IFTASAfrica2024

 Three nights in Cape Town, six nights in Stellenbosch, three nights in Makhanda (eastern Cape). Plus two nights flying between Newark and Cape Town = two weeks gone on my South African venture. Thanks to an International Fruit Tree Association Study Tour plus optional Safari all capably honchoed by Onward Travel. I'll try to highlight some take-homes from each South African orchard we visited and a bit about my Safari -- it was wonderful -- at the end. But first, some general observations about South Africa:

• It seemed big, with lots of jutting rocks (mountains). Rugged terrain, largely uninhabited. Mountain ranges traveresed by hairpin turns and a long(ish) tunnel.
• The disparity in income was evidenced by homes surrounded by razor wire and electric fence interspersed by metal "shanty" towns. Unemployment is 40%. One must be watchful when out and about in Cape Town, however, the University town Stellenbosch seemed relatively "safe."
• Tourism has become the economy of choice along the "Garden Route" of the southeastern South African coast, although it extended towards western Cape Town with many wineries and other tourist attractions. Think whale watching, zip lines, foodie-oriented venues, horseback riding, fat-tire bike dune riding, and of course Safaris.
• In general, the service was excellent, I suspect people covet their jobs, and the USD was strong compared to the South African rand so most everything seemed like a good deal.
• South African fruit production -- despite it all being exported at relatively low margins -- was quite advanced in infrastructure and attention to quality and sustainability. At least that is what we were shown.

OK, enough of that, on to the orchard tours which I will break down by day.

Days 2 and 3 (Day 1 was arrival in Cape Town) - Well, not an orchard tour but a couple days in Cape Town and vicinity after a long day of travel for many. Including an aerial cable car ride up Table Mountain, a visit to the Company's Garden, and a guided tour of the Cape Peninsula, including Cape of Good Hope and penguins!

Cape Town from Table Mountain

The oldest cultivated pear tree in South Africa at Company's Garden, Cape Town

Day 4 - Le Roux Group, Sandrivier Estate, Wellington. Plums. Covered production to keep fruit unblemished (wind and sunburn), and a brand new packhouse featuring tate-of-the-art post-harvest cooling and a brand new packing line (although it was not running at the time). Commitment to self-energy production and sustainability throughout the process. Pretty much a WOW! introduction to South Africa fruit growing. Even though I am not really into plums. Because they are hard to grow here! OK, it's time to say there are more pics in my IFTA SAfrica 2024 Flick photo album.

Espalier? plums at Le Roux Group, Sandrivier Estate

Day 5 - Dutoit Agri, outside of Ceres (kind of an economic hub). Three hours out of Stellenbosh, including those mountain ranges/hairpin turns/long tunnel. Felt rather remote. Big country. Apples. More apples. Cherries. All pretty much covered production to prevent sunburn and fruit blemishes. Fruit surface needs to be nearly perfect for export. Covers included drape-net style, some not fully deployed (yet) and whole orchard covers. Before I forget, somewhat depending on soil types, which were quite variable, a lot of berming up orchard rows. Cherries were quite lovely, some approaching harvest. These guys were pretty much on top of all things over their 2,500 acres of production. Here we learmed M7 was/is the common apple rootstock, also MM109. Yea, kind of semi-vigorous so growth control -- ringing, root pruning -- was a topic of discussion. Some interest in Geneva rootstocks, but this is arguably "ranching" and the semi-vigorous rootstocks are still working for them.

Willie Kotze all about apples at Dutoit Agri. Note covers to prevent sunburn, defects.

Nice, young sweet cherry orchard at Dutoit. Once, again, note covered production.

Day 6 - a half-day visit to Chiltern Farms in the Vyeboom Valley. Some interesting stuff going on here, mostly looked at apples, ringing (to control growth), whole tree branch grafting to convert a vigrous apple orchard to another producing variety in one year, innovative way to ameliorate blind wood issues (see Flickr album), and BigBucks Gala 💰 LOL. (BigBucks is marketed as Flash GalaTM). CEO/managing director interestingly said, despite labor being cheap, it's still an economic issue with goal to reduce by 2% year-to-year. More dwarfing rootstocks, M9, might be the anwer to that with increased efficiency. Did I mention there is absolutely no fire blight in South Africa. Huh?

'Bigbucks' Gala apple trees at Chiltern farms

Day 8 (Day 7 was a day trip to Hermanus where I went sea kaying) - Two-A-Day (TAD) Group, Oewerzicht Farm near Greyton. In a river valley, and a bit of an escape "cottage-resort" in additon to the orchard. Again, a lot going on here, including rootstick trials sponsored by Provar, and their own 'TAD' research orchard. Interesting to note a big flood several years back had standing water in the orchard for a month but the trees seemed not too weary for the wear. This is a hot growing area, and lack of winter chill is an issue that is getting worse. Not sure where it was said, but climate change (global warming) is one of their biggest growing concerns in South Africa.

'Drapenet'-like covered trees at TAD, however, I believe it was Chinese-made netting

Geneva 757 rootstock being trialed at TAD experimental orchard

Day 9 - Oudenwagendrift Farm in the Nuy Valley. Yea, stone fruit instead of more apples. Once again, whole orchard covers to keep wind down, and most nectarines being grown to an in-row 'V' vs. across-row 'Perpendicular-V'. Might have better light distrubition in the former vs. latter? I guess my take-home is we should just give up growing stone fruit here in the Northeast as this was a pretty great place to grow the trees and fruit. Or maybe we should do all our stone fruit under covers of some way-shape-form? Now there is an idea! This half-day morning orchard tour was capped off with lunch at Nuy in the Hill restaurant and a stone-fruit tasting hosted by Provar, independent cultivar evaluation, using Culteva.

Bearing nectarine orchard at Oudenwagendrift Farm

Peach/nectarine cultivar evaluation using Provar 'Culteva' app

After five days of orchard tours, some of them kind of hot and sunny, and interspersed of course with some good food and sight-seeing, I ended up spending three nights at Woodbury Tented Camp near Makhandra in the Eastern Cape. Can't speak highly enough of it, including twice daily safari excursions, seeing most of the 'Big 5' and great food and service. Can't recommend it enough.

White rhinos at Amakhala Game Preserve/Woodbury Tented Camp

Post-safari evening dinner at Woodbury Tented Camp with new friends from Stemilt (Lyndsey and Alex) and Okaw Valley Orchard (Jennifer and master donut maker Mike)

Thanks of course to IFTA, Education Director Greg Lang, and the Onward couple Molly and Kat for putting this all together and pulling it off logistic-wise w/o any major incidents in what is quite the far-away foreign country. Well at least English was generally spoken. Should be on everyone's bucket list as long as you are in for the long plane ride!

More pics: IFTA SAfrica Flickr photo album

IFTA SAfrica group photo, Chiltern Farms, Day 6, December 7, 2024. Photo courtesy TJ Mullinax, Good Fruit Grower