Bay of Plenty orchard 3

General management

  • Pest monitoring, spraying and fertiliser planning is contracted out. Remainder of work is completed by owners and one part time staff member.

Canopy management

  • Tree spaced 10m X 10m
  • Managed as individual trees
  • Max height of trees is 7m
  • Light interception is the priority when pruning, followed by increasing access for spraying and harvesting, structural tree balance removal of dead or diseased material and managing crop load.
  • Trees are structurally pruned once a year in winter. About 30% of the canopy is removed each year.
  • Crop load management in the form of flower or fruitlet pruning is not carried.

Soil and soil moisture management

  • Orchard is predominately sand.
  • Leaf litter and avocado pruning are used to mulch trees.
  • Soil moisture is not monitored. The orchard has not been irrigated for the last 2 years but was in previous 2 seasons.

Pollination

  • Zutano is used as a pollenizer at a percentage of 7-10%
  • A beekeeping business is run from the property. 11-14 honey bee hives per hectare are on the orchard at 1-5% flowering. Hives are located evenly through block. Hives are located in a central sunny spot within the orchard.

Soil and fertiliser application

  • Soil tests are carried out less than once a year in May. Leaf tests are carried out in May every year.
  • A consultant provides a fertiliser plan based on test results and crop loading.
  • The majority of fertiliser is applied by ground application but foliar application is also used.
  • Boron fertilisers are applied as ground application every year.
  • Calcium fertiliser is applied every year as a ground application.
  • Fertiliser in some form is applied 15 times a year.

Tree health management

  • Trees are injected once a year with phosphonate with root testing not carried out to check root concentrations. All trees are injected in autumn.

Frost protection

  • No frost protection is in place in the orchard.