The Fall Creek nursery in the Western Cape, South Africa, has tripled its capacity over the past year, despite all the disruptions caused by Covid-19. In line with their planning, the transplant and propagation facilities have been completed and an additional nursery area will accommodate the increasing demand for a Fall Creek quality plant.
Interest from the young blueberry industry was as strong as they’d expected (they sent out the first plants to growers in December, 2020) and their client base is quickly growing.
“Our vision is to become the main supplier of blueberry plants in Southern Africa,” notes regional director Burgert van Dyk; their big ambitions are backed by a high standard of plant quality for which Fall Creek has become globally known.
Dane Castle, sales & grower support, with Eugene Snyman, production supervisor in the Fall Creek Nursery north of Paarl (photos supplied by Fall Creek South Africa)
With their new demonstration field completed, Fall Creek can now grow limited numbers of plants of each variety in their catalogue to showcase to interested customers visiting the nursery. The demonstration field will also provide the ideal platform to collect valuable data to support the guidelines to growers.
“We’re very excited to see the first berries being harvested of JupiterBlue® ‘FCM12131’, AtlasBlue® ‘FCM12-045’ and BiancaBlue® ‘FCM12-087’ in South Africa and we cannot wait to get feedback from those growers about their crops and the quality of the berries," says Wian Mouton, commercial manager at Fall Creek.
The three varieties have been introduced to growers in all the major growing regions of South Africa and the first berries will be harvested starting first week of August 2021.
Growers in Namibia and Zimbabwe have been hard at work harvesting their berries for the past three weeks to export to customers in Europe, United Kingdom, and other markets.
Further cultivars to be released next month
Fall Creek’s Three Amigos – JupiterBlue® ‘FCM12131’, BiancaBlue® ‘FCM12-087’ and AtlasBlue® ‘FCM12-045’ – have found favour among blueberry growers in Southern Africa, who’ll be pleased to hear that more varieties will be added to the collection: OlympusBlue™ ‘TH-1008’ and PeachyBlue ‘ZF08-029’ are set to be released next month at their ‘What’s growing at Fall Creek South Africa?’ webinar.
Later in the year the nursery is planning live demonstrations of blueberry cultivation practices like pruning, complementary to their series of growing guide videos for Fall Creek clients.
Register to attend the ‘What’s growing at Fall Creek South Africa?’ webinar and virtual farm tour on Wednesday 10am 25 August 2021.
For more information:
Fall Creek South Africa
Wian Mouton, Commercial manager
Tel nr: +27 72 906 5119
Email: wianm@fallcreeknursery.com
Elsa Muller, Sales and Grower Support
Email: elsam@fallcreeknursery.com
Dane Castle, Sales and Grower Support
Tel nr: +27 21 276 3777
Email: danec@fallcreeknursery.com
https://www.fallcreeknursery.com/