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

Edition 11

👋 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 Better Than 1 QUIPS Question? 🤔

• U: 11 Simple Steps to Macadamia Approach-Grafting 🪴

• I: How Plants 'Eat’ (Part 2) 🍽️

• P: Up Close and Personal with a Leaf’s ‘Mouth’… 😮

• S: R500 Cash Giveaway! 💰

Question❓

Your 10-Question QUIPS Quiz Challenge!

What’s better than a 1 Question QUIPS?

You guessed it.

A 10-Question QUIPS Quiz Challenge!

Try say that fast 😂

This week we’re spicing things up a bit. Rather than tackling just one question, we've put together a 10-Question quiz for you!

And why, you ask?

Simply because we believe a bit of fun, mixed with a dose of challenge, can bring out the best in us!

So, have a go! Test your knowledge, and who knows? You might just surprise yourself!

Click on the quiz below 👇

Ready, set, QUIZ! 🤓

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

Upskill 📚

11 Simple Steps to Approach-Grafting 🪴

While you’re all freshly upskilled in grafting, following the tutorial on in-field grafting in QUIPS edition 9, we thought we’d add approach grafting to your repertoire.

It’s super easy…

1. Plant your Motherwood Trees:

First things first, plant a row of young motherwood plants in the ground, inside your nursery. This sets the stage for your grafting journey.

2. Branch Out and Stake Down:

Gently stake down as many branches as possible, placing the anchor string mid-way of the branch. This gives the branch-end the room it needs to grow upward. Pull down just enough to align the branches with the height of the rootstock bags.

3. Patience is Key:

Leave the stakes in place until the end of the branches have started turning upwards.

4. Introduce Your Rootstock:

Bring your rootstock bags close to the base of the motherwood tree. Match rootstocks with similarly sized motherwood branches. A perfect match makes for a perfect graft.

5. Mark the Connection:

Mark the top and bottom point where the scion and rootstock branches meet.

6. Cut with Care:

Make a flat, clean cut between the marked points on both facing sides of the branches. Removing about 30-40% of the branch width is enough. Less is more here!

7. Secure and Bind:

Join the two cuts together securely and tape up. A snug fit will ensure the graft heals well.

8. The Slow Transfer:

Allow 2 to 3 months for the graft to heal. Then it’s time to cut a small nick in the motherwood branch, below the graft so that the motherwood, above the graft, starts to draw more nutrients from the root stock, thereby transferring reliance from mother tree to rootstock.

9. Deepen the Connection:

A week later, make the nick deeper. After a few more weeks, make the final cut, severing the branch from the motherwood tree completely - freeing your successfully grafted rootstock.

10. Cleanup and Maintain:

Remove the remaining rootstock branch above the graft. Maintain by also removing any regrowth or shoots from the rootstock.

11. The Reveal:

Once the graft has healed, remove the tape. And viola! One grafted tree, in the nursery, within a few months.

Happy grafting! 😁🪴

⏰ Friendly Reminder: Share Your Own Creative Upskill Tips Here

Information ℹ️

How Plants ‘Eat’ (Part 2)…

Last week we learnt how water moves when adjacent environments have differing ‘salinity’ levels i.e.: from a ‘less salty’ soil to a ‘saltier’ root. How it moves through the root cells (semi-permeable membrane) in what’s known as osmosis.

So, once it’s moved, is it now equally salty in the soil and in the root?

No… the reason…

Welcome to Part 2 of our study on how plants ‘eat’.

The roots will always be ‘saltier’ than the soil because, as soon as the water moves into them, it is moved on again, up the stem and into the leaves. This is because of transpirational pull. Transpiration happens when water evaporates from a plant’s leaves.

It does this through stomata, which are minuscule pores on the surface of the leaf. Plants must keep their stomata open in order to take up CO2 as part of photosynthesis. When the stomata are open, water naturally evaporates. This water loss also has a benefit in maintaining the leaf temperature through evaporative cooling.

In most land plants, about 300 water molecules are lost for every molecule of CO2 absorbed. This means that our green friends must consume large quantities of water on a daily basis in order to take up sufficient CO2 for their normal development and growth.

How do they manage this water consumption? Thanks to the properties of water itself, being both cohesive (where water molecules are attracted to each other and cling together) and adhesive (attaching to cell and vessel walls), it moves up through the plant as a continuous column, replenishing the plant from root to leaf.

A quick side note: As you know (hint: check your Sunday Emails 😉), our website is under construction but we’ve worked up a bit of a cheat code link for you to access content, especially on this topic.

So…

👉 Here’s an interesting story on the self-preservation tactics of macs in dry environments. (link)

Make sure you catch next week’s edition and follow the process in How Plants Eat (Part 3)…

Upcoming Industry Events

• FOOD & DRINK TECHNOLOGY (FDT) AFRICA | 13 – 15 July

• NAMPO CAPE | 13 – 16 Sept

• International Macadamia Symposium (IMS ‘23) | 18 to 21 Sept

• PROPAK CAPE | 24 to 26 October

Picture 📷

Getting Up Close and Personal with a Leaf’s ‘Mouth’…

🤓 Fun Fact: Fossilised leaves can tell us a lot about our planet's climatic past. Paleontologists (“fossil finders") and paleoclimatologists ("ancient weather reporters") have used the size and distribution of stomata in ancient leaves to estimate the levels of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere at that time. Intriguingly, when CO2 levels are higher, plants typically have fewer stomata – as each one can can let in more carbon dioxide.

⏰ 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 🎁

The Race for R500 is Heating Up! 🔥

Although we've seen some strong contenders who've brought three new subscribers to our TropicalBytes community, no one has yet reached the golden number of five.

So, the race is still on, and the R500 prize remains up for grabs! 💰

Incase you missed it, here’s the playbook:

1. Tell your buddies, family, those farmer friends of yours, colleagues, or even that chatty cashier at your local store about our QUIPS newsletter. The more, the merrier!

2. Each new recruit you get to sign up earns you 1 golden ticket 🎫 into our cash prize draw.

3. The first person to bring 5 new subscribers to the QUIPS family scoops the R500 prize!

How do you get your mates to sign up?

1. Share our newsletter sign-up link. Post it, tweet it, email it, or go old school and write it on a sticky note.

   👉 Use this link: https://newsletters.tropicalbytes.co.za/subscribe

2. Kindly ask your newly referred friends to reply to our QUIPS welcome email and drop your email address. This way, we know who to credit the golden ticket to! (Psst! Tell them to look in their promotions or spam folder if the welcome email decided to play hide-and-seek).

Once we have the first person to bring 5 new friends onboard, we'll crown them the winner (and R500 richer!).

So, the race is still on! Spread the word, and let's grow the QUIPS family together!

Best of luck, and keep those referrals coming! 🤝

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! 🌱

The Comment Corner 💬

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