Pomelo or mango orchards

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