse South African growing areas (I Labuschagne, E Louw, C van Wyk, K Vahrmeijer) - see Dormancy
    • Enabling the calculation of carbon sequestration in the Confronting Climate Change Initiative's online carbon calculator (C Smit)
    • Hortgro Technical Symposium – 3 June 2024
      
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