South African Avocado Growers’ Association

2014 Yearbook

Volume 37

Table of Contents

5          Chairman’s Report
M Baker

GENERAL

9          Making the grade – are we still exporting good quality avocados?
R Nelson

16        35 Years of SAAGA Yearbooks: a review
R Blakey

POSTHARVEST

18        Returning South African export ‘Pinkerton’ fruit to mid-2000’s quality
FJ Kruger and D Lemmer

30        Refinement of the currently used moisture content based maturity determination procedure
FJ Kruger, D lemmer, P Pierterse, J Steyn and B Nzanza

36        Calibrating irrigation on avocado using plant and soil based measurements” Where do we currently stand and what is the way forward?
NJR Roets, SP Schoeman, RB Cronje, NR Murovhi and IM Ratlapane

44        Semi-commercial testing of handheld NIR to determine avocado maturity. Progress report – Year 4
R Blakey

ENTOMOLOGY

48        Monitoring and damage of stink bugs on avocado
PS Schoeman

HORTICULTURE

56        Irrigation design and scheduling influence the ripening patterns of avocado fruit
FJ Kruger and D Lemmer

62        Oil content of the commercial avocado varieties and the relationship with moisture and ripening pattern
J Bezuidenhout and C Bezuidenhout

66        Reducing environmental stress to increase avocado yield and fruit quality
R Blakey, M Savage, S Tesfay, C Malapana and E Mazhawu

PATHOLOGY

69        An overview of avocado sunblotch viroid disease in South Africa from 2008 to 2013
D Ncango, Z Dlamini and N Zulu

75        Evaluation of alternative methods to stem injections to apply phosphonate to avocado trees for Phytophthora control, i.e. bark and soil penetrants to enhance phosphonate uptake. Preliminary report
JJ Serfontein, J Liebenberg and M Grobler

79        In vitro sensitivity of South African Phytophthora cinnamomi to phosphite at different phosphate concentrations
J Ma and A McLeod