226July/August 2014

First FON for Opotiki

Fraser Rd Orchard

A personal challenge and the opportunity to lift Opotiki’s kiwifruit-growing game – this is why the manager of Opotiki’s first Focus Orchard John Phelps signed up to the Zespri Orchard Productivity Centre’s programme.
John is an orchard manager with OPAC and manages the 10-hectare Fraser Road Orchard on the Paerata Ridge, west of Opotiki township across the ocean towards the distant East Cape.

Why Opotiki?

“We want to lift Opotiki’s game - that’s the aim. It doesn’t matter who you pack with, this region’s got something to offer,” John explained.
With around 10 percent of Zespri’s fruit grown in the Eastern Bay of Plenty, the warm climate with plenty of rain and thick, rich soils make the region one of the top growing areas in the country. Shane Max, Zespri’s orchard productivity manager for global supply, said the Focus Orchard Network was set up to help growers improve their orchards’ productivity and profitability and help them grow the premium-quality fruit that markets demand.
Orchard trials and demonstrations are a key part of the programme, taking new science and grower innovations out to orchardists.
“The local community was very keen to set up a FON, given its success in other areas,” Shane said. “It was a difficult decision choosing between the nominated orchards and all the managers were keen to participate, as they could see the value it could bring to the whole district.”
Zespri’s Beth Kyd has recently joined the OPC team and will be directly responsible for the Opotiki programme. Four field days a year will be held on the orchard and this programme is a great opportunity for local growers and their staff from all three local packhouses to get together and share their experiences and tips.
“We’ve found the FON programme in other districts has really helped bring the local growing communities together,” Beth said.

Why Fraser Road?

Fraser Road Orchard is at an elevation of 90m and has around 6ha of Gold3 grafted in 2011 and 2013, as well as 4ha of Hayward. High taste levels and improving productivity are a key focus for this orchard, which is owned a consortium of shareholders.
John explains his goal is to improve production from 8,500–9,000 te/ha for Green to 12,000 te/ha, as well as reaching 15,000 te/ha of good-taste, good-size 76 Gold3 – and putting himself up in front of his peers is an additional incentive to achieve those goals.
“I’m competitive and I don’t like to be beaten. I’ve got high standards and I beat myself up if I don’t achieve them,” John said, with a hint of a smile.
He describes kiwifruit as “a pretty good life” and moved to Opotiki in 2009 from Tauranga with his family – wife Claire and two young children. “I like the quiet little towns,” the Gisborne-ite, who takes full advantage of the area’s outstanding hunting and fishing, said.

How FON works

An orchard management team will be working with John and Zespri staff to determine their goals for the coming season. As part of the Focus Orchard Network programme, John and the
team will look right across the orchard and review everything from pest management, pollination, soil and leaf testing, Psa monitoring and fruit sampling methodology. There is also a formal reporting process at the end of the year to measure progress towards meeting those goals.
Sustainability is another area of interest for John. “We need to back up what we say. We call ourselves green in the marketplace – are we what we say?”
Being part of the FON is another way for him to tap into expertise in this area, which can then be shared with others.
“I’m looking forward to being closer to the information and meeting new people,” he said.

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Sean Carnachan

Katikati

After the Easter weather event, it really emphasised how important it is to keep monitoring and using crop protection programmes. It was an eye-opener to show the growers what was in their orchard and that the bacteria was still around – lots of juvenile wood with wind-rub was quite clearly showing signs of Psa.
We had a great harvest and our Gold3 crops were stunning. We had amazing pack-outs with large, clean fruit and it handled beautifully through picking and the pack-houses.
Gold9 crops were also outstanding – we ranged from between 16,000 and 23,000 te/ha, with better dry matter this year and better size. It also picked well this year and as the vines mature, the stalks seem to be snapping off a lot cleaner.
Dry matters were a little bit down in Hayward crops on previous years, although size and yields were both good.
We were incident-free until two big frosts late in the harvest – the second one got down to -2.8degC, which is the coldest I’ve ever had it in May. All the fruit in frost-prone orchards should’ve been off but there were a few caught out and some of that fruit might be concerning.
The frosts contributed to our longest picking day ever – we had a crew that started at 8am and finished at 1.25am the next morning!
There will be very little Gold3 grafted this winter because most people have already mopped up any licenses still out there. The alarming thing is potentially how well it’s going to yield in years to come and how we’re going to manage the volumes of fruit post-harvest.
In terms of where we have been in the last few years, they are good problems to have though!

Mark Hudson

Whakatane

Whakatane growers finished harvesting by the start of June, which is the earliest for some years. Good teamwork between growers, contractors and pack-houses has enabled this, along with the most favourable weather. The region also had an abundance of harvesting capability, to get the crop off at the optimum time.
The most challenging aspect of the season has been the picking and grading of hail-damaged fruit, stemming from a storm in mid-January.
The extent of the damage was often worse than expected and the undamaged fruit did not size up, due to the poor canopy which was also damaged by the hail. Many affected growers did not thin, hoping to maximise Class 2 returns, but this meant some lines had 60-70 percent non-Class 1 fruit that was very slow to grade and pack.
Hayward crops were generally much better than last year with less flower drop.
Green14 crops were, on the whole, disappointing with small fruit and possible pollination issues. To top it off, blocks suffered from fruit drop of hard and softer fruit just prior to harvesting.
Those growers who still have Gold9 had excellent crops of large fruit. Some growers had issues of out-of-line maturity, with a portion of fruit remaining unripe.
Gold3 crops came off well, at better than estimate and with high taste. For most growers, this was their first crop. Growers are looking forward to possibly doubling their crop next year with the quantity of cane they have to tie down.

Paul Jones

Te Puke

Growers and packhouses are celebrating the completion of a very successful harvest season.
Te Puke picking conditions were unusually favourable and, coupled with excellent quality crops, meant that the picking teams and post-harvest were able to process crops in record time. Everybody should have made it to the Fieldays this year!
Crop quality was outstanding overall, with the Hayward size ideal for Zespri’s requirements. Te Puke Hayward orchards at lower elevations generally saw a heartening recovery from the Psa- affected volumes of 2013. The new variety crops were also very rewarding, with many Gold3 and Gold9 orchards exceeding pre- harvest estimates. However, Green14 continues to be problematic this year due to on-orchard fruit drop and overripe fruit.
Winter arrived rapidly in the last week of May with two severe frosts, around -3degC in exposed areas. This has done a great job of removing the leaves and gaining some worthwhile winter chill units.
Te Puke, the first area to crash when Psa arrived, has now become the epicentre for orchard value recovery, which has seen a dramatic lift to pre-Psa values.
We now look forward to a Psa-kind winter and a continuation of increasing grower confidence. Best of all, we have a hungry marketplace for our 2014 crops!
Best regards to all growers for the coming season.

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