Pomelo or mango orchard

[joostvi]

Hello,

 

I am a researcher from Belgium working with Kasetsart University, Bangkok. We are looking to find orchards to work on, so for exploring any and all options, perhaps we can find an orchard through this forum.

 

We are particularly interested in organic orchards as we work on integrated pest management: we use the Asian weaver ant Oecophylla smaragdina (mod daeng in Thai) against honeydew-producing insects (aphids, mealybugs, psyllids, and the like) that are protected by the ants and who can eventually destroy all flowers. We place bottles with sugar water and with diluted sugarcane molasses (a syrup) in the trees and monitor ant activity and crop yields until September 2024. These sugar sources can redirect the attention of the ants and away from those honeydew-producing insects.

 

As in the north and northeast the large queen larvae and pupae (khai mod daeng in Thai) are a culturally valued food, we also monitor the production of these larvae and pupae (this is thus for some people an organic dual-production system of both fruit and queen larvae and pupae).

 

We favour to work in the (relative) vicinity of Bangkok such as Nakhon Pathom, Chanthaburi, Samut Songkhram, Chonburi, Nakhon Nayok, etcetera. This is for practical reasons as my Thai research partners are located in Bangkok. The northeast is probably a better option such as Khon Kaen, Kalasin, etcetera.

 

Thanks for reading and any tips on orchards that might want to work with us will be highly appreciated.

 

Best regards,

 

Joost

[drtreelove]

Contact Best Garden State in Nakhon Pathom. They are a major supplier of organic fertilizer materials to organic farms and orchards. They may have some orchard customers who would cooperate with your study.

 

You may want to consider that your sugar-water baiting will disrupt much more of the ecosystem than just the factor of weaver ants farming sucking insect pests for honeydew.  There may be unintentional side effects that won't fit into your limited scope of study.  Additonal sugar food source may increase the populations of the ants, and also distract the ants from their primary food souce and biological control function.  "Weaver ants feed on insects and other invertebrates, their prey being mainly beetles, flies and hymenopterans."  The beetle-borers and fruit flies that also affect tree health and fruit production may get a free pass if the red ants are over-fed and drunk on molasses toddy. 

 

I am often tempted to bait the evil little kamakaze dive-bombing biters with boric acid, but I know they play an important part in biological control and the bigger picture.