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"A calm autumn day was ideal for the 24 tree croppers who came to Jan and Bill Connings for the chance to hike around a magnificent landscape. Jan tells us that when they bought the property in 1994 that of the 60 acres, only the 3 Ha of kiwifruit was managed. The balance being a neglected block of avocado a couple of blocks of pine now about 20 years old, some black walnut planting, vast amounts of poplar and willow shelter belt and hillsides and riverbanks of impenetrable scrub."
"If it wasn’t for Jan’s photo album we might have tended to mutter about exaggeration. What we saw was extensive plantings of amenity trees many selected to attract bird life, four ponds built by Bill, a Leyland cypress woodlot, a well established black walnut, an avocado orchard being brought back into production, an extensive home orchard, six T-bar rows of Aguta, an area of box hedging that Jan has grown for commercial sale, atmospheric walkways through the older pine block and along the river edge, a block of 2000 Cupressus lusitanica, a Eucalyptus nitens block, a chestnut woodlot, and only one or two back corners that still had gorse and bracken on them. I don’t think many of us felt that we would have been able to achieve what Jan has in that time or that we would be able to use a canoe as a tug the way that she can."
"The key elements to develop the property this far have been the natural shelter of the landscape and existing plantings, Bill’s ability on and access to a bulldozer and digger, a reliance on herbicides, Sam the black lab’s impressive score of pest kills, Jan’s energy, passion and good instinct. Wow!"
"Quoted text from Te Tipuranga, June 2002 (Issue 3)"
It's really the wonderful Kay Baxter's (Koanga Nursery) fault that I've had to hang up my deck chair permanently. Lazy summer days will now just be a distant memory. She had written about the Hardy-Kiwis (Arguta) and wondered why these little gems were not grown more.
To the outsider, the vines of these "little gems" look pretty much the same as normal kiwifruit, but the fruit themselves resemble grapes; smooth, hairless skin and many large grape-sized fruits hanging in bunches. The interior is the same as a kiwifruit and the taste similar.
Thanks to an article in an old 'Horticulture News', complete with reports of very healthy returns from fruit sales, I managed to track down some plants and launched into my (then) latest brainwave get-rich-quick scheme.
My total knowledge of kiwifruit extends only to eating them, so I really had little to go on but what I thought should be done, and the very helpful information from the man I got the plants from. It was thought that the T-bar system was preferable (although now 'real' growers use the pergola way), so I trained them up a stake till they reached the wire, then put the leader in one direction. At some stage, another leader emerged fairly well placed to be trained to go in the other direction along the wire. Many shoots grew from the base and I removed all but a couple of reserves in case the designated one was damaged at some stage. I also kept the main stem up to the wire clear of competing vines.
Branches coming out of the main leaders were placed over the wire structures as in the normal kiwifruit - placed about a wide fist distance apart and secured with plastic clip-ties.
There was not a great deal going on for the first year or so. In the December/January of the second season, as we had visitors staying for many weeks, I had no time to even glance at the vines. When I finally did, I was horrified at the rate at which everything had grown. Well, not so much the length, but the way it had tightly twisted and tangled around everything in sight. To untangle it was an utter nightmare, as in most cases, several vines had entwined around themselves and then the entire 'rope' itself was in turn twisted around other vines. I felt I had to get them straightened out and put in the right place before they hardened and were even more difficult to manage. Someone said if left kinked, sap flow would be restricted, so I felt it important to do so.
I finally surfaced several months later with the job done. For once, I would have been in favour of my husband's usual reaction to most things I plant; with chainsaw in hand, "Can I cut it down?"
This summer, I would be ready for the onslaught and it would be a piece of cake. Wrong! Growth galloped away after flowering in spring and by mid-November, I found it to be a constant weekly job. Untangling and cutting vines at the desired length only encouraged several more leaders to spring forth from the cuts. I persevered. I think by Christmas a psychiatric report would have confirmed what I already knew. I MUST BE MAD! By this time the only encouraging factor was the hundreds of bunches fruit forming.
A very helpful kiwifruit consultant visited and was very happy at what I had been doing (a big sigh of relief) and organized the crop to be harvested and sold. Probably only about half the fruit was over the minimum weight of 6 grams each. More male vines would have assisted in better pollination and probably thinning the fruit clusters would have made bigger fruit.
Fruit picking on the pergola system would be much easier than the T-bar, but I wondered how pruning was done, as you can only reach in an arm's length. Apparently they lay out the canes early on and then whatever is not reached is left to be winter pruned when canes are bare. But what a job then! Maybe it can all be mostly left without too much harm? as hardy kiwis need a thick canopy under which the fruit can be protected from the damaging sun's rays.
Growth never stopped till about mid-March, when I was finally able to put down my worn out cutters. It has all been a big learning curve and a little more knowledge comes from experience. Did I get rich from the harvest? I have not seen a penny yet, and I do not think there will be much left to go in my pocket. Would I do it all again? No! Not by choice.
by Jan Conning, from Te Tipuranga, June 2002 (Issue 3)
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http://www.treecrops.org.nz/bracts/bract02/bay02/conning.html
Created: Wednesday, 26 June 2002 - Updated: 2007 August 10
