By Murray Redpath
HGA newsletter September 2011
The warm autumn experienced this year has highlighted the importance of current research into flowering and pollination behaviour of different cultivars at different locations around the country.
- In South Canterbury (Geraldine), Lansing was in flower in mid-July but of the others only Butler had any flowers. Merveille, Alex and Whiteheart were shedding pollen from early July at least. By late August, there was still some flower on Butler, Ennis and MT18/114 but Lansing flowering was over. Merveille pollen was finished but Alexandra and Butler were still shedding.
- In North Canterbury, Alexandra had an unusually long lead-in to pollen shed and peak dates seem about 2 weeks earlier than last year; MdB peaked 2 weeks later than Alex and had more prolonged shedding than previous years. Whiteheart flowering is later than previous years and looks likely to miss most of the pollen altogether.
Information on flowering and pollination in your orchard is vital to building up a complete picture of the behaviour of different cultivars throughout the country.
Flowering will be over soon so please email the results through as soon as possible so details can be analysed before Dr Grau’s visit.
Email: wairataforestfarm@farmside.co.nz
Submit online via http://www.hazelnutgrowers.org.nz.
Post: Bag 1070, Opotiki 3162
A recording sheet and information about how to record your flowering information are available in the members’-only section of http://www.hazelnut-growers.org.nz.