Vegetables

"Sustainability requires us to adapt to, and adopt, new values and trading practices."

'You can't feed all those people with platinum, gold or computer chips.'

I am sure that anyone who grows onions has experienced bolting at some time or another if you haven't you're probably losing some of the crop's potential.

'Every farmer wants higher prices, but higher compared to which benchmark?' asks Mike Cordes.

'With sets you'll get a perfect stand regardless of the weather and be able to harvest earlier.'

Many vegetable crops fail due to a lack of nitrogen. Side dressing is a safe way of ensuring that plants get enough of this element, says Bill Kerr.

'The Chinese eat an average 440kg of vegetables per capita a year against a world average of 200kg.'

'Sunlight is the ultimate limiting factor. Water and nutrients will only optimise the limits set by day length.'

'Transplant shock will make the plants bulb at a small size, or go into hibernation.'

'Anybody can deliver to a market at any time - be it one unit or thousands.'

'Stick to what you know and make changes gradually over a few seasons,' writes Bill Kerr.

'Five buyers for an entire industry simply doesn't add up in a free market scenario,' writes Mike Cordes.

To many farmers and home gardeners, crop rotation is a holy grail – they’ll never plant the same crop consecutively in the same ground.

There’s nothing worse than not having success with your first crop, so choose one that is cheap and easy to grow. In other words, choose cabbage.

Last week I mentioned that halo blight thrives in cooler conditions and spreads very rapidly in wet ones.

Numerous failings within South Africa's land reform programme, and the uncertainties this is causing, have resulted in no new investment taking place on existing litchi farms.

For years I've been carrying on about the importance of using a fresh-produce commission market properly if you want it to work for you, so let's take a look at how you can get the most out of one.

Downy mildew is less of A problem in cabbage than it used to be. With resistant varieties available, susceptible varieties don't have to be planted in vulnerable areas any more.

The late Peter Venter captured the essence of fresh-produce markets when he said, "When a country needs to import most of its fresh produce, then it doesn't require markets to establish prices, as these will have been done by the importers and wholesalers who bought the fresh produce across the borders.

Clubroot really is a revolting disease -that's literally the reaction of any farmer who pulls out a sickly-looking plant and sees what the root system looks like. Clubroot is also destructive enough to wipe out a crop.