Regional roundup
Mark Hudson
Whakatane
Whakatane growers have come through a favourable winter with less rain than recent years, so hopefully there will be less stressed plants in low-lying areas.
There also seems less Psa pressure than last spring, as the weather has continued its friendly trend and growers have generally been spraying more protective sprays.
There is much discussion between growers on the complexity of the spraying programme for Psa and crop protection. Growers with four varieties of kiwifruit are finding it particularly challenging.
They need to ensure the correct products are used for each variety, at the correct time, around favourable weather and the varied flowering times of the different varieties.
Growers need to plan and be mindful of advanced week control, bee introduction times, staff work rosters, communicating with neighbours and maintaining reliable spray equipment.
Most importantly, growers need to take every precaution to ensure absolute food safety and no contamination of fruit.
Don Kemp
Kerikeri
The most important thing for Kerikeri growers is there is no Psa showing – we’ve had nothing since the one 12 months ago that put us into a containment region. The block in question has already been cut out and is likely to be pulled out completely as an added precaution. If Psa doesn’t turn up again in the next couple of months, we’re hopeful we can return to being an exclusion region again.
That will just make life a little bit easier for things like movement of plant material and monitoring, as well as giving us some peace of mind.
Most of our monitoring is done by the packhouses monthly but the minute Psa is found, it will go to weekly monitoring. The good news is that everyone is now on board with the monitoring and that’s great for growers to know their neighbours are taking the same steps they are. In some ways, Psa has drawn the area together. You’re no longer trying to hide anything from anyone else because we all have exactly the same focus.
Budbreak is always a little bit later for us than the Bay of Plenty and we saw a very big fruit-set on the Hort16A, Hayward is mixed, Gold9 is superb and Gold3 is extremely mixed. Some orchards had no buds showing while others were in full flower – that’s probably to do with the type of wood, the timing of Hi-Cane® and maybe the pruning. It’s still a bit of a mystery up in Kerikeri so of course, we’re getting very mixed results.
Overall, Kerikeri growers are very positive. The growers aren’t even crossing their fingers at the moment – we know we’re in a good position. We’ve even had some buyers looking at orchards at prices near where they were pre-Psa, which is a great sign.
Dennis Robinson
Te Puke
Kiwifruit growers around New Zealand need to be aware of a major strategy project, focused on ‘Developing a sustainable and long-term plan to maximise the wealth of New Zealand kiwifruit growers’.
It’s vitally important all growers have their say on this, so we can move forward as one unified body.
In Te Puke, we’re cautiously optimistic for this coming season after what we’ve seen in the last few months. The long, dry summer last year probably wasn’t so good for fruit size but there’s always a tradeoff with Psa – combined with a mild winter, it looks to have helped in the spring.
I can see this on my own orchard - last year, I cut out a lot more than I have this year – probably around four or five rubbish bins – but this year, it’s only been about half a dozen canes so far.
Leaf spotting turned up really early but it also hasn’t eventuated to as much this season.
Spraying programmes are making a big difference, as is sticking to rigid hygiene and management plans as well and we all need to continue that in future. Psa is here to stay and we’ll have good years and bad years, depending on weather. Research shows us that the more-proactive people are doing better than the less-proactive people.
Timely work is also really important – get out on nice fine days, then follow it up with protective sprays.
This summer, we’re hoping for enough rain to boost fruit growth, without being too much to affect the work on the orchard.
Sean Carnachan
Katikati
Spring has been fairly kind to Katikati growers in that we haven’t had to battle many frosts and it’s been relatively dry. That’s taken a bit of pressure off us with Psa.
The interesting thing, however, is there have been a few growers with spotting on their leaves for the first time this spring. That’s shocked a few of them and made them realise that Psa is around – some of them were getting a little bit blasé about it – and they’ve upped their crop protection programme accordingly.
Because there’s a good payout this year, most growers have the cashflow to do something if it needs to be done. The Gold growers were doing it anyway because they’ve got a high-value crop but some of the Hayward growers were initially a bit reluctant, until the spotting jolted them into action.
The encouraging thing is more Katikati growers are networking with Te Puke growers, who have been through Psa worse than us. We can learn a lot from them and they’ve got case studies on what to do and what not to do.
I can’t stress enough the importance of vigilance and monitoring. The monitoring is two- fold – as well as checking for current symptoms, it gives a base reading by region and gives us historical data to reflect on in future seasons.
We’ll be able to better prepare ourselves, based on weather patterns and how to adjust our crop protection.
Generally, as a region, everyone in Katikati is a lot more at ease with the position they’re in and they’re a lot more confident about both Gold and Hayward.
