Micro-cloning powers SA avocado production

Allesbeste Nursery, established in the 1980s, has been expanded many times. Yet the end is still not in sight, according to Zander Ernst, the company's director of marketing and production. Magda du Toit asked him about the history of Allesbeste and its pioneering efforts to improve South Africa's avocado production.

- Magda du Toit

Allesbeste Nursery, which lies near Tzaneen in Limpopo, has become a force in South Africa's avocado industry and an exporter of trees to many countries.

FAST FACTS

Allesbeste Nursery supplies clonal rootstock avocado trees to growers in South Africa, other African countries, the Philippines, Thailand, Spain, Lebanon and elsewhere.

It takes an average of five months to produce a new clonal rootstock.

The main cultivars available from the nursery are Hass, Lamb Hass, Maluma, Pinkerton, Ryan and Fuerte.

The growing of trees from seedlings or clones is a crucial step in fruit production. The way in which trees are propagated, handled and managed in a nursery contributes not only to their survival rate after planting, but their subsequent growth performance and uniformity, which in turn affects fruit-bearing.

A number of nurseries in South Africa supply local and international avocado producers with trees. One of these is the Allesbeste Nursery situated in the picturesque Magoebaskloof area near Tzaneen in Limpopo.

The nursery was established in the 1980s by the late Dr André Ernst and is currently managed by Llewellyn van Zyl. Certified by the Avocado Nurserymen's Association, the nursery is recognized for providing superior-quality avocado trees and currently holds an ANA five-star grading for its quality and hygiene standards.

According to Zander Ernst, director of marketing and production at Allesbeste, the avocado industry has identified a number of production pitfalls over the past couple of years that directly affect tree health and productivity.