Most positive influence on orchard performance
- Pruning has had best outcome on orchard.
Most negative influence on orchard performance
- Pack out is lower than would like. Mix of wind and insect.
General management
- Pollination, pruning, fertiliser planning and spraying is contracted out. Remainder of work is completed by owners.
Canopy management
- Hass on Zutano 14m X 14m
- Hass on Dusa 7m X 7m
- Managed as individuals in grid
- Max height of trees is 7m
- Light interception is the highest priority when pruning followed by structural tree balance, increasing access for picking and spraying, management of crop load and removal of dead or diseased material.
- Trees are pruned once a year in Autumn.
- About 15% of the canopy is removed each year.
- Flower or fruitlet pruning is not carried out.
Soil and soil moisture management
- Orchard is predominately silty clay loam
- Leaf litter and avocado pruning are used to mulch trees.
- Soil moisture is not monitored.
- The orchard is fully irrigated with ground based micro sprinklers.
- At peak summer it is common to irrigate for 4 hours per irrigation event once a week using 2 sprinklers per tree with a 2m throw that deliver 70l/hr (mm per irrigation event)
- All trees have the same sprinkler heads and number of sprinklers. Young sprinkler has 1 sprinkler and older ones have 2. Young trees 2 hour of irrigation
- Condition of pipework including mainlines, sub-mains and lateral pipework is inspected at least annually.
Pollination
- Pollinizer species include Bacon and Zutano, at a percentage of more than 50 polleniser 43 Zutano and 7 Bacon of total trees.
- Honey bee hives are brought onto the orchard before flowering at a rate of 3-4 hives per hectare. Hives are located evenly through block. 4 blocks 3 hives in each
Soil and fertiliser application
- Soil and leaf tests are carried out once a year in April/May.
- A consultant provided 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 and foliar every year.
- Calcium fertiliser is applied when deficient as a ground application.
- Fertiliser in some form is applied 12 times a year.
Tree health management
- Trees are injected once a year with phosphonate in autumn with no root testing carried out.
Frost protection
- No frost protection is in place in the orchard.