North Canterbury Field Trip - 7-8 August 2009

The weekend started on the Friday evening with a rather splendid whisky tasting performed by Michael Fraser-Milne of Whisky Galore in Christchurch.

By the end of the session even non-whisky drinkers were able to detect differences between the malts on offer, which for me as a keen enthusiast was a definite result!

Possibly not the best example was Mark Brown who announced that he remembered whisky no. 3 - 'it was bloody awful'!!

Anyway, thanks go to Bronwen Rowse for writing up the Proseed/Stonecircle Organics report. Jenny Barrett - Greening Waipara. Wayne Turner - Elliotts Wholesale Nursery. Jeff Elliott - Limestone Hills.
Special thanks go to the ladies of the Amberley School PTA for providing superb lunches on both days.
Huge thanks also for the support shown by the sponsors: South Hort Products Ltd., Interworld Plastics Ltd, Egmont Commercial Ltd, Scotts Fertiliser and PGG Wrightson (Amberley).

Lastly, to whoever supplied such fantastic weather for the whole weekend, well done and thank you very much.
Jim Knight

Proseed - report by Bronwyn Rowse

We drove into the Amberley seed orchard through pine trees festooned with white bags; of course these are bags over the female cones so pollination can be controlled. The bags have one side clear and one side white and the white side is faced to the north to provide cooling/shade for the cone.
Pollination is performed by injecting air assisted selected pollen through the bag, pollination to fertilisation takes up to 6 months and 18 months to seed production.The orchard is set up for production of seed and has 50 hectares of controlled pollination and 70 hectares of open pollinated Pinus radiata in a total of 160 hectares. The site also grows Douglas fir, Cypress and Eucalyptus..

Pollen is collected, dried and stored on site which enables pollen from late developing varieties to be used on early varieties and also gives a back up pollen source for bad years.From June to August, seed cones are harvested and dried. From these, the seed is extracted, dried, de-winged and dispatched in buckets.

Paul demonstrated wedge grafting of field growing seedling pines. 40,000 grafts are usually made each year to bulk up the desirable clones for the orchard. The union is waxed and the plants are covered with plastic cloches.

Stone Circle Organics - report Bronwyn Rowse

The spectacular Russell Falls in the Mt Field National Park was the first stop of the day and probably the most impressive one as well. A short walk through lush native bush, almost reminiscent of New Zealand soon brought us to the spectacular falls which cascade down over two levels. The photos don't do justice to this one.

This is a small production unit run by a couple and it produces organic vegetables for a group of regular "box" customers and for sale in Christchurch organic stores.

They run 4 areas with only 2 in production at any time. Because it was winter the production beds were slow and not at their showiest. The land not in production had been planted with
a cover crop of oats and vetch and as planting time approached the green crop was worked into the soil.

Surplus paddocks on the farm are harvested for grass to use as mulch and nutrition in the production areas. A plastic house had benches set up and was starting to be used for seedling production for spring crop planting.

The general site had plantings of fruit trees for domestic production and these had mats from olive oil pressing being used as ground cover/weed suppressants. Shelter and amenity planting had made use of native trees.

Greening Waipara - report by Jenny Barrett

On Saturday afternoon (8th Aug) we visited two wineries (Torlesse Wines and Pegasus Bay Winery) which are involved with the Greening Waipara Project. Essentially the vineyards are planting selected native plants (and some exotics) to benefit from nature's services i.e. pollination, pest and disease control, weed suppression, and improved soil quality. Ecotourism is an additional spin-off.

The idea for this came from a number of players. Lincoln University and The Hurunui District Council (HDC) desired to raise the profile of Waipara Valley wineries, and find a way to get travellers to linger rather than pass through on their way from A to B. By recognising and developing the role that living things can play in the vineyard they sought to combine fine wine with a balanced environment. Hence biodiversity has a value which enhances the business and the product, as well as the natural character and resilience of the district.

Research driven by local winemakers, Lincoln university, Landcare Research, and HDC sought to put a $ value on nature's services. Native species contributed to attracting biocontrol agents and pollinators, improving soil fertility, filtering contaminated stormwater and vineyard effluent (wetland restoration). Wineries report astounding savings from dramatic reduction in the use of herbicides and pesticides e.g. Torlesse Wines saved $250/ha/yr on pesticides by planting buckwheat and phacelia (admittedly non-native species) which attracted beneficial insects which controlled vineyard pests.

To date about 50 wineries are involved, plus sheep farms, blackcurrant producers, a school and a few other players. The project is a collaborative effort run by the local growers, council, Landcare, and Lincoln University. Funding is provided by these groups with additional contributions from the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology and the Four Leaf Japan Co Ltd (a food products company).

Any area of a site can be chosen for the "greening" shelter belts, entranceways, stream and pond edges, vineyard borders, or between rows of vines. When a new landowner wishes to join the greening project staff from the Bioprotection Unit of Lincoln University will make a site visit, match plant species to the areas to be planted, and produce a planting plan for the owner.
Selection of native plants is based on two things:

Firstly the use of native species local to the area, so all new native plantings are therefore ecosourced. Prior to human occupation Nth Canterbury had broadleaf forest including totara, matai, lacebark, kowhai, and lancewood.
Secondly a 6yr research project backs up the added value from selected native plants e.g. analysis of the chemical qualities of native plant nectars which attract insects which act as biological control agents in the vineyard. The native nectar can increase longevity of beneficials.

In addition to the native plants a few exotics such as phacelia and buckwheat are also used for their superior power to attract beneficial insects by their provision of nectar and pollen. At Torlesse Wines one row in 10 planted with buckwheat attracts sufficient beneficial wasps to control leafroller caterpillars to below the economic threshold, so there is no need to spray for control of these. Likewise the phacelia attracts hoverflies whose favourite prey is aphids.

Biodiversity Trails

These are the latest phase in the Greening Waipara Project. Torlesse and Pegasus Bay are two of the three wineries that have come on board this initiative which is a world first. These are public trails to display the "ecological makeover" which enhances the sustainability and biodiversity of winegrowing. They are conveniently located near the restaurant or tasting room so that visitors can wander the trail readily, or send the children out so the adults can get some serious tasting done! There are information signs along the trail describing for instance weta hotels or lizard lounges (refuges for the wildlife); or giving information on each plant's Maori, common and scientific name, Maori uses and how the plant benefits the site. There are quizzes for the children to complete along the trail and prizes to be won (like mini flax kete). We tried these out and could manage the younger kids' quiz, but didn't do too well on the older kids' questions. Note that the serious wine tasting was well underway when we tried the quizzes!

Kym Rayner from Torlesse described some of the difficulties in getting the plantings established. Torlesse has planted over 23,500 plants in the past four years. Snow, frosts, and drought proved a challenge. Dripper irrigation was needed to get the plants off to a good start. Weeds were also a big problem. Spraying glyphosate was disliked because it was not only ecologically unfriendly, but the native plants seemed to struggle when this was used nearby. Using a by-product of the winery, namely cardboard packaging and laying it over the weeds provided a good solution. Then grape mulch and bark was put down so weeds are much less of a problem.

Another environmentally friendly move was to lay crushed glass from the winery along the paths of the trail, thereby re-using a resource and keeping the paths free of weeds. (They also intend trialling glass as mulch under the vines for weed control and for heat retention).

Pegasus Bay and Torlesse had quite similar plantings which is not surprising as they are geographically close. Pegasus has a couple of Lincoln PhD students, one researching native ground covers for best weed suppression, improvement in soil structure, and methane production all compared against grass, and the other investigating native plant nectar production and survival of beneficial insects.

The plantings at Pegasus are about 2yrs old and look well established compared to those at Torlesse, which are younger. The following were some of the plants noted on the biodiversity trails: kanuka, manuka, ribbonwood, dodonea, olearia solandri, muehlenbeckia astonii and complexa, lancewood, kowhai, brooms, flaxes, pittosporum tenuifolium and eugenioides, griselinia, pseudopanax, hebes, coprosma virescens, lucida and robusta, cordyline, chionochloa, libertia, dianella, carex, poa, carpodetus, acaena, clematis afoliata, rimu and totara.

All in all a very enlightening experience, capped off by a pleasant environment and informative hosts.

Elliotts Wholesale Nursery - report by Wayne Turner

On Sunday morning we all turned out at Elliott's Nursery, some of us a little worse for wear. Jeff started out with his take on tissue culture 101 and building a Laminar Flow Cabinet on
budget, using his high tech presentation equipment which consisted of some white board marks and fold-up table for a white board.

This was followed by a tour of Jeff's tissue lab and then a gentle walk around the nursery. Jeff started Elliotts Wholesale Nursery in 1981 and the nursery covers about 25 acres consisting of a number of propagation houses, crop covers, shade and hard standing out areas.

As we walked and talked, Jeff was on hand to answer any questions. As always questions lead on to discussions such as the merits of using ducted hot water pipes over electrical cables for cutting propagation. Jeff just happen to have a cut away propagation bed ready to show us and along a demo of his Infrared Temperature Gun (I have got get one those).

Moving on, we came to one of Jeff's more recent projects, the Blubbing Pool. By good planning at early stages of the nursery, Elliott's are able today to reuse/recycle their runoff water. Jeff led a discussion about the potential disadvantages of using recycled water and he suggested that many of these problems can be overcome by letting nature find its own balance. The experiment is ongoing at Elliotts.

Next came another of Jeff's creations, the mobile potting unit. As with many of Jeff's creations, he saw a need and came up with his own solution. Then using his resourcefulness, he built it.
Before leaving Elliott's we couldn't miss the opportunity to have a look at Jeff's studio and on show were his past and current works of art. The high-light was Jeff's latest project, a sculpture of a ballet performer.

Thank you to Jim Knight for organising the North Canterbury field days and Elliotts Wholesale Nursery for allowing us to visit.

Limestone Hills By Jeff Elliott

Life never really ceases to amaze me and the thought of going to meet a kept man and his beagle with an interest in fungus seems somewhat … boring! Fortunately I have meet Gareth Renowden before and have felt moved by his passion for fungus. Unless of course you are Gus Evans and you had a few too many at the railway pub the night before, hence went to sleep during some of the tour. Gareth manages to create with his words and mind, images of large oak trees in heavily wooded areas with the prospect of gold silver and jewels beneath every root. And the prospect of wagons full of gold towed by a mule being taken for sale in the local markets just about to come round the corner.

The main focus of the visit was Gareth's trufear, but that was but only a portion of the talk but perhaps the one most steeped in tradition and the black Truffle is what grows there.

The Black Truffle or Black Périgord Truffle (Tuber melanosporum) is named after the Périgord region in France and grows exclusively with oak. Specimens can be found in late autumn and winter, reaching 7 cm in diameter and weighing up to 100g. At $3000 a kg and a tree producing as much as a kilogram, a few trees and a bit of a wait you have got the making of a gold mine. And that is for the local market; nobody has bothered or had enough to export yet to a potentially very lucrative out-of-season market.

Passion somehow always makes up for poor subject matter and to have a perfect day in the limestone hills, and listen to a kept man talk about fungus was incredibly inspiring experience.