NEWS
Drought? What drought? Extra-wet March in Gauteng
A
lthough rain has been
falling over Gauteng in
gratifying quantities
since the start of the year, it
From page 8
has come too late to be of
much benefit to many crop
farmers in the area.
Indeed, while the first half of
R20 000.
pumpkin? Olivier's advice is to At the same competition, the
feed it copiously. In her case
juvenile section was won by
she estimates it takes about
an entrant from Morehill in
ten times as much fertilizer to Benoni, seven-year-old
achieve record growth than
Angelique Attwell, who
one would use in a regular
managed a gourd of 93 kg
pumpkin patch.
from seed planted on 15 Oct
What does one do with a
last year.
500-plus kg pumpkin? Olivier K Olivier has a way to go if
says the Atlantic
Giant, while edible, is
not particularly tasty,
being rather watery.
“So we feed them to
our cattle, which
relish them,” she
says.
Making her efforts all
the more worthwhile
was her prize of
How you move a half ton pumpkin.
summer was dry in Gauteng,
the latter period from New
Year to mid-March has seen
above average rainfall, with
the first half of March proving
to be particularly damp in
East Gauteng, in fact the
wettest March we have
recorded since 2001.
As a result, if the rainy
weather continues, this
she wants to win the world
season could prove no dryer
record: It stands at more than than any other year of normal
double her effort at 1 054kg
rainfall in Gauteng.
and was set by a Swiss grower
But, while it has filled dams
in 2014.
PUMPKIN
9
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Continued on page 11