RE: AGGC and South African vegetables

Hi Pete

I am an investigator for Insurance for our power supply company. Although
I'm a mechanical engineer I do the public liability claims as well and often
get farmer's claims, claiming for damage to crops, loss of power etc. So
what I can tell you about the vegetables: In the Johannesburg area (known as
Gauteng) we have pretty good rainfall in the summer months (getting later
each year, from about end October to around March, used to start beginning
October). Up the road I met an Israeli farmer (believe it or not). He does
intensive farming using irrigation on a rotating overhead spray boom, using
borehole water. He employs 300 people on the farm and farms all sorts of
salad vegetables, exotic lettuces, spinach, tomatoes, mainly in tunnels.
Also Onions and beetroot I think. Because of the tunnels and irrigation he
farms the entire year, right through winter without any heating or anything!
Temperatures go down to about freezing point with a bit of frost, but that's
it, so I suppose the tunnels protect the vegetables from the frost.

Then in another section of the country, more to the east (between
Johannesburg and the East Coast, about 4 hour's drive) is the area with the
highest rainfall in the country. Those guys don't know what winter is, if
the wind blows they put a jersey on, when I would still be warm. There are
big tomato farmers out there, big farm company called ZZ2 runs most of it.
Also Avocadoes, Litchis, Mangoes.

Potatoes seem to be grown more to the south of Johannesburg in the Free
State. Semi arid area with not much rainfall, they seem to rely on borehole
water. Many farmer grow corn and wheat in that area as well and seems to the
biggest are for that type of farming.

Along the east coast the grow sugar cane and in the south (Cape, near Cape
Town) they have winter rainfall. Grow mostly grapes, fruit, wheat. In the
little Karoo they grow cacti, for tequila, or some other potent brew? They
don't know what rain is and hope for some snow to fall each winter and fill
their ground water. They farm some wheat but mostly sheep, ostriches, Angora
goats.

On the West coast they have some fruit, diamonds and sand.

That's a bit of a picture, not sure how big the country is compared to some
of the states in the USA, probably the size of one or two of your big
states.

Oh, and things are cheap here (except for cars)! I wanted to do an accident
reconstruction course in Chicago and saw prices for bed and breakfasts
starting at over $100. Here I often stay in some really nice places for
under $50. Must be why people like to come and visit.

Alan

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pumpkins@hort.net [o*@hort.net]On Behalf
Of MDUDLEY680@aol.com
Sent: 28 January 2005 04:20 AM
To: pumpkins@hort.net
Subject: Re: AGGC


Hi Alan, I grew up and still live in the midwest and am so use to the
changing seasons, I don't know if I could do without them now. At my age I
could
stand a little warmer in the winter though.
I'm curious to know what vegetables grow where you are. I have never had
great luck with these pumpkins but 610 pounds was my biggest on my 3rd try.
You really need to get that book.
Good luck.
Pete

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Pumpkin-growing archives: http://www.hort.net/lists/pumpkins/
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Pumpkin-growing archives: http://www.hort.net/lists/pumpkins/
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE PUMPKINS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index