It's time to plan for winter

Before we know it, winter will be upon us. Make sure you are properly prepared to help your crops withstand the first frost, says Bill Kerr.

- Bill Kerr

With South Africa’s long summers, vegetable growers sometimes put off preparing for winter until it is almost upon them. Farmers cannot stop the cold, of course, but they can make timely decisions to ensure they are better off when it arrives. And with climate change, it pays to be well prepared: our summers seem to be getting warmer and winters colder.

I farm in Henley on Klip, just east of Meyerton in Gauteng, and found the past winter, for example, to be the coldest I have experienced in a long, long while. I’ve had pumpkin fly on my cucurbits for the past 23 years, but with the very low temperatures of this past winter, this pest was absent for the first time ever. Areas with very cold winters don’t get pumpkin fly.

FARM MANAGEMENT IN WINTER