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After a picturesque trip around the harbour from Harbour Cone, we were privileged to enjoy lunch in the port facilities.
Property of Carol Meikle and Graham Bain
"Our property is at Deborah Bay, Port Chalmers. We have had an association with it since 1967. In 1977, a new house was built. Up until 1998, the land was used only for grazing. In that year, we attended a seminar run by John Muirhead, the city council's rural development officer, to promote the cultivation of gevuina trees (Gevuina avellana) as a new crop for the region. As a number of seedling trees were available at the time, we decided to give it a go."
"We acquired and immediately planted 50 trees. Nothing was added to the soil and no shelter was available. Spacing was 3.5 metres between trees and 4 metres between rows. The first flowers appeared on two trees when they were 2 years old; nuts followed the next year. In 2002, 8 more trees produced flowers but we didn't get many nuts from these, which we believe was due to a lack of pollination. In 2003, most of our trees flowered. Some of these had large numbers of flowers. For example, one tree had two clusters of flowers, one with 16 flowers, the other with 19 flowers. 2003 has also been an exciting year for nuts, our harvest being 1200 nuts. We have also noticed a big increase in pollination now that our trees are five years old."
"By comparison with others who planted gevuina at the same time, we feel that we have done particularly well with gevuina. Although we have lost some trees, losses have been far less than what others have experienced. Where trees have died, we have put this down to localised waterlogging in spots where runoff has been impeded."
"We have installed an irrigation system, but we don't use it very much. Our soil is rich, although the topsoil is of variable depth. We have had the soil tested and it has a pH of 5.1 to 5.3. The land faces north-east with sloping faces. Our intention is to increase the number of trees to 200 with a view to becoming a viable unit."
We were all lucky enough to taste a small sample of a recent precious crop harvested by these very keen tree croppers.
An ailing tree received some group therapy for a hopeful recovery.
A little more travel took us to Blueskin Bay. At Blueskin Nursery's premises we enjoyed afternoon tea, and questioned a wood-turner about wood to the extent that we didn't have time for his demonstration of that art.
Nearby was the nursery, specialising in larger trees through to grasses. We enjoyed detailed accounts of their many challenges, and realities about the industry today.
Our coaches returned us to Dunedin, to freshen up for the Conference Dinner, and tree Auction...
(Quoted "commentary" is from the Field Trip Notes)
Editor - Les Gruebner
Photos - Les Gruebner
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http://www.treecrops.org.nz/bydate/conf03/tour2.html
Created: Monday, 9 June 2003 - Updated: 2007 August 10