We met with Colin for the first time – he is our orchard advisor.
Notes:
- Avoco is an exporter and represents Apata, Kauripak, Trevalyans, DMS + two packhouses in Northland
- Avoco was formed from the merger of Southern Produce and Primor
- Don’t pick up fallen trees as it is another trauma to the tree
- Some of our trees look sick and it is because of water – improvements to drainage may be required
- Replace trees with Bounty rather than Dusa
- Place tensiometers within the reach of sprinklers so that they will measure the effect of irrigation
- Put 12 inch tensiometers 8 inches into the ground
- You need a pump for tensiometers to get the pressure right. Put tensiometers in a bucket of water to test
- Seaweed is not proven to do any better than regular fertiliser
- Worm castings are not proven to benefit trees
- When replacing trees, create big mounds that are flat on top
- The fertiliser plan will cost $120 and consultation is $80/hr
- Call in December to check the fruit set in case the fert plan needs adjusting
- Inject sick trees now with a 5% solution
- Strip pick all of the fruit off sick trees
- Install 2 thermometers and 4 tensiometers
- Adjust the sprinklers to apply different rates of water on small v large trees and trees at the bottom of slopes
- Try to get good ground coverage with the irrigation – the trunk shields part of the root area
- Keep grass in drains short
- Use Buster (herbicide) for weed control