Fertiliser prices have surged dramatically over the past year, resulting in nearunsustainable production costs for farmers. Nonetheless, while these input costs are not expected to decrease in the near future, there is hope for macadamia farmers in South Africa.
At a macadamia farmers’ day held in Nelspruit in early March, Lindsay Tredgold, an agronomist at Fertech, explained that the high cost of fertiliser had as much to do with price as it did overapplication.
“Recent research has highlighted the fact that we're overfertilising macadamias, which leads to mass and unnecessary foliar growth. I often see figures of over 140kg/ha nitrogen, when the
