The weekend started at Lincoln University. Clive Kaiser, who has recently been appointed Associate Professor of Horticulture, talked us through plant responses to pruning and the influence of growth hormones and environmental factors.
Continue reading Lincoln University trial block: plant growth and developmentTag: research
Managing the orchard floor for optimal soil health
Summary of a presentation given by Charles Merfield, Biological Husbandry Unit (BHU), Lincoln University as part of the winter 2019 AGM/field day weekend
Originally published in the HGA newsletter, August 2019
Merf delivered a fascinating presentation on the key aspects of a healthy soil and how common orchard management practices can destroy soil health.
Overview
Merf’s key point was that it’s possible to achieve a healthy orchard and clear floor for harvesting while also maintaining biodiversity in the orchard floor, rather than using herbicides that kill soil microorganisms.
Continue reading Managing the orchard floor for optimal soil healthFlowering and pollination
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.
The NZ hazelnut industry. Where to from here?
By Murray Redpath
HGA newsletter October 2010.
Originally presented at HGANZ AGM, 2010
NZ hazel industry 2010:
NZ has over 430 hectares planted, most since 2000. Almost 100% of this area is planted in Whiteheart plus pollinisers so we have an industry dependent on successfully growing and marketing Whiteheart.
There has been a change in the orchard size since 2000 – from mainly orchards of 200-1000 trees to mainly orchards of over 1000 trees (see graphs below).
Fig. 1: Number of hazel trees per grower, SNGA hazelnut seminar 1996 (McNeil, 1996)
Percentage of attendees
60 50 40 30 20 10 0
<200 200-399 400-999 1000->2000 1999
Orchard tree number
Chairman’s report 2010
By Murray Redpath
Delivered to the HGA AGM, 3 June 2010
In late October I attended the annual conference of the Hazelnut Growers of Australia and gave a talk on “The Development of the NZ Hazelnut Industry”. I spent a few days before the conference staying with Basil and Jean Baldwin in central New South Wales. Basil and Jean visited Canterbury in 2006 and spoke at the HGANZ AGM. Basil is semi-retired but still does some work at the Charles Sturt University in Orange. One of his recently completed projects was a guide to the identification of hazelnut varieties grown in Australia.
Continue reading Chairman’s report 2010The hazelnut tree is a wonder
Jeff Olson, Extension agent, Oregon State University
HGA newsletter, Autumn 2003
Horticulturally speaking, the hazelnut tree is clearly out of the ordinary. It is more than just nutty. It is unique and wonderful. The way in which it achieves pollination in the winter and completion of nut set in the spring, is like no other horticultural crop that I have ever heard of. It is a “one of a kind”, just like some of the people in our industry!
Over the years, many researchers have investigated the growth and development of the hazelnut, in an attempt to unlock some of the secrets of this unusual plant. In fairly recent times, 1979, Dr. Maxine Thompson, of OSU, published a very informative article about the growth and development of the hazelnut flowers and nuts. It is one of those information-packed articles that is peppered with words like: megasporocytes, achesporial cells, funiculus of the anatropous ovule…you know what I mean, light reading.
Continue reading The hazelnut tree is a wonder
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