It’s Tree Fruit Time (Tuesday 2-12-08)

Tuesday morning began with an early morning trip to the Motueka station of New Zealand’s HortResearch (http://www.hortresearch.co.nz/) and a rendezvous with researcher John Palmer (who asked we pass greetings on to PSU’s Dr. Rob Cressweller, if you’re reading along). He spoke of his experiences in horticulture as it began as a researcher in England all the way through to the present, including all of the changes in marketing, government funding, and all the spaces in between.

We tried a few of their new, delicious trial kiwi berry varieties and scampered off to Inglis Horticulture and farm manager Richard Inglis. Richard’s family were once large scale hops suppliers to Coors and quickly transitioned his family’s farm to high density apple production, including the use of shade/hail netting. To address Justin’s question, Richard was experimenting with a number of different netting structures and colors with some cooperation with John Palmer. The red shade is believed to decrease the UV radiation – his employees like working there because they don’t sunburn. He hasn’t learned anything definitive about which color (red, black, or white) provides the most benefits, but he’s sure that all of them help with sunburn, calming the strong winds of the Motueka area, reducing irrigation inputs and, most importantly, assuring a crop in spite of vicious hailstorms and along with it, says Richard, shelf space for his apples. He did mention that he’s settled on a white netting – a “teepee” shape that were sown between the rows. Richard used self-built platforms and underwent a difficult farm transition and was very willing to share his experience. It was a very impressive cropping system with a five wire trellis yielding a full twelve feet of vertical growth and good cropping on fourth and (sometimes) third leaf trees! His varieties were nearly all club varieties, the majority being Jazz. His new plantings of Envy excite him – he believes it’s a better apple than Jazz.

Netting used to prevent frost, hail, reduce wind, spary drift, birds, and transpirtation rates.

Third leaf Jazz
Second leaf Four leaf More netting
Landscaped New Zealand Orchards
Kiwi Fruit
Platform made out of a hydroladder
Valima Orchards was our next stop where Richard Hoddy showed us around his high density orchards. Mechanization and Tentation were the theme here as I was given the opportunity to drive one of Richard’s Italian-made, solar powered electric platforms. Three different Italian-made harvest assistance machines had just arrived from the pier in Nelson a few days before and our group along with the Hoddys were treated to a demonstration by representatives of the Italian manufacturing company who sold them. Tentation (part of France’s breeding program, Delbush in the states?) is a variety he’s keen on – a Golden Delicious type with very high brix, but great acidity for balance. It’s a club variety he markets through Yummy, of which he is a stakeholder. The second half of the tour was conducted by his son Tristan providing us a good opportunity to speak with both generations and discuss his role and succession planning.

Ben W. on a electric platform

No charging needed with the addition of a solar panel.
Gala 2 weeks until harvest
Picking Assist Platform. A semi-automatic picking machine from Italy. Arrived Yesterday!!
Light reflection for better color. New Zealand Beauty
All and all, we certainly made the most of our first fruit tree tours and our access to these very knowledgeable, savvy, friendly growers!

New Zealand Country Side


Ben Wenk