We provide a comprehensive, evidence based, and affordable service for all your crop needs

SERVICES

SERVICES: Our current services are for citrus, avocados and mangos. This encompasses climate, soil and irrigation water suitability, land preparation and soil amendments, rootstocks, varieties, plant spacing, plant nutrition, training/pruning, fruit set manipulation, harvesting and post-harvest management. We welcome existing projects needing dedicated technical input as well as new ones.

Fruit Peel Quality Enhancement

FRUIT PEEL QUALITY ENHANCEMENT is usually achieved through the use of plant growth regulators (PGR’s) although for citrus certain formulations of Calcium takes care of all the physiological disorders of the peel. In the case of avocados, balancing nutrients in the peel is a key to avoid post-harvest anthracnose development. Details will be available to growers registered with Fruitech’s consultancy services.

Irrigation Scheduling

IRRIGATION SCHEDULING. This reduces wastage of water and smartly directs irrigation where it is needed. After field mapping using the latest in drone technology, I can use a remote sensing service to provide a daily report on the soil moisture status of each field. This is a very sustainable, allowing you to irrigate only those fields that need it, taking the guess work out of your irrigation scheduling and allowing you to make the best use of water. Correct irrigation, along with correct nutrition makes up two very important aspects of growing your fruits. This service can also alert you to the presence of disease infections in your crop

Pruning

PRUNING is very useful for light penetration to encourage fruit set within the canopy but also allows easier penetration of foliar applied nutrients and pesticides. With citrus I still work with window pruning whereas with avocados it depends on the state of the tree canopy. I provide training on this.

Crop Nutrition

CROP NUTRITION has traditionally been based on soil and leaf tissue analysis and visual symptoms. However, by the time you see such symptoms the crop has already lost some of it’s yield potential. I can guide growers in the use of leaf sap analysis; unlike leaf tissue sampling, sap analysis tells you what is going on in your plant at that moment. It can also give you a good indication of what pests or diseases are likely to affect your crop.

Soil Health Assessment

SOIL HEALTH ASSESSMENT: It is now unanimously accepted that if you look after your soil health, the soil will look after the plants. One important aspect is soil microbiome. I can provide a kit which not only measure the soil microbiome but can also differentiate between the fungal and bacterial components which then allows you to amend the soil accordingly. This on-farm test costs only a fraction of a lab test.

Many more...

I have a breadth of experience with an array of techniques to ensure growers produce maximum volumes of fruit. Get in touch

Let's see if we should work together.

Successfully introduced new crops to large growers
Depth and breadth of experience from rootstock and soil to irrigation, disease management and pruning
Led by latest evidence based scientific principles and techniques
Track record of increasing yields by over 25%

Years of quality control experience with importers, with an eye for identifying and managing pathology at the source
Years of work in citrus and avocado growing
Track record of successful disease control of disorders caused by newly imported pathogens
Fluent in over six international languages