Question❓| Upskill 📚 | Information ℹ️ | Picture 📷 | Special Offer 🎁

Edition 12

👋 Hey TropicalBytes family, welcome to this week’s edition of Q.U.I.P.S.!

As the fastest-growing subtropical farming community out there, we're thrilled to be your BFF (Best Farming Friend), saving you hundreds of hours by unearthing hidden gems like actionable tips, practical knowledge, industry insights, and so much more - all with the end goal of equipping you for excellence and success.

Before we dive into today’s edition, our ask is for you to please share your own creative ideas, ask any burning questions you may have, or let us know which topics you’d love to see covered.

Remember, we’re here for you - the awesome TropicalBytes community!

Let's dive right in! 🚀

Estimated read time: 3 minutes

In Today’s Email:

• Q: What’s the Life Cycle of a Stink Bug in Days/Weeks/Months & When is it Best to Target Stink Bug through the Season? 🤔

• U: Custom Built, Mobile Pruning Trailer 🌳

• I: How Plants 'Eat’ - Part 3 (Finale) 🍽️ & Your Help is Needed! 🚧

• P: Giraffes In The Snow 🦒🌨️

• S: R500 Cash & A FREE Nutrition Deficiencies Poster 🎁

Question❓

What’s the Life Cycle of a Stink Bug in Days/Weeks/Months and When is it Best to Target Stink Bug through the Season?

Short answer: 

Insect life-cycles do not conform to human calendars, instead their development operates on heat units. Stink bugs, specifically, take around 338 heat units to mature from egg to adult. In ‘perfect’ conditions, 338 heat units is usually around 49 to 70 days. Under laboratory - controlled conditions (25 ± 2 °C, 20 ± 5 % relative humidity, 16 L : 8 D photoperiod) two spotted stink bugs can undergo up to 8 generations per year.

Although stink bugs can be targeted in each phase of their life-cycle (using different ‘weapons’ in each phase), they are particularly susceptible as eggs and nymphs because of their immobility in these stages. The life cycle of stink bugs aligns closely with tree phenology, making them active in orchards just before and throughout the season.

Long Answer: 

There are 3 distinct phases to be aware of in the life cycle of a stink bug; egg, nymph and adult. Nymphs progress through five stages, or ‘instars’, changing appearance each time as they develop into adults. The number of days each stage lasts can vary due to temperatures, necessitating meticulous observation by trained scouts to monitor the insects' population levels and developmental stages.

For further insight, refer below👇 which details; where to find each phase, when to find them, how to control them and what they look like.

(Note: For this purpose, we are using the stink bug most common in macs; the Two-spotted stink bug. This species was first discovered during the spring of 1984 in South Africa’s Limpopo province - only 40 years ago – so there's still much to learn about its behaviour and how to manage it in commercial crops.

1.) Eggs

• WHERE (to find them): Eggs are laid in clusters of about 14 on nuts, leaves, or stems.

• WHEN (to find them): Early Summer. Egg-laying starts from October through to late December in some regions.

• HOW (to control): Parasitoids (egg-eating wasps and flies) are allies worth engaging with i.e.: protect them, breed them.

• Visual: 👇

2.) Nymph

• WHERE (to find them): After about 7 days (depending on heat units), the first instar hatches from the eggs and stays near the empty shells. From 2nd instar onwards, they start feeding. These flightless nymphs form orchard hot spots as they are unable to disperse.

• WHEN (to find them): There are 3 well-defined nymphal peaks during November/December, January/February and April-July.

• HOW (to control): Fungicides can be used when the weather permits. Chemicals when the weather is too hot and dry.

• Visual: 👇

3.) Adult – Actively Feeding

• WHERE (to find them): Adult stink bugs rest in the tops of trees, descending to feed on the high sugar or oil content of nuts depending on the tree's phenology.

• WHEN (to find them): Autumn – Stink bugs feed on both undeveloped and mature nuts, causing what is typically referred to as 'early season' and 'late-season' damage.

• HOW (to control): Spray with fungicides or chemicals.

• Visual: 👇

4.) Adult - Hibernating

• WHERE (to find them): They are thigmotactic (preferring tight spaces), where their front and back thoraxes are in contact with something, such as tree crevices or soil.

• WHEN (to find them): Winter - As the season ends and the days begin to cool and shorten, stink bugs instinctively seek a place to hibernate.

• HOW (to control): Soil-based pathogens.

• Visual: 👇 Not quite but you get the point…

5.) Adult - Breeding

• WHERE (to find them): Our guess is as good as yours…

• WHEN (to find them): Spring - With the warming and lengthening of days post-winter, the stink bugs emerge, migrate if necessary, and commence mating.

• HOW (to control): Stink bug pheromones have not yet been identified so mating disruptions are not yet possible. Continued vigilance and control efforts are essential.

• Visual: No pic here, but we’re sure you can quite easily identify that.

Credits to: www.insectscience.co.za & www.fabinet.up.ac.za

⏰ Friendly Reminder: Got Any Questions? Submit Them Here to Be Answered.

Upskill 📚

Custom Built, Mobile Pruning Trailer 🌳

The only way to really mess up your pruning is by doing none at all.

As long as you’re pruning with a thoughtful strategy and technique you’re already on the winning team.

There are some JAFFs who aren’t just on the team - they’re leading it! In particular this one: → JAFF 12

Thanks to a tractor-drawn, pruning trailer. This game changer has masterfully shaped all of JAFF 12’s macs into a 'clover' shape which has proven to be highly effective for him.

👉 Discover why JAFF 12 has chosen this shape and learn how his pruning team use the platforms to deliver results (link)

⏰ Friendly Reminder: Share Your Own Creative Upskill Tips Here

Information ℹ️

How Plants ‘Eat’ - Part 3 (Finale)…

Last Week’s Recap: We navigated the route water takes in its skyward journey through a tree, powered by transpirational pull.

This Week: The final part of this series, where we will look at nutrient uptake in plants.

Here’s the 101: Plants feast on nutrients both from the air and soil. Oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon are delicately absorbed from the air through the leaves' microscopic stomata (mouth-like-pores on the leaf’s surface).

The rest of the plant's ‘diet’ is taken up from the water in the soil.

But how does this happen?

As with most of life’s little miracles, it’s a molecular process; H₂O, under the right conditions (with the help of CEC* and acidity), combines with the molecules of the elements to transport them into the plant via osmosis.

Nature, when left alone, is incredibly efficient at sustaining this process. But farming, being an ‘unnatural’ activity with its cycle of monocropping and continual removal of energy (and nutrients), deplete the soil, making it unable to sustain the heavy demands of agriculture. And that’s why farmers started fertilising.

More recently, we have realised that simply sprinkling the depleted elements on the soil doesn’t guarantee that the plants will absorb them. For that, there’s a magic ingredient of life that only Nature herself can provide – this being micro-organisms (although we are getting better at this too).

But even these life-bringers alone cannot release the nutrients plants need as the soil acidity and CEC* play a major role in enabling the formation and deformation of molecular structures.

And here’s where it becomes a bit of a spiral dive; adding more elements can alter the environment; which affects nutrient availability and the trees, pushing farmers to add even more elements…

👉 Want to dive deeper into this cycle and its solutions? JAFF 9 explains it beautifully in his story (scroll through to about 5/6 of the way through) (link)

*The charge of soil; more accurately CEC (Cation Exchange Capacity): A complex concept that directly impacts nutrient availability. It's a vital indicator of soil health and fertility. As CEC increases, more nutrients are held onto by soil particles, leaving fewer in the soil solution, i.e., available to plants. Enhancing a soil's CEC can be achieved by increasing its organic matter, which provides more exchange sites than clay. Simple strategies like adding organic matter or implementing cover crops can help boost soil CEC.

Want to learn more? Here are a few resources:

• Fundamentals of Soil Cation Exchange Capacity (link)

• How CEC Influences Nutrient Mobility and Uptake (link)

• Increasing a Soil’s CEC (link)

We trust this molecular investigation into the microscopic intricacies of “How Plants Eat” guides you in making better macro investments. 😉

🚧 Upcoming Industry Events 🚧

🚨 We've noticed something!

Our upcoming industry events list is looking a little thin.

And who better to help us than YOU?

See, we believe in sharing value — and by value, we mean those golden nuggets of industry knowledge that are dished out at the best agri events. Webinars, meetups, study groups...the whole shebang!

So, if you've got an unmissable event in mind, we're all ears. Actually, we're more than all ears — we're ready to blast your insider info out to the entire TropicalBytes community, spreading the love and helping everyone stay ahead of the curve.

Just click here and let us know the what, where and when.

Sharing isn't just caring — it's how we grow together. 🌱

Looking forward to hearing from you! 😁

Picture 📷

Giraffes In The Snow 🦒🌨️

As we wrap up writing QUIPS this week, (bundled under many layers) we can't help but notice: it's not just us humans finding Monday's cold snap a bit brutal.

Our Karoo giraffe friends seem quite puzzled and caught off-guard by the icy temps and surprise snow! 🥶☃️

So, no matter where you're reading this from, snuggle in and stay warm! 

⏰ Friendly Reminder: Share your farm pics, ideas, tips, or solutions with the TropicalBytes community to inspire one another, overcome challenges, and elevate your operations – together. Share Here

Special Offer 🎁

R500 Cash & A FREE Nutrition Deficiencies Poster!

Looks like our R500 cash race hit a pit stop this week…

The sprint was off to a great start, but we've noticed some of you might have tripped over a hurdle or two!

Our top contender has rounded up just 3/5 new subscribers. But we know you can do better!

Now, don't worry, we're not leaving you parched and panting.

To get you energised and back into the race, we're giving you a handy little tool - A FREE Nutrition Deficiencies Poster, making your orchard parenting that much easier.

Remember, the R500 cash prize is still up for grabs!

So get your mates (5 of them) on board to join the TropicalBytes family, and that R500 is yours!

Oh and here’s the poster too 😉 (link)

That’s a wrap folks! We hope you enjoyed this week’s QUIPS edition.

Don't forget to join us in the comments section below 👇 – it's kinda like a family Braai but better! There, you'll find no screaming kids, awkward photos, or tipsy uncles telling bizarre stories. Let's get the conversations cookin'! 🔥 

Until then, happy farming, deep learning, and warm smiles.

We'll see you next week! 🌱

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