It’s harvest time. We have articles for you on grafting, thinning, canopy research, and Actigard™ trials, and reports from the Psa symposium at Mount Maunganui and the New Zealand Institute of Plant and Food Research forum in Te Puke. We also have a special report into sustainability initiatives in the industry. As always, we bring you profiles of growers who open their orchard gates to discuss what works well for them, up-and-coming talents in the industry and the regional roundup from a selection of NZKGI grower representatives.
To say Geoff Harcourt is a busy man is quite a Kiwi understatement. This Edgecumbe Focus Orchard Network (FON) orchardist not only owns and manages 12.3 hectares of kiwifruit across three orchards, he also runs a 20-person kiwifruit contracting crew.
As harvest approaches, many growers or orchard managers will be thinking about the value of doing a final round of pre-harvest thinning. In making this decision, the grower needs to consider a number of issues. These include...
It’s a long way from growing tobacco, maize, groundnuts and winter wheat in the heart of Zimbabwe, to growing kiwifruit on the outskirts of Kerikeri.
But that’s exactly the journey of Derek and Denise van Rooyen and their three children.
This edition’s Young Bud profile is shared across two rising young stars in the kiwifruit industry, working together in Opotiki.
A comprehensive graft-take survey and a range of grower trials undertaken in 2012 by Zespri‘s Orchard Productivity Centre (OPC) have provided considerable new knowledge around grafting and establishment practices. This includes timing and height of stump cutting, the importance of correct grafting techniques, graft dressings, and nitrogen fertiliser applications post-grafting. This article summarises the key findings...
