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Male Flower Collection
Because of the uncertainty of how well male kiwifruit vines will survive the next few years, Growers are strongly recommended to assist themselves and the industry, with male flower collection this season.
As per our earlier communication (October 11th) we have contracted “Pollen Plus” to mill flowers for pollen collection. They will also organise flower picking if required.
Please contact Alistair Holmes at ‘Pollen Plus’ on 027 499 3355 or Geoff Signal at Satara on 027 212 5600.
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Living with Psa
Psa is here to stay for the medium term at least and should now be a regular thought in the management of your orchard.
The key messages have not changed;
- Protect your orchard
- Monitor your orchard (remove secondary symptoms if practicable)
- Maintain hygiene protocols
Protection of your orchard is an on-going process because of your ever expanding canopy. Psa control products should be on before “at risk” weather events (periods where the canopy is wet for 24 hours or more).
As always, good coverage is essential and more frequent spraying helps improve coverage of our protection sprays.
Monitoring of infection allows, where practical, removal of infected parts sooner to minimise total losses. Marking the areas also allows you to monitor the progress and speed of the disease. Monitor male vines only on Hayward variety (in the first instance), but both male and female vines on Gold and New Varieties.
Hygiene protocols need to be simple and effective so they will be used every time.
Andrew Stevenson - Technical Manager
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Orchard Maps
Satara Laboratory Services are busy updating orchard maps in preparation for the 2013 season. Please ensure that the laboratory is informed of any changes to maturity areas, block details, etc.
New variety graftings require a GPS audit map and a copy of this should be forwarded to the lab when available.
Please post to Satara Laboratory Services, Washer Road, PO Box 243, Te Puke or fax to 07 573 8604. Alternatively, email ian.raeburn@satara.co.nz.
Any queries can be directed to Ian on telephone number 07 573 0911.
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Managing Male Vines
Managing male vines is as important through all parts of the growing season as it is for the female canopy.
The “spur” or “low vigour” male pruning technique is an effective way to maximise the potential of your male vines by increasing the number of flowers from short “spurs” with large numbers of buds and also provides an open, well lit environment for the bees to work during pollination. This also aids spray coverage for Psa protection.
- Remove/reduce high crowns for ease of access by pruners (avoid removing growth points if possible).
- Remove growth that crosses over the leader
- Promote spur growth by retaining and trimming spurs to desired width and height. (Retain 10-15% of vegetation to support vine)
- Extend vines if necessary using strong vegetative growth
- Conventional orchards paint large cuts with pruning paint.
Removal of the most vigorous growth, to a button stub, quietens down the re-growth and lessens the need to cut the males again later in the season.
All male pruning should preferably be done in dry weather with Psa protection applied immediately after pruning completion.
Andrew Stevenson - Technical Manager
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Canopy Management
Early Season (pre Christmas)
Canopy management techniques aimed at maximising fruit size are essentially the same as we would employ to maximise dry matter.
We want to aim primarily towards an open canopy, to maximise bee activity during pollination and to minimise shading of the lower laterals that, if they lose their leaves, tend to produce the bulk of our 39’s and 42’s size fruit (the lower paying sizes).
1) Leader Area
a) Remove all excess unfruitful vigorous shoots while they are small.
b) Thin out excessive spur growth in this region, especially around the crown of the plant.
2) Canopy Area
a) Remove all vigorous unfruitful shoots.
b) Remove downward growing weak spurs especially.
Fruiting shoots should if possible only be tipped - resist cutting. The decision to be made in the canopy is “will this shoot terminate or continue growing and cause a tangle or shading?” If it is going to terminate, don’t touch! If it is going to cause a problem, tangle or shade, squeeze tipping is first choice and cutting is the last option. Some tangles don’t matter.
All cuts are a possible Psa entry point. Consider the weather conditions before ALL canopy work.
It is believed that nothing can be done to change Mother Nature’s influence on your business. You can have an impact on altering your microclimate to help minimise the impact of natural influences and maximize your crop quality through effective shelter, canopy management and relevant protection equipment.
Planning and responding to the influence that the weather has on your “growing” business is essential. Now with the discovery of Psa, this is even more true. Infection periods for Psa are thought to be linked to wet and windy weather conditions, so timing of jobs in the canopy need to take into consideration the weather conditions over the few days before and after the task and periods of risk (rain) need to be avoided. Spray applications of Psa protectants will also need to coincide with periods of risk also.
Andrew Stevenson - Technical Manager
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Quality Update
As the kiwifruit nears the end of 2012 season, the Quality Services Dept (QSD) launches into the GLOBALGAP inspections for the 2012/2013 export crop.
To explain in simplified layman’s terms; Zespri, as the Producer Management Owner, (PMO) has combined two compliance certified standards which are GLOBALGAP and Tesco Nurture and created from this the ZESPRI GAP checklist.
All Management System Owners (MSO) should have received their 2012/13 pack from Zespri. You probably have been contacted by our Quality Services administrator endeavoring to make appointments for your ZESPRI GAP inspection to be completed — if not you will receive a call soon. If within the following two weeks you do not receive a call please do not hesitate to contact the Quality Services Department to make an appointment.
At present we have three qualified inspectors and three trainees. The trainees have been attending some of the inspections and I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your patience and perseverance. The inspectors are about to be put through their paces with ZIL shadow audits, of which they are required to complete one. As the trainees become confident and competent they will need to carry out two shadow audits with a ZIL QA.
To date we have approximately 127 MSO inspections to complete. We have completed approximately 40 of those. Thanks to all the efforts both yourselves as growers and MSO owners have put toward these inspections and also a huge thank you to our inspectors.
Sonja Van Silfhout—Quality Services Manager
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Orchard Performance Booklets
With the completion of CA packing, the individual Orchard Performance Booklets will be printed and posted in the next couple of weeks.
KVH Risk Model
On the KVH website (www.kvh.co.nz) there is a Psa-V Risk Model that uses Met Service
data to rank infection risk.
The maps (individual for all kiwifruit growing regions) cover two or six day periods and display;
- wind
- rainfall
- relative humidity
- temperature
and produce a risk from Low (blue) up to High (purple).
You need to be a registered user and have a log-on password which is available from KVH on 0800 665 825.
The map and information is worth a look, as it pictorially displays what your risk is on your orchard.
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Visit our website to view our Timely Reminders for Hayward, Hort 16A and New Varieties
www.satara.co.nz
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