Bay of Plenty orchard 14 - New Zealand Avocado

Biggest positive influence is probably the soil. Land was a market garden after World War 2 then kiwifruit and planted in avocados around 1990. Have seen positive result of applying 10t/ha of compost a year for the last few years.

Wind is the biggest negative from the West and North East. Harvest is generally good if strong westerlies stay away.

Pollination, pruning and fertiliser planning, pest monitoring and spraying is contracted out. Remainder of work is completed by owners. Low pruning is done by owners.
Have pruned up skirts of trees to help wind blow through orchard as trees used to act like sails and get blown over.
Have planted Hass on Bounty on mounds at 4-5m spacing. Once they are cropping then height will be reduced more heavily on older part of orchard.

Tree spaced 12m X 12m for older section and 4-5m spacing on new block.
Max height of trees is 8m but working to get down to 6m with plan to keep new tree height to 5m.
Structural tree balance is the main priority when pruning followed by light interception, increased access for picking and spraying, removal of dead or diseased material and management of crop load.
Trees are structurally pruned once a year with larger cuts made in winter. About 20% of the canopy is removed each year.
Flower pruning or fruitlet removal is not carried out.

Orchard is predominately sandy loam.
Leaf litter and mulch is the dominant ground cover under trees with some avocado and shelter pruning making up the mulch.
Soil moisture is not monitored.
The orchard is 100% irrigated with in-canopy micro sprinklers.
At peak summer it is common to irrigate for 4 hours per irrigation event once a week using sprinklers with a 10m diameter that deliver 106l/hr (5.4mm per irrigation event).
Sprinkler heads that distribute different volumes over different area are chosen based on tree size and age.
The condition of pipe work and control valves has been checked in the last year for proper function. Sprinklers heads are monitored regularly.

Pollinizer species include Bacon, Ettinger and Zutano at a percentage of more than 12%
Honey bee and bumble bee hives are brought onto the orchard at about 5-10% flowering at a rate of 8-10 hives per hectare. Hives are placed equally in the blocks.

Soil and leaf tests are carried out once a year in May.
A consultant provides a fertiliser plan based on test results and crop loading.
The majority of fertiliser is applied as ground application by hand but foliar applications are also made.
Boron and calcium fertilisers are applied as ground application every year.
Fertiliser in some form is applied 10 times a year.

Cryptomeria and casurina trees make up all the shelters and are about 8m high on most boundaries.

Trees have injected with phosphonate once a year. Root testing of phosphonate levels are carried out each year.

No frost protection system is used in the orchard.