The story continues …
If you missed Part One of this epic revisit to JAFF 8, catch up here .
CHEMICAL DAMAGE
Last year JAFF noticed discolouration in indigenous tree leaves along one side of the farm. A little while later the macs on that side – Beaumonts – stared shedding a concerning amount of desiccated flowers. He didn’t, at that stage, connect the two. Instead he assumed the flowers were symptoms of a water shortage issue and took the irrigation team to task.
Their emphatic consolation that this was nothing to do with irrigation made JAFF wonder what else could be happening … he linked the indigenous tree issue, on the same side of the farm, and considered whether the problem may have come from ‘over the fence’.
JAFF’s farm closed over the pay day weekend at the end of August and he went away for 2 weeks. When he came back, and looked at the farm from the north, he could see that half the trees (half of each tree) was yellow on the west side and green on the east side. Highly perplexed that they had done something wrong, he phoned his agronomist who advised him to spray magnesium and zinc which he did, on the whole tree. (This farm is prone to magnesium shortages). Post harvest ferts had all been applied but then there was quite a long dry spell. They were worried that the ferts hadn’t been available to the trees because of the lack of rain.
When the magnesium and zinc foliars didn’t work, the agronomist came out and immediately identified it as chemical damage. JAFF recalled his initial thoughts about possible over-spray from the cane farm and contacted the neighbour. They confirmed that they had changed herbicides in 2022, to a pre-emergent herbicide that’s typically sprayed in winter. It then lies inactive until the Spring rains. Despite thorough testing, no active ingredients were picked up on JAFF’s farm and the suppliers said that the trees “would grow out of the damage”.
Clear discolouration in the indigenous forest Pigeon-wood, from the chlomazone.
JAFF takes immense pride and places significant importance on the natural areas he maintains on the farm. To see it poisoned is beyond frustrating.
Understandably, JAFF was incensed by the damage, and the unknown effects it would have on his quality and yield as well as the long-term tree health. The product label, for the suspected poison, says that neither avo nor macs should be planted in soil this chemical has been used on for 24 months after application; which shows how toxic it is to these trees, and for an extended period!
But, the damage has been done. “The chemical concerned has been ‘pulled’ though,” says JAFF, “and exclusions added to the spray ‘rules’.” It is now not permitted within 500m of a boundary.
JAFF says that calibration is a huge factor in drift (smaller droplets travel further) and needs to be considered; especially if there’s a breeze.
New flush is coming through after the chemical burn.
Anyway, it’s nigh impossible to quantify the damage caused by this incident (or many incidents) but JAFF has seen his 816 yield drop by about 40%.
He sprayed 5l/hectare of a popular mix onto the affected trees (mixture of micro & macro trace elements as well as hormones and enzymes).
During this investigation, JAFF did extensive soil testing and found something (unrelated) interesting and concerning; “I haven’t used these fungicides for 4 years but traces of pyraclostrobin (a Qol inhibitor) and boscalid (SDHI carboxamide) were found in our soils. That just shows how dangerous these chemicals are and I believe that, because they affect soil health, they affect yield.”
SCOUTING
By now you know that JAFF advocates Scouting; “there’s simply no other way to fully determine what is going on in the orchards and that information is the basis of your next move,” he says, “operating by a calendar makes absolutely no sense as it is based on human timing, omitting any of the innumerable factors affecting insect (and other) life and what’s actually happening in the orchard.”
So, how’s he do it? By developing Scouting specialists … there’s a ‘knock down’ team plus 4 people just walking around all day, every day. These specialists have learnt where the hotspots are. “Every farm will have weak zones,” says JAFF, “for us it’s damp zones where the roots struggle with too much moisture, zones where pruning was a problem and the trees are too high. It’s also slopes where penetration issues are revealed.” What JAFF’s saying is that wherever your farming is below standard, you’ll have ‘Nature’ pointing it out …
I can almost hear her … “Come on chaps, let’s end the misery of these drowning avos; make space for a few mangroves rather.”
“Ooo – look, a small attic where you’ll be safe from the spray. Just wait up here guys; they’ll be gone soon.”
JAFF says there’s an undeniable correlation between soil health or nutrition issues and insect hot spots. “Stressed trees call insects,” says JAFF, “Insects are the planets clean-up crew. Like vultures over a dying animal.” He then says something that I found quite profound, “Killing the vultures is not going to fix the dying animal.” And yet, if you take that analogy into the farming context, that’s exactly what we continue to do!
As we drive out onto the farm to start taking pictures, we come across JAFF’s scout who has a few containers of his findings.
While JAFF does what he can to address these ‘weaknesses’, there are some areas that are plagued regardless, and he’s been unable to figure out the cause. So, these hot spots are monitored manually by the ‘walkers’; they’ll physically remove egg clusters and catch adults.
On a more structured level, JAFF will ‘Chemical Scout’ (use a knock down spray) 1 tree per hectare. They start on a Monday by placing shade cloth under the target trees. Tuesday morning, at 3am, the trees are sprayed. The guys come back in for roll call and then go back out and collect whatever’s fallen from the tree. Wednesday and Thursday; the same process is repeated on another section of the farm. There were a total of 84 hectares under production last year with another 6 hectares not yet in production. These 90 hectares are broken into 3 scouting areas.
They bring whatever they catch back to the office so that JAFF can learn; stage of maturity, sex, fungal infections, health, egg carriers. All this info is recorded and decisions based on the changes week on week.
And what are those decisions? “Not chemicals,” says JAFF, “we are doing everything we can to avoid those.” Instead they use biological controls including parasitoids, fungi and bacteria.
Here’s a 2-spot male on right and a female on the left. JAFF saw me looking at him doubtfully … I mean, wouldn’t you also choose the one with the ‘pocket’ as the female? So JAFF proved his claim by exposing the boy-bits – pic below. Hopefully we’ve all learnt something!
Despite the fact that JAFF believes biologically is the ONLY way to farm for the long term, he does share that it’s a complete mind-shift from chemical spraying, “You can’t just change from chemicals to biologicals, it’s more than that; working with Nature requires a complete understanding of what you’re dealing with and what you’re using as a control.”:
- Rain is a problem because it washes the fungus away. He says you can use penetrants but there may be side effects when you mix things together.
- Fungi are heat sensitive so it’s best to spray at night; this brings its own set of challenges.
- Accuracy is vital ie: you have to know what stage of development aligns with the control you’re using eg: don’t send out wasps when there are no eggs.
- Accuracy in terms of volumes and application is also critical; because you’re not dealing with a pyrethroid that kills indiscriminately and broadly, you need to keep going back and assessing efficacy. Be prepared to reapply if you missed the mark.
Despite the ‘natural way’ sounding like a lot more effort; it’s also not … “If you just continue trying to simulate a natural environment as much as is possible in the ‘unnatural’ environment of farming, Nature will do a lot of the work for you,” says JAFF, “we’ve already seen the ecosystem developing beyond what we can take credit for in terms of birds and snakes and those creatures that indicate a developing system of smaller creatures that will ensure balance on some level.”
When assessing the efficacy of your spray, examine the stink bugs you catch in the scout. These are both unhealthy (ineffective) stink bugs; indicators of effective sprays. The one on the left had a completely empty stomach area; it just caved in when JAFF pressed. “And you can see by the blackness around the rear-end of the one on the right, that the fungi are working to kill it,” says JAFF. (these are 2-spot stink bugs)
Because an EFFECTIVE fungi spray is so much more challenging than a chemical one, I asked JAFF for a few pointers:
“Use a WELL-calibrated mist blower at night,” he replied, “you can even do it late afternoon because UV levels then are less than in the morning but don’t leave it for sun-up.” Because you want to give the fungi every chance to take effect before the UV rays start weakening them rather start early and finish early (in the night).
“Also, don’t spray in the wind (anything over 10kms per hour),” warns JAFF. Because mist blowers literally make wind, I have to ask an amateur question; “why’s the wind a problem?” JAFF scowls at me and I shrink as I recall the chemical drift nightmare he’s still living.
“It’s not only farming etiquette it’s also best for your results,” says JAFF, “if you spray in the wind, one outcome is that one side of all the trees will have a get a higher application and the other half may get too little.” Pic credits to https://sprayers101.com/
Dispelling myths: Fungi, in spore form, are almost indestructible. As soon as it germinates, it’s more fragile but not nearly as delicate as the industry believes them to be. Without the necessary guidelines, some brain surgeons would end up spraying in 40°C heat, in a highly exposed environment, and then questioning why it didn’t work! Unfortunately, these guidelines have also made some people nervous about handling ‘live’ weapons. JAFF reminds us that husk rot and blossom blight are also fungi and yet they survive in the orchards so, the control fungi will survive too. “An orchard is a great environment for fungi,” says JAFF, “it works well so using it beneficially is a great strategy. Be careful about taking too much of the misinformation around biologicals on board,” he warns.
JAFF has really refined this spray thing and offers some more advice, “I use ethapon on Beaumonts and 788 (to reduce stick-tights at harvest time). I’ve noticed that efficacy improves the earlier in the morning we spray.” This is because the night air is dense and holds the spray down, in the tree canopy. “If you spray later, at 9 or 10am, you can literally watch your spray droplets rising up, over the trees and into the atmosphere.”
As a result, JAFF doesn’t like to spray anything during the day. Nights are generally less windy and cooler and lots of sprays have a temperature limit as well. “For all these reasons, we’ve just always sprayed everything at night.”
CURRENT CHALLENGES
JAFF says, “We’ve only got 2-spots in the 816s and 788s at the moment and two small areas in the Beaumonts BUT, Beautmonts & 814s are full up with coconut bug.” Coconut bug started being a problem last year after only minor appearances in the two seasons prior. JAFF explains that the 2-spot is dominant and you won’t find them don’t living together.
Green Coconut bug
Coconut bug – one clearly suffering from some trauma.
And this one; we didn’t know exactly what it is – clearly a stink bug but his branch of the family tree is clearly a little smaller than the ones we’ve become familiar with. JAFF warns that we should be cautious about painting all stink bugs with the same ‘pest’ label; “You can tell, from a stink bug’s mouth parts, what it’s feeding on. There are predatory stink bugs; their mouth parts are short and stubby whereas the plant feeders have long thin mouth parts.” Yet another reason to scout and investigate THOROUGHLY lest you destroy your potential allies.
So what value does JAFF derive from all this intense scouting and record keeping? “My aim is to ‘know the enemy’. That way I can find better ways to manage it in a way that doesn’t bite me in the butt down the line,” says JAFF, “I mean, come on, we’re smarter than them so why can’t we beat them?” JAFF believes that there’s opportunity for a lot more research into macadamia orchard life and how that can be managed holistically and sustainably. “But, as long as that isn’t happening, I’m going to find out as much as I can on my own!” he smiles.
START SOMEWHERE
JAFF says that, if you are not ready to let go of your pyrethroids, then consider putting a biological with it (metarizium or bavarium). He’s thinking about the high prevalence of pest-resistance to main-stream poisons lately. “Or, if after over-using pyrethroids, you end up with a thrips or mielie bug problem, the biological will help with that.” He says that fungi can be mixed in a tank with a pyrethroid without damage to the fungi.
TIMING
Based on the bug-haul on JAFF’s desk the morning I was there, which worked out to be 1 bug per tree/hectare, JAFF has made the decision to spray because the issue is widespread, not only in his normal hot spots. He’s also trying to cover off on MNB at the moment because there’s been a bit of egg-laying from that pest.
JAFF has found that pest numbers have definitely come down since adopting the new approach but still has questions; “Is it the biologicals? Or is it the diversified environment?” eg: they’ve found quite a few Tachina flies lately, “We haven’t intentionally introduced these but they are known to control stink bug numbers by laying their eggs in the stink bug; it’s like a growth; not a quick death but death nonetheless.” This is fascinating and just adds to the belief that there’s more at work out there than we know or appreciate.
Besides lower numbers of mac-damaging life, overall, since going biological, JAFF has also identified other pattern changes, “the Coconut bug numbers are up; which might be a good thing because, when they disappear, they’re usually replaced by the aggressive and destructive swarms of 2-spots.” He hopes that’s an encouragement to anyone ‘on the fence’ about going green.
Pre-season ‘orchard cleaning’ is quite common on many mac farms, using a systemic drench. But factory data, claiming that early stink bug damage is higher than late damage, brings the efficacy of this approach into question. The misalignment prompted JAFF to ask the distributor for trial data on these chemicals; his motive being that perhaps application was incorrect … the label says to ‘apply around the tree trunk’ but that isn’t where the feeder roots are so perhaps application instructions were wrong? Anyway, he still hasn’t managed to see the trial reports. Last year JAFF applied the first of the two recommended doses but decided to abandon the second. This year, despite doing NO drenches, he thinks his insect numbers are down overall. JAFF does concede that this might just be the season as each one is different.
I snuck the ‘scouting haul’ home once JAFF had recorded it, so I could get some pictures as everything hatched …
The fact that there’s an exfoliated exoskeleton tells me that these baby stink bugs are second instar.
PRACTICAL APPLICATION
Back to JAFF’s current situation i.e.: tonight’s spray. Despite the fact that many of the bugs were already infected by fungi, he’s still planning to spray … Why and what?
JAFF answers the ‘why’; “We have lots of fly-ins and need to nip that in the bud.” How does he distinguish a fly-in from a ‘resident’ ? “It’s strong and healthy,” replies JAFF, “we can see that the fungal programme has been effective because of the number of sick bugs so the healthy ones are fly-ins.” Now, if he could only tell where they came from …
Tonight, JAFF will spray two types of fungi and neem oil (this is a natural insect repellent and poison; it works by interfering with the insects’ navigation systems. Apparently none of these, except maybe the neem, will have a significant effect on other insects. As this concerned me a little, I did a bit of additional research … Neem seems to be sourced primarily from India although Kenya also grows a slightly different variant. Technically, Neem is a contact insecticide but does many other things too:
- It stresses the insect which helps the fungi work better and faster.
- It also mimics a hormone within the insect that can make it infertile.
- It also stops them moulting which doesn’t really affect the initial instars but as soon as it needs to change, and develop wings, for example, it can’t develop those wings. This obviously leads to death.
- Also a great repellent and has been used on race horses ‘forever’ to get rid of ticks etc.
Next week, JAFF hopes to see a decrease in numbers and health of the insects caught but he is playing catch up because he lost quite a few days to poor weather. He may have to persist with a few more fungal sprays before he gets on top of the current pressure. This week is better than last week though and, if it wasn’t for the added MNB pressure he’s seeing currently, he probably wouldn’t spray now.
JAFF has a tank that is about to be transformed into a lab … to test whether stink bugs eat sugar cane. “We already know that they feed on mielie stalks,” says JAFF, “because my wasp supplier feeds his brood of test lab stink bugs with that.” If we see that they eat the cane, it’ll explain a lot!
GROWING DIVERSITY
JAFF is excited about all the life on his farm and takes time to learn about everything, not just the ‘pests’. They have a lot of Lace Wings and also have Owlflies (JAFF’s been told it’s like having a lion in your orchard). He’s been able to verify them as residents when various life-cycle stages of this important insect were found on the farm (another benefit of scouting). “Not as many lady birds as I’d like but there are plenty spiders,” smiles JAFF.
Adult owlflies can be distinguished from other lacewings and similar insects by the long antennae (almost as long as the wing length) which have a large often bi-coloured club at the tip.
There are many species of owlfly and they’ll all eat whatever insect they can fit into their mandibles; hence their reputations as ‘lions’.
A little while ago, JAFF hosted an insect specialist, from a well-known Integrated Pest Management company, and a soil specialist, from the university, on the farm. They spent time in various areas of the farm collecting samples and assessing the environment. Interestingly, when the soil guy said the soil was great, the insect guy found that the insect numbers were low. Although it’ll take an official study to verify this it does make sense because good soil = healthy trees = less insect pressure (vultures).
MACADAMIA NUT BORER
JAFF’s trialling something interesting here; they’ve put up traps, loaded with pheromone but, instead of using metarizium they’ve just left water. The test is whether this is as effective, i.e.: is the water as effective in drowning them as the fungi is in killing them?
COPPER OXYCHLORIDE VS COPPER SOAP
This is a big one for all the avo farmers out there as well … as JAFF’s advisor tells it, there’s no need to be using chemical copper when you can use an organic version; copper soap. “Yes, it is more expensive per litre,” he says, “but not per application because you use 5l of the oxychloride version vs only 2l of the soap.” The copper soap is apparently absorbed by the plant within 2 hours and there is no degradation to soil health.
It seems that the price-per-litre is off-putting to a lot of would-be biological farmers but, if they were to use a cost per RESULT, the choices might be different. JAFF shares an example, “Let’s consider Blight … if you spray a fungicide, you may address the current infection but you’ll also degrade the soil fungal system and the result will be more harmful fungi infecting your flowers; you’ll get stuck in the cycle of needing to spray perpetually. Now, consider using a biologically friendly option, like a bacteria, together with copper soap, to address the Blight (a fungus). The (unpoisoned) soil will improve and eventually be able to control any harmful fungi, like Blight, thereby reducing your need to spray at all.”
JAFF shared some further insight: “Understanding how bacteria works is helpful; it doesn’t kill anything; it lands on a flower and it wants to colonise the flower so it secretes polypeptides (toxins) that stop fungal growth (this is it’s natural design). Any new fungi will then land and die. Copper is then applied, is absorbed by the tree, which it uses to get rid of any fungal infection inside the tree.”
He goes on, “Fungi is actually the simplest thing in nature to control because they all operate in exactly the same way which has been dictated throughout natural history. It has never evolved.” JAFF enthusiastically adds that he’s not just talking here; he’s witnessed the power of bacteria, “we’ve actually been able to SAVE flowers. With fungicides, we would possibly stop the spread but the affected racemes would have been lost. But, by using bacteria, the affected racemes were saved. That’s besides the incredible difference in preserving the environment.”
I’ve heard that pruning and airflow is integral to controlling Blight and asked about that. “Pruning is not a game changer with fungi – yes, additional airflow helps but, additional airflow also brings in the spore. Think of the life cycle of the ‘creature’ it is … it will feed whether it has airflow or not. It also needs airflow to ‘breathe’ so you’re not going to solve fungal infections with airflow/pruning. Pruning is for nut set,” clarifies JAFF.
THE WORST IDEA EVER
“Contact fungicide is the worst idea humans have ever come up with,” declares JAFF, “It is broad spectrum and therefore kills everything. This creates a vacuum. Nature is very clever in the way that it rebuilds a vacuum. It doesn’t care what, or even if, you sprayed; it just sees the vacuum and rebuilds that. The first things that come back are generally the bad things; the strong things, the things that breed quickly in your environment where the food source is. So, when you spray to kill, you’re making the situation worse because, when a vacuum plus an opportunity (perfect environment for what you’re trying to kill) meet, you’re about to get a hiding!”.
JAFF suggests that you rather try to understand your ‘pest’; how, why, when, what and where it feeds, rests, mates, reproduces – that’s when you’ll find the opportunities to attack smartly. “We’re the top of the food chain for goodness sake,” swears JAFF, “we need to elevate ourselves in terms of the warfare we’re fighting.” His frustration stems from us doing more of the same thing year in year out and expecting a different outcome or, worse still, being okay with the environmental havoc we’re creating.
BUT WHY?
Ever the ‘nature freak’ I remember being put back in my lane by a wise doctor one day when I whined about getting ‘unnatural’ medication. She reminded me that many of the most harmful drugs in the world are derived from ‘natural’ sources; dagga was her leading example but I also thought about heroin, which uses opium, a substance from the poppy flower. The reason I raise this is because it may not be wise to assume something is harmful because it’s synthetic and unharmful because it’s natural. What might be wise to consider is the effect that your weapon has on the environment as a whole. In unnatural environments – something like hydrponics maybe – unnatural remedies may be the answer but, for anything natural, surely Nature has the right controls that have been around for millions of years and we just need to use those?
Consider using a weapon that is highly targeted, like metarizium, which is harmless until triggered by a compound in the stomach. It therefore only kills insects that feed on plants whereas broad band pesticides kill anything that has chitin in the exoskeleton (which is ALL insects).
JAFF says that habitat is vital in a green approach; especially in an orchard. “If you allow for the grass and plants to grow up in the interrow, 90% of the insects will live there rather than in the trees,” he guarantees.
And that’s enough!
I’m so grateful that JAFF invited me back to his farm and has been willing to share his learnings of the last 4 years; it all got me thinking A LOT!
When I was gushing my new-found wisdom all over another farmer I interviewed just last week, he managed to help me find my lane again when he reminded me that farmers are tasked with producing, not with restoring the environment. Obviously, no one wants to harm the environment but neither does anyone want to risk their farms with unproven theories. I sincerely hope that JAFF’s pioneering courage has shown you that it does work! Yes, it takes effort and the planet is hoping you find the capacity to invest that effort.
If nothing else, I hope it’s opened up options in your world.
And then there’s just a couple more pearls that I gathered off JAFF’s farm that didn’t seem to fit into the main story …
UNUSUAL STAKING TECHNIQUE
Whilst driving around the farm I spotted something I’ve never seen before; a very different way of ‘staking’ …
A very unusual way of staking. Well away from the root system. Secured in two, opposite directions. JAFF says, ideally, the tie on the left (top pic) should be a little higher. The ties are stretchy, “a little more expensive but worthwhile,” says JAFF. He explains that he stakes to make sure the tree grows straight rather than for wind protection.
ETHAPON DOSAGES
JAFF has tried ethapon on the 816s, at 1lt per ha, basically just to soften it without discolouring. The rate on the 788’s is about 1,5 lt per ha. 2,5lt/ha on Beaumonts. JAFF says, “814s just don’t like ethapon so I don’t even try.” They harvest 814s last so it’s not really necessary anyway.
REMOVING BEAUMONT FLOWERS
JAFF says he’s probably unique in that he removes Beaumont flowers that are out of sync. This means he harvests ONE nut set. That way he’s not risking immatures (nuts that set in December – when will they mature?) – or pre-germ (ones that have hung too long) taking down his quality standards. He also keeps the dehusking machine cleaner as immature Beaumonts have an incredible stickiness that gums up (and slows down) the equipment.
JAFF now makes it a rule to wait for the main flowering and he takes those nuts through to harvest. All subsequent flowering, after main nut set, is removed.
SUPPLEMENTARY NUTRITION
Compost is made from the mac husks to which a broad range of macro and micro trace elements are added, together with plant stimulating hormones and enzymes inc fish hydrolysates. This is used to supplement poor soils where necessary.
SILICA – In JAFF’s last story he was saying that silica helps with whole kernel (keeping the kernels from breaking up in processing) but he says, “I’ve since learnt that this isn’t necessarily true but I do still use it on sick trees, with a number of other inputs, as required.”
JAFF says, “We’re very different here; even in our approach to nutrition … we watch for a change in the results of leaf samples … so we’ll apply and then test again a few weeks later. Based on whether the application addressed the deficiency or not will define what that next application is.” This testing is ongoing.
PS:
When I sent this story to JAFF for proofreading, he came back saying, “Unfortunately, soon after your visit, we had the heaviest stinkbug pressure that I’ve ever experienced in my whole career. Hindsight tells me that I should have helped the biologicals with some pyrethroids.”
Because I am so eager to encourage a passive approach, I briefly considered not publishing that but, TropicalBytes is all about sharing the truth of what, how, where, when and why top farmers do what they do – unfiltered – so here’s JAFF’s truth; “Therefore, my results are not that great this season. I feel rather embarrassed especially as I have promoted ‘going green’ so passionately. I know in my heart that we struggled with stressed trees (from the poisoning) which caused most of my issues but I should have been more aggressive.”
And there it is folks; from a man whose whole heart is for environmental wellbeing and sustainable farming. Sometimes that includes doing what we don’t want to do because, at the end of the day, we’re farming for profit!
Until next time – God Bless!