New Zealand Treecrops AssociationConference 2001Report“Get Growing” was the theme of the NZ Tree Crops Association’s Annual Conference at “Tree Town” Cambridge. Grow we did - with food and thoughts and ideas. The passion and enthusiasm of those attending - members, visitors, speakers, property owners- was inspiring. At times we sometimes wonder if there is a future for Tree Crops in the hectic schedule of life. After listening to everyone around us we are now convinced that if we can be united, provide the information needed and not let individual egos get in the way we can not only help others and ourselves but do things for the public good. If we don’t who will? One of the re-occurring themes was that to be successful in a cropping situation there needs to be co-operation. Every time a faction occurs there seems to be a set-back in that crop. An example was the various chestnut groups which has led to chestnuts not being harvested in some areas, whereas if a co-operative has been formed with growers determined to make a go of it, successful processing equipment has been designed and products that are saleable get developed. Permaculture and Organics featured prominently, because the health of the soil is critical. This topic was ably covered by several of the speakers including Jim Peele, Alf Harris, Dr Robert Hill and Bill Quin, who each had a variation of this theme. It would have been interesting to have had some of these talks before we visited some of the organic properties. Discussions about conventional versus organics, like a good compost heap, got quite warm rather than over-heated.
Did you realise that the biggest crop in NZ is grass? It is felt by many that farming this alone and expecting cows to constantly produce milk on such a limited diet is unsustainable - so how about planting trees that are not only good for the land and the animals and us. There are several species that will do it all and each climatic area needs to find the ones that are best suited. Those listening know which are best for Waikato - do you? We visited some properties with great crops and healthy soils. After some talks it was noted that women surrounded the speakers. Maybe we should be targeting the female farmers and property owners. Each year the “Dr Don McKenzie Award”, a fossilised walnut, is presented to a member who has made a ‘significant contribution to Tree Crops’. This year Roy Hart, retired scientist and our principal Research and Development co-ordinator, was the recipient. Trials take time and commitment. There is little money available for research so most are run voluntarily. ‘Stickability’ is one of Roy’s key words because it is important to get results - and hope the trees are not pulled out like a 10 year walnut trial was - just as the trees were beginning to crop. At the moment there is some AGMARDT funding to support an olive varietal trial, and trials for feijoas and chestnut rootstocks. He has imported varieties of Asimina triloba (cancer-treating trials are established in USA using twigs and branches), and Pistachio (though there are propagation problems to get enough trees for production). As one of the speakers we heard and saw slides (all taken in NZ) about some of what he is working with at the moment- organic walnuts, pomegranates (soft seeded type), ginkgo (both leaves and nuts), plums (especially older varieties), figs, pine nuts and edible cactus. He also stressed that we mustn’t let our Egos get in the way and create factions - ‘be united for the best results’. At the AGM “housekeeping” matters were attended to and office holders voted on. As Ross Jamieson (Canterbury) was standing down, National President is Ray Hollis (Wellington-Horowhenua), ably supported by North and South Island Vice-Presidents, Diana Loader (Central Districts) and Jim Jolly (Aoraki). Our Patron again is Hazel Nicholls (Nelson). Mary Banks (Waikato), National Secretary and Chris Lloyd (National Treasurer) were appointed. This shows that the country is well represented in the Management Committee, who respond to matters brought to their attention, by the local Branches. It is the support and help of so many people with various specialities that makes this organisation so helpful, not only to existing members but also to those who have an interest in tree crops and don’t quite know what to do with that block of land.
Busloads of croppers invaded interesting properties in the Cambridge area - crops examined included nashi, persimmons, walnuts, olives, lavender, chestnuts, blueberries, apples, asparagus, plums and kiwifruit. Mud brick and rammed earth homes were inspected. Our buses slowed while we rubbernecked at the parent tree of Chestnut 1015, an important variety to the industry, and we marvelled at the wonderful work being done voluntarily by schoolchildren planting the town’s Green Belt. Early attendees enjoyed pre-conference visits. Cave’s Tree Nursery, easily recognised by the huge Bunya-Bunya tree, seemed to be overflowing with exotic species and rare plants. McGrath’s Nursery has the largest market share of fruit tree production in NZ. Andy is concerned about the ‘public good’ as well as developing new varieties and maintaining the older established ones. In this respect he thinks that Quarantine stations should be independent and not controlled by those whose livelihood depends on the success of a suspect imported variety. Staff of Hill Laboratories demonstrated soil and leaf testing first hand. They also produce Crop guides for several tree crops, which includes sampling instructions and general nutrition comments. A visit was made to the Waikato Research orchard where various clients have trials of chestnuts, blueberries, the National Table Grape Collection, Asian Food Crops - Ginseng, Myoga Ginger, Wasabi, a South American vegetable - Yacon, herbs such as Echinacea and Arnica, and Yew for taxol production. There was no doubt in watchers’ minds that we were descended from tree climbing animals after observing a stunning display of arborculture tree pruning by Waikato Polytech. All the right gear and tools and expertise. Naturally Conferences like this are successful only with the support and sponsorship of people and organisations such as Hort Research, Hill Laboratories, Peele’s Plant Propagation, various exhibitors and trees and plants for sale or auction, along with the valuable time from the exhilarating speakers. Our sorrow was that more time was not available for us to share the wealth of knowledge and experience these people had to offer.
‘ Have I then for 60 years desecrated God’s earth and dubbed it improvement.’ - Guthrie ‘Trees are the visible outgrowth of micro-organism activity in the soil.’ Thus began the talk by Dr Roger Hill. The best disease control is to keep the plants healthy. Plants have the capacity to reduce disease which is not used so they have been induced with Elicitors - natural inhibitor compounds produced by the plants themselves - which showed up as remarkable contrasts on the slides we were shown. Trichodrema spp. and other natural products can control plant pathogens when the roots take up these elicitors so they have the right micro-organisms. We are gradually understanding how to grow healthy trees and crops without using toxic chemicals. Growing crops in the conditions which are natural to them lessens disease as Armillaria is not a disease in the bush. Concentrated slurry of beneficial compounds in which pines were dipped before planting reduced mortality. Badly managed shelter such as volumes of willow stumps can also cause problems, Bamboo was suggested as being a good shelter as it is Armilleria resistant and you could sell the edible shoots of some for $20 a kilogram! Using a wide variety of mulches was also a useful concept. ‘New Zealand farmers, farm counsellor and scientists are world famed for their mastery of pasture and pasture plants. Perhaps we would be better to aspire to adaptive culture, rather than one of mastery and control. Economics change, people pass, only the land endures.’ - Professor Kevin O’Connor. Agro-ecology - Researching the Ecological basis for Sustainable Tree Cropping - quite a mouthful for the address by Alf Harris. It is a systems approach, which recognises the importance of interactions between soils, plant physiology, diseases and productivity. Growers and scientists work together and ask questions to understand. Constant feedback leads to new knowledge. Sometimes the results are not immediately obvious - straw bales as mulch was not new to Avocado growers - but when they were placed around trees to protect them from grazing sheep the trees thrived. It was then realised that the bales had in effect trapped the leaf litter and kept the trees healthy and prevented root rot - which is what happens in their natural habitat. So why not use any sort of structure to retain the tree’s own natural mulch? To reduce input costs the wastes of one system can be used to reduce the input costs in another. The biggest cost for Organics was the ‘stand-down’ time presently required.
Organic management was the focus of Bill Quin - producing premium produce for public purchase! If you have a good biological system your animals don’t get sick. The interaction of organisms with each other forms the whole. There are so many living organisms in the soil we need to consider. Some regard the yellow ladybird as a pest and to be eliminated but it farms powdery mildew, setting up a symbiotic relationship with the plant which then speeds up its resistance. You need to have self trust and observe for yourself what is happening. Profit comes from the reduction of costs. He is able to produce crops from his property, which though grown organically are sought after by the local supermarket at premium prices yet sold as conventional products. If you are not registered by the certified standards of measurements such as Bio-Gro, Demeter, Ag-Qual or Certenz you are unable to have a third party onset your produce as organic. One of the major costs is the transition or down time now required for certification. As a tutor at BOP Polytech his aim there as at Conference was to make us re-examine and re-evaluate our beliefs underlying our crop management decisions. Persimmons were discussed by Alistair Mowat who told us about the early days of this crop. We noted export trays with the “Littleweed” label, a name well known to us. A visit to Geoff and Leigh Peach’s immaculate property with 1,500 trees dispelled any thoughts about the viability of persimmons. Along with 5 other growers they export high quality fruit to Japan under the “Supreme Gold” label. Trials are being done to grow trees under plastic and judging from comments of those who saw them the extra work and trouble will be worthwhile. Here was dedication and technology at its best - growing by remote control even. Geoff loves a challenge. Blueberries & Cranberries were ably covered by Narandra Patel and special new releases developed in conjunction with Tharfield Nurseries and HortResearch were for sale. Food and health writers have picked up on the topic and research shows blueberries assist in the prevention of urinary diseases, have an antioxidant effect on vascular and brain tissues and relieve eye stress. After a slight downturn in interest after a boom a few years ago they have now emerged as a crop for which we can’t supply the demand. We also had the opportunity to visit “Blueberry Country”, 100 hectares of blueberries growing on cleared virgin peat. Because colour sorting was the slowest factor Greg and Alison Furness developed a singular colour sorter, 40 of which have now been sold in the USA, home of blueberries.
We saw, heard about, ate and drank Nashi. As a relatively recent crop it provides some challenges but for those prepared to put in the effort it is by far the highest returning pipfruit. Some of the difficulties are getting the right cultivars, fruit set, disease management, winter chilling and bird protection to produce quality fruit for export mainly to the USA. Selecting the right pollinators and enticing the bees to pollinate the flowers as they do not particularly like nashi is a problem. The pollen is carried a distance of only about half a tree. Fruit can be covered by bags to protect them from the birds - until the birds learn to eat through the bags. Enclosure in netting seems to be the best, but expensive solution. Thought is needed here as bees need sun and shapes to navigate and get disoriented by the netting. Letting the grass grow can provide some forage so the bees don’t die as has happened. Ruakura Y-frames and Tatura trellis at a 60° angle is the structure to which most Nashi are trained, but they can be grown as free standing trees. Dwarfing varieties are being trialed because of the work involved with thinning and pruning and every step up a ladder is an added cost. Warren Sexton, one of the country’s biggest nashi produces gave us an interesting talk on the background of nashi and there was the opportunity to visit producing orchards. Maurice Denton - originally a Dairy farmer became involved in Tree Crops when he had to find something to do on the farm to keep out of the manager’s hair. He admits he has a “magpie” instinct for collecting as obvious by his meticulous property growing a wide selection of crops but limited his talk to Feijoas. To succeed he suggests you first decide what your aim is. There are different varieties best suited for home and commercial crops. Then you have to decide how to train your trees. If all the branches originate at one place on the trunk then when the tree is laden they will surely break. It is best to have them spiral up the trunk. If your aim is Export or sales the fruit will need to be ‘touch picked’ so it is not bruised. You soon develop an eye for the colour change and the 4kg pull. Hand picking therefore limits the height of the tree and the branches can be a ground level. If on the other hand the fruit is for processing the trees can be taller and need to be pruned up from the ground to allow access to pick up the fruits when they fall. In this case they don’t have to be visually perfect but they must be sound. He limits the size of his trees by using an adjustable pole hedgetrimmer - fast, effective and photogenic - he doesn’t have time to ‘stuff about’. With 250 Feijoa trees as well as the other crops that is a fair statement and after 15 years experience he thinks he is about to get the hang of Feijoas. He knows now that for his area Triumph is too late and Gemini too small. ‘When there is no monetary return to the CRI the response is lukewarm.’ ‘Chickypoo is high in ammonia - can cause flu-like symptoms for people in close proximity for extended periods.’ Reporter: Gail Newcomb
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