First fieldtrip for the Mad Macs in 2022 2022-01-25
Four members of the Macadamia Protection Programme (MPP) in FABI, Ashleigh Smith (PhD Candidate), Angel Maduke (PhD Candidate), Gerhard Botha (Msc Candidate) and Dee Twiddy (Msc Candidate), visited farms in the Mpumalanga province during a three day fieldtrip in the week of 18 January. The objectives of these farm visits were to collect macadamia nuts infested by MNB (Macadamia nut borer) and to sample nuts to isolate Botryosphaeriaceae (Husk rot) for Ashleigh and Angel’s projects, respectively. Various farms in the Kiepersol and Mbombela area were visited. The collection of insects and/or fungal species is crucial in terms of on-going research on the characterisation of MNB pheromones as well as to understand the potential role of the Botryosphaeriaceae and its association with husk rot. We would like to thank the various farmers for assisting us in the collection of macadamia nuts.