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.