On the bank of the Letaba River, where at night hippos graze between net houses and tunnels (and through the citrus orchards of their neighbours), Niekie Grobler and his father grow English cucumbers for the municipal markets of Gauteng. Their market seeks an extra-large fruit, longer than 30 centimetres.
"Weather conditions have been playing a significant role in recent times," Grobler says. "Cucumber demand had been very good from 2020 to 2023, but last year, when it was so very hot, Highveld cucumber farmers stayed in the market for longer and it became overstocked," he explains.
Gunyula, along with the Lowveld's vegetable farmers, has six months, over winter, to harvest. After recent cold temperatures, the cucumber market has been stronger over the past three weeks as supply dropped.
© Gunyula
High springtime temperatures
However, Grobler remarks, springtime has landed with a bang: it's only late August, they're already clocking degrees in the high thirties, even 40º Celsius predicted for coming Saturday.
The Letsitele Valley is roughly 450 km from Johannesburg. Transport-wise, they cannot compete head-to-head with Highveld cucumber farmers basically growing on Johannesburg's doorstep.
On the other hand, they never need to heat up their cucumber houses as Highveld growers do, still using coal boilers; the latter take off two crops a year while they, Grobler says, harvest for half of the year.
Thereafter, it is too hot to grow cucumbers, and the fungal pressure becomes overwhelming.
Grobler remarks that Fusarium suddenly arrived in 2023, forcing them to start planting grafted cucumber rootstock.
© Gunyula
Gunyula sends 45 to 55 pallets of cucumbers a week to the municipal markets of Gauteng
For more information:
Niekie Grobler
Gunyula
Tel: +27 83 662 5216
Email: [email protected]
