National Conference Friday March 27 to Sunday March 29 2009
Tatum Park. Between Levin and Otaki
2009 March 24 -
Here is an update of the 2009 conference programme which provides a
schedule of all events from Friday through to Sunday. Note that the AGM is
at 4pm on Friday, and the formal opening at 5.45pm. Proceedings start at
8.30am on Saturday and Sunday with housekeeping followed by the speaker
sessions. Delegates will be able to choose their preferred speaking session
when they register at the conference venue.
If there are any room changes, delegates will be advised if this is the case when they register.
The update is available as .doc file, ie Microsoft Word, which is also legible in OpenOffice.
Open or download the file from Here...
The above update takes precedence over any programme changes listed below.
Registrations are going well. There is still time for you to register. Some field trip options are filling up fast, so the sooner you register, the greater the chance to have your first choice of field trip.
You can register via our website (online registration) or use the forms in the December Treecropper..
There are some small changes to the timing of the Friday programme. The meetings of the management committee, delegates and the AGM are as already published.
The formal conference opening will be at 5.45pm in the Cobham room, following the AGM. We expect the BBQ and entertainment to commence at approximately 6.30pm.
Transport
Some registrants have been asking about transport to the conference site.
If you are coming from Wellington on the Thursday, you can catch the Capital Connection train which leaves Wellington station at approx 5.17pm and arrives at Otaki railway station at around 6.15 pm (weekdays only). Alternatively you can travel by bus – try booking via http://www.nakedbus.com/routes There are generous discounts if you book early. Using a minibus service to Tatum Park can be expensive unless there are 4 or 5 of you travelling together (around $80-$100 one way).
If you are travelling from the north, then one option is the Overlander train which stops at Levin at around 5.30pm. Travelling by bus is another option.
It is about 10 minutes by road from either Levin or Otaki to the conference centre.
At the time of writing, we have had no changes to the field trip locations, though there have been some changes to the schedule. All trips are scheduled to return to Tatum Park by 5.30pm. Departure times for the order of some visits vary, as follows.
|
|
Field trip order |
Departure time |
|
Field trip 1 |
Unchanged |
12.15pm |
|
Field trip 2 |
Wirihana, then Victoria Line |
12.15pm |
|
Field trip 3 |
Unchanged |
12.45pm |
Sunday 29 March
The schedule for field trips 4-6 remains as originally published - departing from Tatum Park at 1pm and returning to Tatum Park by 5.30pm.
Please note that delegates will be able to choose their preferred speaker session when they arrive at Tatum Park. Keynote addresses and optional sessions will be on Saturday and Sunday mornings.
There are 2 additional speakers to those published in the Treecropper and on our website in December – Dennis Ting, a foodplant specialist from Melbourne, and Eric Cairns, a previous national president. There will also be an outdoor option – “Things to do with Wood”. Profiles and topics follow, including an update on Dr Andrew Tait’s talk:
Some of our longer serving members may remember Dennis Ting who used to live in Wellington. About 15 year ago Dennis moved to Melbourne where he has carried on his innovative work with food crops. Dennis is currently working part time as the Food Plant Specialist at Gardenworld Nursery and also doing some office work in costing/systems there. Gardenworld (refer gardenworld.com.au and follow the nursery link) is the leading independent Garden Centre there like California/Zeniths and renowned for its fruit plant selection.
Dennis
is involved with the Heritage Fruits Group which is part of
Permaculture Melbourne and as well as heritage apples the members,
like TCA people, are all trying to grow everything possible.
This year Dennis has grafted up a feathered Cox Orange Pippin to
Egremont Russet (daughter's favourite) and his Kiwi Heritage apples
Freyberg, Gala and Splendour. All the grafts have taken so with
careful pruning he should be able to get a balanced tree!
Denis will
be sharing his insights and Melbourne experience during his talk.
Dr Andrew Tait from NIWA will be showing us how to use climate data and related information that is freely available from the NIWA website. For example, this will include:
daily (and sometimes hourly) data (including historical records) are available for free from NIWA for every climate station in New Zealand;
estimates of daily values of several climate variables for locations where there are no measurements;
line plots of the rainfall accumulation, soil moisture status, heat unit accumulation and other variables for the growing season to date (and how this season compares to last year and the long-term average) for several locations around the country;
maps of the month-to-date and last-15-days rainfall, temperature, heat accumulation and soil moisture status, updated every day;
rainfall, temperature, soil moisture and river flow outlooks for the coming three months for all of New Zealand; and
climate change projections for New Zealand for 50 and 100 years into the future.
Eric Cairns will be talking about post harvest treatments of fruit to extend shelf life and reduce insect pests. Both of these issues are critical factors for exporting perishable crops such as fresh figs. For local markets, growers may also desire a cushion to cover a few days wet weather or when the market may be over supplied. The proposed sanitation systems avoid using conventional fungicides and some options should be allowable for organic growers. A review of recent scientific literature and results from this year’s trials on breba figs will be reported.
Sunday morning will include two practical outdoor sessions entitled “Things to do with wood”. These sessions are aimed at those interested in utilising timber and wood products they have grown. The emphasis will be on green wood working techniques using traditional tools. Trevor Byron and Eric Cairns will demonstrate use of shaving horses, brakes, draw knives, froes, twivils, boring techniques, adzes, pole lathes etc and show some of the items they have made (tool handles, hurdles, treen, Windsor chairs, garden furniture etc).
I would like to acknowledge the generous support of our sponsors without whom we would have difficulty meeting our budget. We also very thankful for the donations of plants from nurseries and also from members.
Our major
sponsors are Pub Charity (venue and bus hire), Waimea Nurseries
(Friday BBQ and plants for auction), Hills Laboratory (contribution
to compost trial) and Touchwood Books (Saturday morning tea). Other
sponsors include the Levin Sawmakers (cash contribution), Garden
Gloves (delegates’ labels), New World Levin (delegates’
bags), Verne Harrison (plants for auction), Edible Gardens (plants
for auction), Farmlands (tba), Rorisons RMD (tba) and Green Machines (Tatum Park site transportation).
It is possible that we will be adding to this list by the time of conference.
Ray Hollis
Conference Convenor
Back to Conference 2009 Index