Hort focus
Young Grower of the Year – essential to an industry vision
Horticulture needs young leaders – leaders to drive our industry into a future where $10 billion by 2020 is possible. Horticulture New Zealand’s 2015 Young Grower of the Year Hamish Gates, along with the 33 others who competed this year, will help make that vision a reality.
Young Grower of the Year is a series of competitions run by HortNZ and its partners to find the best young fruit or vegetable grower in the country. Competitions start in the regions and are run by local co-ordinators. Four fruit grower events are held in Central Otago, Bay of Plenty, Nelson and Hawke’s Bay and one vegetable grower event is held in Canterbury. Regional events are constantly evolving, with co-ordinators thinking creatively about how to foster best practice and leadership in our young growers. Competitions are held from April to July and spectators are welcome to support contestants while they battle it out for the title of best fruit or vegetable grower in their region. The five finalists from regional competitions move on to the Young Grower of the Year final.
• NZ Young Vegetable Grower – 28 April, Riccarton Park Racecourse and Rydges Hotel, Christchurch.
• Central Otago Young Fruit Grower – 27 May, Otago Polytechnic, Horticulture Training Facility, Cromwell.
• Bay of Plenty Young Fruit Grower – 22 June, Mills Reef Winery, Tauranga.
• Nelson Young Fruit Grower – 1 July, Hoddy’s Orchard and the Headingly Centre, Nelson.
• Hawke’s Bay Young Fruit Grower – 8 and 9 July, A&P Showgrounds, Hastings.
Now in its 10th year, the national final will be held for the first time in Pukekohe at the Pukekohe Indian Association Hall on 20 July. Eight different modules are designed to test the five regional finalists’ practical abilities, business acumen, innovation and imagination. A panel discussion on leadership and a speech at the evening awards dinner will put into practice the communication and presentation skills they develop at the Media and Presentation course included in their regional prize pack.
Hort focus
HortNZ is committed to reaching its vision of $10 billion by 2020 and recognises the development of young leaders as integral to its success. The competition series relies on a strong family of sponsors and is a way for the horticulture industry to invest in the people that are vital to its competitive edge. Young Grower of the Year opens doors through industry connection, media exposure and the opportunity for participants to see the true extent of their capabilities. It is this confidence that encourages young growers to take the next step. What that step is varies from year to year and competitor to competitor. Some have successfully established the Young Leader groups that are now operating in the different regions and several have commercialised the innovation proposal they submitted for their national final. For Hamish, Young Grower of the Year 2015 was a reminder that “the sky is not the limit” and that he can “go so much further – and so can anyone else”. This is the attitude the competition ignites and one that is fundamental to the continued success of New Zealand’s horticultural industry.
Kirsty de Jong Business Manager HortNZ, Young Grower of the Year Manager
Farmlands is a proud supporter of this series, showcasing the next generation of talented growers
Post-harvest care of deciduous crops
Post-harvest inputs for perennial crops are important for the following season’s crop. A healthy tree has increased cold hardiness going into winter and is better equipped for a strong start in spring.
Post-harvest irrigation of tree crops on very dry soils should continue, to maintain good leaf health until leaf senescence starts. Heavy irrigation is undesirable and may increase soilborne diseases and hair root mortality.
Nutrition
Inputs should be based on historical nutrient testing, crop removal information, tree age, vigour, varietal responses, soil reserves and foliar applications made, particularly nitrogen.
Autumn root development is extensive and good nutrient levels winter-stored in roots, young wood and buds improve spring tree health and new tissue development.
Autumn applied nitrogen, boron and zinc are beneficial if levels are low or deficient. Autumn applications of magnesium, manganese and calcium aren’t plant stored and should therefore be applied during the growing season.
Trace elements should not be applied to crops if levels are adequate or unknown, as toxicity may result in serious damage to plants and fruit.
Disease Management
Disease carryover can be minimised by reducing disease inoculum levels after harvest. High levels of over-wintering disease makes effective disease control more difficult in the following season.
The application of copper to stonefruit should commence at about 20 percent leaf fall to reduce the carryover of bacterial spot. One or two further applications should be made in rapid succession during the leaf fall period, as this disease enters through fresh leaf scars.
Avoid applying copper to stonefruit trees too early, as soft growth and foliage may suffer from copper burn, increasing disease susceptibility. Premature, induced defoliation of stonefruit trees may increase the incidence of bacterial spot (Xanthomonas pruni).
High rate copper applications in winter may help prevent blast infection. However allow at least 21 days before grazing sheep, particularly if winter applications of Bordeaux mixture or copper oxychloride are made. Extend this period in dry winters, to reduce copper residues in grass and allow greater growth to further dilute the copper residues.
Post-harvest copper applications in olives reduce carryover of peacock spot, cercospora and anthracnose.
If black spot is present in IFP apple blocks, a leaf senescent dilute urea application (5kg per 100L) is cheap and effective in reducing carryover into spring. Applications made significantly prior to leaf senescence may result in serious bud damage and reduced flower development. As urea applications provide autumn nitrogen inputs, they should be taken into account if additional nitrogen inputs are considered for any variety.
Recent research indicates a significant increase in European canker resulting from high rate foliar urea applications during leaf senescence. Applications are therefore best avoided if this disease is an issue.
Post-harvest protectant fungicide applications (captan or copper sprays) assist in reducing black spot and European canker over wintering inoculum.
Martin Taylor Technical Advisor, Farmlands Horticulture
Hort focus
Keeping our growing green Farmlands’ role in environmental stewardship
Consumers are increasingly aware of environmental issues and their choice to purchase items produced in an environmentally friendly fashion is driving a global trend. Farmlands has also become increasingly aware of environmental issues and is therefore taking the opportunity to have a closer look at their product offerings.
There are many systems adopted to grow a given crop, ranging from organic certified products through to the full use of conventional agrichemicals. Many growers are operating somewhere between these two systems but an increasingly common thread is the desire to reduce the environmental footprint of growing systems.
Regular crop monitoring by Farmlands Horticulture Technical Advisors is important when managing crops with consideration of environmental factors. The correct identification of target pests allows the selection of the appropriate target-specific agrichemical, rather than broad-spectrum alternatives. This results in less disruption to non-target species and unnecessary overuse of agrichemicals.
Beyond Farmlands just supplying products, we now also consider the environmental aspects of where the product is sourced, how it is manufactured and what impact its use will have on the local environment.
All conventional, organic and plant nutrition products go through some form of manufacturing process. Increasingly our suppliers are sharing their environmental success stories with Farmlands, so it’s important that we share these with our shareholders.
Acadian seaweed products are manufactured using sustainably harvested seaweed from Nova Scotia. The sustainable rotational harvest plan is developed in conjunction with federal and provincial scientists and the company conducts ongoing research and monitoring of seaweed populations.
Farmlands is proudly supporting a number of products that are manufactured using ‘soft’ ingredients still have great efficacy out in the field.
HML32 is a fungicide showing great efficacy against powdery mildew in grapes and is produced from fatty acids and potassium bicarbonate. It is often used in preference to conventional chemistry options and just happens to be organically certified.
WETCIT is an advanced adjuvant available only through Farmlands and has been highly successful in improving the efficacy of a large range of pesticides. WETCIT is produced using renewable cold-pressed orange oil, rather than mineral oil bases of other adjuvants.
It is soft on the crop and on beneficial non-target insects.
A number of our suppliers are using recycled materials in the manufacture of their products. Nordox is a commonly used copper fungicide and bactericide supplied by Grochem. Nordox is manufactured in Europe using only high grade copper recycled from copper wire, rather than non-renewable mined copper. The millions of ‘bread clips’ used to clip together viticulture bird netting are produced from recycled plastic.
Other environmental initiatives include the use of Colour-It biodegradable mulch film and the use of recyclable sling bags and pallets. Farmlands is proud to partner with Agrecovery to assist with the disposal of your used agrichemical containers.
Manufactured inputs are a necessary part of all operations but it’s up to all of us to reduce our environmental impact. The success of this is important to the New Zealand brand and the clean/green light in which our horticultural products are perceived by the world’s consumers.
For further information, contact your Farmlands Technical Advisor or the friendly team at your local Farmlands store.
Gaz Ingram
Organic
and Biological
Manager, Farmlands Horticulture
Post-harvest
‘clean up’ in grapes
The main driver of grapevine powdery mildew (Erysiphe necator) is the quantity of inoculum carried over from the past season.
The aim of a post-harvest ‘clean up’ is to stop the production of cleistothecia, so that the infection can’t over-winter. Good disease control can prevent cleistothecia production. However it is generally produced in the late summer to early autumn period, post veraison, when powdery mildew preventative practices historically have ceased.
The initiation of cleistothecia sees the asexual sporulation stop in powdery mildew colonies. Once initiated, cleistothecia start out white, turn yellow, brown then finally black and once there is necrosis of the anchoring hyphae they are considered mature. Erysiphe necator cleistothecia can contain up to 36 ascospores. Once detached, the fruiting bodies are dispersed by rain splash onto bark, trunk, leaf litter and soil. Ascospore survival is consistently higher in exfoliating bark.
Excel Oil, Lime Sulphur and HML32 + Nordox, eradicate the mycelium network on the leaf surface and kill the developing cleistothecia. They will not kill the matured cleistothecia, so eradication before they mature is essential for the management of inoculum. This improves the long-term control of powdery mildew.
An autumn eradicant fungicide followed by a pre-flowering eradicant can be critical in the effectiveness of a season-long preventative fungicide programme. “Action taken to eradicate cleistothecia can reduce significantly the incidence and severity of powdery mildew,” – Gadoury et al.
Bridget Wilton
Technical Advisor, Farmlands Horticulture
References:
Blaich, R.; Heintz, C. and Wind, R. 1989. Studies on conidial germination and initial growth of the grapevine powdery mildew Uncinula necator on artificial substrates. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 30:415-421.
Gadoury, D.M. and Pearson, R.C. 1990. Ascocarp dehiscence and ascospores discharge in Uncinula necator. Phytopathology 80:393-401
Gadoury, D.M.; Pearson, R.C.; Riegel, D.G.; Seem, R.C; Becker, C.M. and Pscheidt, J.W. 1994 Reduction of powdery mildew and other diseases by over the trellis applications of lime sulphur to dormant grapevine. Plant Disease 78:83-87.
Gadoury, D.M.; Wakefield, L.M.; Cadle-Davidson, L.; Dry, I.B. and Seem, R.C. 2012. Effects of Prior Vegatative Growth, Inoculum Density, Light, and Mating of Conidiation of Erysiphe necator. Phytopathology 102 65-72.
Developing cleistothecia
7 days post 3.5% Lime Sulphur
Hort focus
From Vine to Vintage with Farmlands Horticulture
The new Farmlands winery input range, catalogue and technical workshops offer our shareholders even more.
The real winners in a market when you add competition are the buyers. But when that competition comes from a co-operative, the shareholders not only shed cost, they also gain technical support. It is this mantra that has seen Farmlands gain unparalleled momentum over the past couple of years.
Last year, Farmlands entered the winery market through the offering of winery production supplies. For the first vintage, we concentrated on getting our model correct – offering a selection of core winery supplies that were competitively priced, of impeccable quality, with the appropriate documentation and delivered on time.
We have set new challenges for the 2016 season following the launch of our new Winery Product Guide. The guide was launched in November last year and was supported with a series of workshops held from Auckland to Central Otago. These workshops covered winery sanitation, enzyme management in fermentation and winery waste management.
The range of products fulfils all winery requirements, including bulk winery additives, winery sanitisation, enzymes, fermentation aids, winery waste additives, organic winemaking additives and oak adjuncts.
E.E. Muir and Sons was established in Australia in 1927 and in 2007 they started supplying winery consumables to their viticulture clients. They now service nearly 60 percent of the Australian industry. They are HACCP accredited and have their products regularly tested by the AWRI (Australia Wine and Research Institute). They have worked for many years with a select group of suppliers – Enzyme Solutions, Suber Oak and Easy Clean Chemicals. Farmlands has now partnered with E.E. Muir and Sons to bring these same product ranges exclusively to New Zealand for our shareholders. Enzyme Solutions have their own laboratory
and production facility in Melbourne and we have been working with them to develop new and improved enzyme formulations for Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir, to meet the specific requirements here in New Zealand.
Suber Oak International was established by an obsessive French baker who settled in Australia 25 years ago and turned his skills to toasting oak, to achieve the same level of complexity in wine but without the cost of $1,400 per barrel.
Easy Clean Chemicals is now run by second generation ‘mad scientist’ Sean Parsons, who while doing his apprenticeship in the laboratory, risked life and limb to develop a new generation cleaner that simply breaks down into water and oxygen. If you have a cleaning question, Sean has an answer and anyone that attended our first Winery Hygiene Workshop in Marlborough last year will know that! Farmlands has also formed valuable distribution relationships with Castle Chemicals, Enartis, Indac and RX Plastics.
This year Farmlands will be at the forefront, continuing to offer technical support in the form of specialised workshops. If you missed out on the November 2015 round, talk to your local Farmlands Technical Advisor and make sure you get on our invitation list for the next workshop.
Mike Eaton Technical Advisor, Farmlands Horticulture
Be more selective
IPM principles encourage the growth of a healthy crop with the least possible disruption to the agricultural ecosystem. By encouraging natural pest control mechanisms, the dependence of chemical controls can be reduced.
For an effective IPM programme, consideration should be given to all available pest control techniques. By using the appropriate control methods, pest populations can be managed and kept below economic thresholds, as well as reducing risks to human health and the environment. Fundamentally, production output is still the primary consideration. After all, if we can’t produce a crop profitably then we’re out of business! Therefore an IPM programme should always pose the least risk while maximising benefits and reducing costs.
Chemical insecticide control techniques definitely have a fit in an IPM programme but should always be used in a manner that is least disruptive to biological control. Application of insecticides should be determined by periodic monitoring of pest populations and based on when a pest population reaches a level (the economic threshold) that requires treatment, to prevent the population from causing damage that results in economic losses.
Be more selective. When choosing an insecticide for an IPM programme, you need to consider the selectivity of the product – it must offer high levels of pest control whilst minimising the impact on beneficial insects. Highly selective insecticides such as Sparta™ insecticide have revolutionised IPM programmes around the world by offering cost effective, highly targeted control, without the risks associated with organophosphates and other toxic chemicals.
Wiping out an entire pest population is often impossible and the attempt can be expensive and unsafe.
Allowing a pest population to survive at a reasonable threshold reduces selection pressure and therefore reduces the rate at which a pest develops resistance. Similarly, the repeated use of a single class of insecticide will create pest populations that are resistant to that insecticide class, whereas alternating amongst classes helps prevent this.
Sparta contains a unique active ingredient called Spinetoram, derived from a naturally occurring active ingredient that poses minimal risk to key beneficial insects. Sparta’s unique chemistry belongs to the chemical class 5A, which has no known resistance and is ideally suited in rotation with other IPM compatible chemistries. Sparta provides powerful, cost effective control of key insect pests and is well suited to IPM programmes.
Nick Koch DOW AgroSciences New Zealand
Hort focus
Apiculture industry a hive of activity
Things are certainly buzzing in the Apiculture industry in New Zealand. Hive numbers, beekeepers (both hobby and commercial) and everything related to beekeeping is on the rise and this is a good thing – given the significant role the humble honey bee plays, in not only our agriculture but day to day lives alike.
Farmlands is backing this growth by supporting the industry with stock for beekeepers in selected stores throughout the country. So why not get involved with a hive or several of your own. A single beehive can result in a delicious 30kg of honey
per season, in an average year! Good years have seen this number exceeding 50kg and from a commercial standpoint, this could result in some additional income from your land. Grab a copy of the Practical Beekeeping in New Zealand book from your local Farmlands store. This book is a fantastic starting point in getting up and running with bees and will give you all the information you need to get started. Another good place to start is with your local beekeeping club. Visit the National Beekeepers Association website, www.nba.org.nz, to find a beekeeping club near you.
Hort focus Farmlands Horticulture’s new product guides
This season, Farmlands Horticulture is releasing three sector-specific horticulture product guides. Each guide provides an overview of the product offerings available to Farmlands shareholders.
The Farmlands Winery Product Guide was launched in November last year. The details around this guide and the associated grower technical workshops are covered in the previous article (page 4).
Don’t forget to contact your local Farmlands Horticulture Technical Advisor if you want to be included in future technical workshops.
In December last year, Farmlands Horticulture released the Post Harvest Guide. The Post Harvest Guide is designed to introduce new inputs available to shareholders, while profiling the respected traditional product lines. With the input of some of the most prominent suppliers in the industry, the Farmlands Horticulture Post Harvest Guide aims to provide shareholders with an understanding of how Farmlands can maximise their productivity.
Everything that shareholders require for the harvest period is included in this easy to understand, categorised guide. The range of products fulfils all the packhouse needs of shareholders, from sanitisation to waxing, packaging and everything in between.
To complement the Post Harvest Guide, Farmlands Horticulture will be providing shareholders with ongoing technical support, to ensure the guide becomes the perfect snapshot for all your harvest requirements.
The Farmlands Horticulture Nursery and Protected Cropping Product Guide is being released in February. The guide includes fertilisers (including fertigation, slow release and controlled release options), protected cropping acids and green house supplies and nursery products including herbicides, matting and protective cloths. Farmlands Horticulture has built capability in their protected crop and nursery team over the past year. This product guide will be a useful tool to aid Farmlands Horticulture in their expansion into this specialist sector.
Please contact your local Farmlands Horticulture Technical Advisor if you would like a copy of this new guide.
These guides are one more way Farmlands will remain at the forefront of New Zealand horticulture, through both service and supplies.
National Horticulture Manager
Luke Hansen 027 558 2266
Northland
John Lees 027 612 1562
Jeanette Johnstone 027 563 6367
Pukekohe
Steven Dass 027 457 2742
Erik Thomas 027 836 5387
Simon Morley-John 027 836 6190
Bay of Plenty
Andrew McIntosh 027 555 4575
Dean Gower 027 495 4661
Mark Loeffen 027 705 6215
Dwayne Farrington 027 660 1120
Gary Geurts 027 534 7026
Dan McKenney 027 836 1985
John Bird 027 801 2490
Waikato
Brett Turner 027 660 1165
Hawke’s Bay
James Cropper 0274 428 948
Rob Hengst 027 501 4848
Martin Taylor 027 298 8800
Jeff Kevern 027 442 8945
Blake Herbison 027 284 4147
Bridget Wilton 027 511 8096
Evan Walsh 027 201 3481
Shelley Bath 027 807 8000
Arnie Haydon 027 230 9696
Manawatu/Wanganui/Horowhenua
Julie Fotheringhame 027 388 8001
Wairarapa
Sam Black 027 227 2052
Gisborne
Joe Lenaghan 027 555 6080
Hamish Harris 027 807 1598
New Plymouth
John Gordon 06 755 1427
Marlborough
Mike Eaton 021 555 010
Johnny McMillan 027 788 9995
Daniel McDonald 027 902 7040
Lachy Hynd 027 555 4410
Nelson
Luke Hawthorne 021 526 050
Frazer Clarke 027 200 0025
Pattrick Bissett 027 474 2195
Alena Griffith 027 809 8924
Christchurch
Clayton Cook 027 482 0006
Malcolm Duncan 027 434 1261
Mark Daniels 027 431 1292
Central Otago
Kenny Paulin 027 555 8895
Grant McKay 027 534 8629
Hamish Hay 027 445 1527
Organic and Biological Manager
Gaz Ingram 027 511 8097
Technical Manager
Chris Herries 027 443 3910