* Visitors welcome at all our functions. Come learn about Tree Cropping!
PLEASE respect our generous hosts' property and other visitors' peaceful attendance. Bring NO pets.
Beware of health and safety hazards which may exist - children must be supervised. Bring sturdy footwear and suitable clothing. Let's all enjoy our day!
Newsletter Editors - Important note:
2008 July
Propagation of NZ Native Plants – Friday 18 July – 6:30 pm
Our midwinter talk will be held at the Mapua Hall supper room. The talk will start sharp at 7 pm, so be sure to get there in time. As before, have your tea first. Bring along pudding for the social coffee and cake session following the talk.
We are fortunate in having as our guest speaker Lawrie Metcalf, who is one of our leading authorities on New Zealand plants, with a dozen book titles to his credit. He'll have copies of some of his books for sale.
His talk will be on the Propagation of NZ Native Trees. A great chance to glean practical propagation tips from an expert; don't miss it.
This will be followed by a visit to the Chris and Cheryl QE2 reserve on the Saturday. Details given at the talk.
2008 May
Olives at Kina – Saturday May 10 – 1 pm
Audrey and Charles - Kina Beach Road in Tasman. Look for the Kina Olives sign at the gate. Follow the 'parking' sign to the top of the hill by the sheds. Main olive varieties are Frantoio, Leccino and Picual (700 trees). There are several timber and specimen trees planted over the last 10 years.
Picking of the olives will be just started, so you can see how this is done. Also Audrey will give a demonstration on how to pickle olives and there will be a tasting of their oil.
2008 April
Mariri – Sunday 6 April
Start at 1 pm at George's place in Robinson Rd, which connects the inland highway (near the Jubilee bridge) with the coastal highway (near Mariri) beside the estuary of the Moutere River. Watch out for the end of daylight saving! The asimoyas will be ripe, as will the figs. Roy Hart will guide us. This property was last visited by TCA in October 1991 so here are a few notes from then.
Area 12 ha, moved on about 1980, scrub-covered. 3 dams, few frosts, clay but little topsoil. Kiwifruit, radiata woodlot about 1983. Walnut, chestnut, black walnut , hazel, citrus, persimmon, feijoa, plum, tamarillo, fig, macadamia, grape, carob, greengage, almond, passionfruit, green tea, pepino, garlic, peacocks, horse chestnut, cherry, sugar cane. Microclimates well used. Waste utilised such as sawdust, scallop shells, fish waste, poultry manure. George quote: "Go silly like me and plant a few plants every day. You'll never regret it and neither will your children and grandchildren."
Hazels with Murray Redpath – Saturday 5 April
Start at 1 pm at the property of Terry and Sandra Westbury, 70 Malling Rd off the inland highway near Redwood Valley. They have hundreds of hazels, mostly Whiteheart, the oldest being 7 years. Pollinisers are mainly Merveille. Their daughter has a natives nursery there also. Murray Redpath has been growing hazels for many years now and is heavily involved in research for TCA as well. Anything you want to know about hazels? Now is the time to ask those curly questions.
2008 March
Ecohouse and Trees — Mahana — Saturday 8 March
We'll visit two nearby properties - 'before and after' scenario.
Venue 1 Start at 1 pm at the new property of Lindsay & Ev, a building in progress - passive solar adobe mudbrick house (post and beam). Wise tree cropper advice is sought on what will grow here - 1.5 ha area north-facing previously pine forest, clay plus topsoil/gully.
Venue 2 at 3 pm to nearby property of Eddie and Pat, in Dawson Rd off Seaton Valley Road. This will be a good comparison with the previous site.
Mahana Sites
(1) As well as the interesting house there are the beginnings of a productive estate, including an orchard of mixed varieties (fruit and nut), a few olives, feijoas (both mixed parentage), small fruits, avocados, grapes and citrus and a large no-dig vege garden, as well as replanting of natives and a few larger exotic trees. Ev will make a plan of the property layout on which you can write your suggestions for future planting.
A welcome contribution to the house would be some blue wine bottles if you have any, full or empty. There will be hot water for a cuppa.
(2) This property is on the same ex-forestry land as above. They bought it in 2000 and planted natives from late that year. It now comprises 2.7 acres of landscaped grounds. In addition to an extensive native walkway, there's a home orchard with a huge variety of self-grafted plums (Louisa, Satsuma, Fortune, etc), plus apples, feijoas, persimmon, pears, tamarillo .... in short - a great Tree Crop property. There's also a great vege garden of course and free range chooks - so no dogs please!
2008 February
Potluck & AGM & Budding — Saturday 9 Feb — 2:30 pm
Bob and Gundula live on the Moutere Highway, just on the Nelson side of Edwards Road, not far from Riverside Community. Nice organic home garden with a mixture of all things good. Interesting self-built home. Huge amount of land improvements. Bring something for the sales table.
Budding demo: with Darrell. So if you have a plum rootstock from the grafting field day that did not take its graft, please bring this along (it needs to be in a pot).
Potluck: bring some food, plates and cutlery. Food-warming available. Hot water too.
AGM: Heads down on this one chaps, unless of course you want to come on to the committee to lend a hand.
Next door is the property of John — an enthusiast for dwarf trees, he buds thousands of apple and pear rootstocks each year and is also into timber (black walnut) and fruit trees. We'll have a look there too.
2007 December
Christmas Barbecue — Appleby — Saturday 1 Dec
Start at 4:30 pm at River Road off the Appleby highway. Donna and Murray have a walnut block planted in a former apple orchard. Walnuts are Vina, Rex, Dublin's Glory and Meyric, about 8 years old. Also there's a firewood block plus many fruit and nut trees. Bring food to share plus something for the sales table. Party hats and sunblock.
2007 October
Grafting Day — Brightwater — Saturday 6 October
Start at 10:15 at Hilary’s and Andrew’s at Mt Heslington Rd. Turn at the Brightwater tavern into River Terrace Rd, then first right into Mt Heslington Rd. BYO lunch and something for the sales table. There will be olive oil tasting with some special prices. After lunch there will be a walk to see Heather & Phil Gibbs, who are rearing partridges and pheasants.
Grafting: first, there will be the opportunity to practise and then try for yourself (graftwood supplied). There will be a chance to topwork some old olives to another variety. Bring a sharp knife of modest size and a deck chair if you want to sit. Please leave pets at home!
2007 August
Berry Benefits Talk — Friday 24 August 7 pm
Industrial chemist Alan Cooke will talk on plant-based nutriceuticals. While everyone knows about vitamins there are many other plant ingredients that might be equally important. Anthocyanins, bioflavonoids and other bioactive materials extracted from plants grown in Nelson. Mapua Hall supper room, coffee & tea afterwards. Bring some sweet snacks. There will be a sales table. You'll have to have dinner before you come.
- When:
- Saturday 4th August, 10am
- What:
- Pruning Workshop in Brooklyn
- Where:
- Little Sydney Road - will be signs posted.
- Details:
- Maria and Gordon have a small orchard (plum, greengage, peach, apple, pear, fig, tamarillo, feijoa, etc) and are planning to plant passionfruit as well, so there will be time to look at these. There will be tea and coffee in the shearing shed. Bring your lunch and something for the sales table. You can bring your own pruning tools if you wish to have a go, but there should be sufficient to borrow (secateurs, loppers, saw). Tuition provided by experienced tree croppers. Other interests there include alpacas and vintage engine museum.
2007 May
Waimea Nursery Visit - Sat 5 May 1 pm
John Penny will explain how a commercial nursery works and show us some of the many different cultivars at varying stages. Waimea Nursery will generously put on tea and coffee at the end of the tour. They sell heritage apples and many interesting fruit and nut trees. Get in early for your winter planting!
2007 April
Hazels in Blenheim - Saturday 28 April
Start at 10:30 am at The Nut Ranch, well-known property of David and Beverley, who have been producing hazels for some time now. Venue: turn (southwards) off highway 63 a little west of Renwick into Waihopai Valley Rd. After 6 km or so, turn left into Tyntesfield Rd and look for sign. We will have lunch here (bring your own, of course) and then visit the NZ Seed Oil Company, which produces oils from grape seed and hazels.
2007 April 13-15th Tree Crops Association National Conference, Unitec, Mt Albert
2006 December
- When:
- Sat 2 December, 12:30 pm
- What:
- Thinning Workshop & Picnic
- Where:
- west bank of the Motueka River - will be signs posted.
- Details:
- Field day - Thinning apples at the organic property of Jenny on the west bank of the Motueka River. Start at 12:30 pm for potluck picnic (barbecue will be available) followed by the field day. Go upstream on Westbank Rd from the intersection with Peninsula Bridge Rd. Go up the driveway into the young orchard for parking. There are timber trees (E. fastigata, lusitanica, redwood), cattle, sour cherries and even Gevuinas!
2006 November
- When:
- Friday 3 November, 7 pm
- What:
- Old Apples & Genetics Talk
- Where:
- Mapua Hall - will be signs posted.
- Details:
- Guest speaker/ slide show with Mark Iley (UK conservator of heritage varieties). Mark is involved in several biodiversity projects with the Essex Wildlife trust - such as saltmarsh habitat restoration, as well as old Essex orchards, the main genetic resource of old local fruit varieties that have otherwise disappeared. Sales table, tea and coffee afterward. You'll have to have dinner before you come.
2006 October
- When:
- Sunday 8th October, 10am
- What:
- Susie's Place, Propagation Workshop
- Where:
- Roses Road, Upper Moutere - will be signs posted.
- Details:
- Field day - Grafting, budding and taking cuttings. Maybe even topworking of unwanted varieties with something better. There will be apple & plum rootstocks available as well as some scionwood of connoisseur apple varieties. BYO lunch and a small sharp knife for propagation practice, if you have one (pocket, Swiss Army or even Stanley) as well as something for the sales table.
The property is 40 acres made up of both Moutere hill and flat. Purchased in 2002 the land is mostly leased for grazing. A section of the small creek was fenced immediately after purchase and a reforestation project is doing well in a steep gully, whilst another section is being developed as an amenity woodlot along with some chestnut, sugar maples and pinenuts. The plantings of these last 3 tree types are very recent and have suffered in the drought.
Shelterbelts and home gardens/orchard are also being developed. A passive solar house has been built on the property with sustainable features such as insulated concrete slab floor, solar hot water, rainwater collection and grey water recycled onto the fruit trees.
Designer Firewood
How would you like a load of exquisitely-split firewood, organically grown and dry as a camel's gearbox? An advert in the NZ Farmers Weekly offers this bargain supply of that well-known burner's delight tree Eucalyptus combustiburnii. Eminently suitable for warming your home and hot water this winter. Or perhaps, being a serious tree cropper, you already have your own producing coppice block? Good on yer, mate!
Apple Trials
Our indefatigable Roy Hart is carrying out some trials of black-spot resistant apples at two of our newer members' properties, both on the coastal highway. Just numbers at this stage, no names (the trees that is).
Tree Croppers email List
There is a list of wired-up Nelson tree croppers, who can receive email reminders of coming events or advice of happenings at short notice. If you want to be added to the list, put your hand up. Otherwise, write the coming events on your calendar now!
¦ > > PAAST EVENTS > > >
Pruning Orchard Trees
It was a cool, dry, still day with a very full attendance. Edward's property is a commercial orchard of 46 acres. Tree crops include
Apples (main crop) - many varieties including Cox, Fuji, Braeburn, Pacific Beauty, Royal Gala, Aurora, Pacific Queen, Pacific Rose, Golden Delicious, Russet
Peach
Nectarine
Plum.
The field day comprised:
An explanation of how pruning is used to develop tree shape and how ideas have changed over time.
A viewing of tree support and training methods.
A practical demonstration of pruning on: (1) single leader tree shape for an apple tree; (2) vase tree shape for an apple tree; (3) single leader approach for a nectarine tree.
General Pruning Objectives
Criteria for pruning and training.
The best fruiting is on horizontal branches.
Vertical growth gives strong wood but less fruit.
Pruning should promote a regular supply of fruiting wood, and remove dead wood, or wood past its use by date. Fruiting buds on apple are on 3 or 4 year old wood, on nectarine and plum on 1-year-old wood.
Commercial market requirements
Standard sized fruit
Fruit size depends on the number of buds along each branch and their spacing. Large apples are not as acceptable as bite sized ones, and small fruit is also unacceptable.
This sets pruning criteria for removing excess buds (see below).
Good fruit colour:
Good colour requires light. Originally this was sought shaping the tree as a wine glass; more recently having a single leader and one tier of bearer branches has been found more effective.
Case study 1: Pruning apple Pacific Beauty to single leader shape.
The tree was 8 years old planted on stony ground using 793 rootstock. It is thought the ground had been planted with apples for 80 years, the current tree being a replacement. Trees are individually irrigated. Estimated watering regime is 4 gal per hour per tree for 4.5 hours every fourth day. The period watered varied a good deal depending on weather.
The tree had a single leader rising to perhaps 4 m, with four arms spreading horizontally from the trunk at about waist height. The arms spread out to a radius of about 2 m.
Trees were in rows, about 5 m between rows and about 3.5 m between trees on row.
Along each row on the tree line there were tensioned wires, one at about 1.5m and another at about 3m. The tree trunk was attached to these. This provides support in the vertical plane.
At about 2 m there were support strings from the trunk to each of the 4 main bearer branches - this provides one support in the horizontal plane - particularly necessary for the mature apples. The support strings were generally connection to the stump of old pruning off the trunk, rather than the trunk direct.
For this demonstration tree the basic single leader structure and string supports were in place. Pruning activity involved:
* removing branch shoots off bearer branches that were growing vertically where other growth was available better for horizontal training.
* removing branches coming off the bearer branches that ran tangentially (at right angles to the bearer)
* selectively removing branches at the top of the tree - the objective here was to promote but limit growth at the top, and ensure fruit there was pickable.
* training horizontal branches to be retained, typically folding branches under existing growth or tying them down (nylon tie downs available at Fruitfed).
* reducing branches having fruiting buds so that 3, 2 or 1 bud remained according to distance from the start of the branch, and having about 5 inches between each increment. (note that another later operation may occur which further reduces fruit).
* removing branches that had aged to the point where fruit budding was reduced.
Overall about 60% of branches (excluding main bearers) were removed.
Large pruning cuts were smeared with Bacseal [contains a fungicide - should be available from Fruitfed].
Case study 2: Pruning apple Golden Delicious to wine glass shape
The tree is 1960s vintage, and is one of a few this shape and age and has been retained for gate sales. The tree had 4 leaders giving the wine glass shape and an additional one that really shouldn't have been there, up the centre. An observation on tree shape was that in the 1930s there would have been 7 leaders.
The methods were the same, but the ability to train branches down by interleaving was reduced.
Case study 3: Pruning a nectarine Fire Pearl to central leader approach
Fruit occurs on one-year-old (red tinge) wood. Prune hard for new growth removing 60% of new wood. Other pruning considerations were as previously described.
Our thanks to the hosts for an interesting day out.
-- George Atkinson
2006 Annual Conference of NZ Tree Crops Association
'Cultivating Biodiversity', Masterton, Wairarapa, 2006 April 7-9
2005
[no details submitted, but see listing Events Nationwide]
October 2003
| When: | Saturday 18 October 2003 at 9:30am |
| Where: | Foxhill, then Kikiwa |
| What: | Field day - rights and wrongs - plums topworked to flowering cherries - much more! |
July 2003
| When: | Saturday 19 July 2003 at 6pm |
| Where: | Uniting Church Hall, Main Street, Motueka |
| What: | Potluck Tea - Tasmania Travels |
February 2003
| When: | Friday 21 March 2003 |
| Where: | Shaggery Road, Motueka River West Bank |
| What: | Field day and AGM - 700 varieties of 45 different types of plants producing a wide range of stuff on biodynamic principles |
November 2002
| When: | Saturday 2 November 2002 at 10am |
| Where: | Dick Roberts - Todds Valley |
| What: | Field day - This is a venue not to be missed. Guided tour to be co-hosted by Dick Roberts (guru of the microclimate) and Fanie Venter, a South African botanist doing his PhD on Dracophyllums! There will probably be the last of the (late) tamarillos. Bring your lunch and something for a sales table. New and potential members this is the place for you! All sorts of fruit from sub-tropical to temperate; shelter and trade; timber trees; hot dry slopes; cooler shady slopes; dramatic views. Dick's property is nearly all steep spurs. The north-facing slopes have better grass growth in winter (almost no frost) than in summer (very dry). Avocado, casana, kiwifruit, citrus, casimiroa, cherimoya, macadamia, cork oaks, tagasaste for sheep fodder, babaco, pawpaw, carob, olive, jojoba, pistachio, almond, walnut, feijoa, lucuma, pomegranate, and much more. Be there! |
September 2002
| When: | Saturday 14 September, 6 pm |
| Where: |
Uniting Church Hall, Main Street, Motueka There are food warming facilities; bring plates, cutlery and food - preferably along tree cropping lines. Sales tables with lots of goodies. All the usual traditional stuff. |
| What: |
Potluck Tea - Spray/Chemical Advice
Darryl Wilkins from FruitFed will talk on new chemicals or crop treatments now available. You will need to ask questions to find out exactly what you want to know as there is too much to cover everything. He is very knowledgeable and covers the more limited spray or Safe Green approach. |
August 2002
| When: | Saturday 10 August, 1:30 pm |
| Where: | Toko Ngawa Drive (near Split Apple Rock), Marahau |
| What: | Joe and Hilary have a 12 year-old property out of gorse, with about 4000 natives, citrus, feijoas, tamarillos, olives, sapote and macadamias doing well. There are several other crops not doing well on their lack of soil and lack of winter. Finish with afternoon tea, hopefully before it gets too cold. "Quite windy, good fun" says Roy. |
July 2002
| When: | Saturday 6 July |
| Where: | Stringers Road |
| What: | Farm Forestry day on commercial forestry looking at Radiata post-harvest treatment, planting demonstration, pruning and thinning. important Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) trials, macrocarpas and lusitanicas, both spraying and root-raking in preparation for planting. Quite high investment and the potential rewards of forestry on Moutere clays. |
June 2002
| When: | Saturday 29 June, 6pm |
| Where: | Uniting Church Hall, Motueka |
| What: |
Potluck Tea - Stewart Island Slide Show Those indefatigable travellers Peter and Margot will describe their recent journey to Stewart Island, including Port Pegasus in the far south and the Tin Range (ex kakapo country). Bring plates, cutlery and food - preferably along tree croping lines. There are food warming facilities. Recipes for yummy dishes are appreciated. There will be a sales table too, if you bring something for it. |
May 2002
| When: | Saturday 18 May, 1.30pm |
| Where: | George Harvey Road |
| What: | Olives at Upper Moutere - olive trial progress. Roy Hart will be giving us the dinkum oil on this. Members of the Olive Growers Association and the Hort Science people have been invited too, so it should be a good chance to share information. There may well be a trip to another olive trial area if Roy can tee it up. |