IPPS Japan Reciprocal Exchange - 2010

By Brett Harris
October 2010

On the 10th of October 2010, I departed Auckland Airport for Japan as part of the IPPS Reciprocal exchange. In preparation for this exchange I had spent time speaking with IPPS members in New Zealand who had been to Japan for the IPPS in the past, and I also brushed up on my Japanese language and cultural skills. As part of my exchange I was required to present at the conference, so I spent some time taking photos of Christchurch, and the nursery operations at Oderings Nurseries. I put these together in a PowerPoint presentation for the IPPS Japan conference.

Arrival into Japan
Upon arriving in Kansai International Airport, Osaka, Japan at 7.30am on Monday 11 November 2010, I was met by Doctor Nobasa Nito, the IPPS Japanese International Director. It was great to find that Dr Nito spoke excellent English. Dr Nito and I caught a super express train for the main station in Osaka, which is about an hour long trip from the airport. Dr Nito regaled me with stories of his recent trip to the American IPPS International conference, including New Zealand members he had met.

Dr Nito also spoke about the current state of horticulture in Japan. It was most interesting to learn that in the 1960’s 25% of the Japanese population was employed in horticulture or agriculture. In 50 years this has dropped to about 1%. Horticulture and agriculture is now mainly thought of as a weekend job for people who don’t make enough during the week and need to earn a little extra to make ends meet. I also found subsequently that growers in Japan seem to all get on, and have a great deal of mutual respect for each other. After our arrival into the main station (Shin-Osaka Station) Dr Nito helped me to catch the bullet train (Shinkansen) to travel by myself to Okayama.

Okayama – Ohuchi Family
Upon arrival at Okayama Station (about a one hour train trip at speeds up to 285km per hour) I was met by Shiginari Ouchi (Shigie who attended the New Zealand IPPS Conference in Blenheim 2010). Shigie and his father Iwe (Johnny) look after the family farm or nursery, which is approximately 20km from Okayama.

The Ohuchi family nursery is spread over an area of approximately 10 acres. The family owns several glasshouses scattered through the area, while other glasshouses in the same area are owned by two other growers. To make it easier for visitors to the area, each of the glasshouses has a colour poster with the owner of the glasshouse’s face on it. The family, much like other Japanese growers, have diversified into food crops. I found out that the government offers incentives for farmers to grow food crops, with the countries aim to become more self-sufficient in the future.

The family specialise in Cymbidium orchids, and sell between eight to ten thousand orchids each year, for about ¥2000 - ¥6000 ($NZ30.00 - $NZ100.00) depending on the number of flower stems. Oncidium orchids are also grown, however in lesser quantities. The main times for gifting in Japan are mid year (Golden Week) and the Christmas - New Year period. New Year is a traditional time for people to travel domestically and return to their home towns. The Christmas gifting season is a great time for orchid sales.

The Cymbidiums are grown during the summer months (May-October) in a mountainous area about 120km (2 hours by truck) North West from the family nursery. The orchids are grown under shade cloth and are suspended between metal poles for drainage. The orchids are brought back to the family farm for the winter (October –February) as the mountainous area will be buried under snow. The orchids are picked over at the mountain and out into black plastic trays that hold five orchids. Any orchids suspected of having a virus are destroyed, which I learnt after touching an orchid containing a virus and having my gloves replaced and any other orchids I had touched since destroyed. The field where the shade house is located is extremely muddy and is filled with brightly coloured frogs. Each truck that transports the orchids holds approximately 6000 orchids, with two trucks in use for each trip. After all of the orchids have been moved from the mountain site, the shade houses are dismantled, so no damage from the snow can occur. There are five women working for the family in the nursery, who do a lot of impressive heavy lifting of the trays of orchids. The orchids are all sold in flower, and kept separate by variety in the nursery. The trays are pushed down a series of aluminium rollers so they can be run off directly into the glasshouse when unloading them from the trucks.

The Ohuchi family also grow dragon fruit, grapes and aloe vera. The aloe is grown for a digestive drink. The dragon fruit is pink on the outside with intermittent bits of green foliage that look like scales. The fruits come in three colours of flesh, being pink (sweet, round fruit), yellow (sweet, round fruit) and white (bland, oval fruit). Dragon fruit is sold direct from the farm as well as delivered to specialised fruit and vege shops. It is sold individually, with the price according to the size and weight, approximately ¥500 to ¥1000 ($NZ8.00 - $NZ17.00). The flowers of the plant are pollinated by hand, and from that stage it takes about two months before the fruit reaches a saleable size. Harvesting is done three times a week.

The Okayama area is famous for grapes, particularly sweet Muscat type grapes. The family grows both red and white skinned grapes. Japanese table grapes are large compared to the grapes available in New Zealand. Each bunch is sold to green grocers, and sell for approximately ¥700 to ¥1100 ($NZ11.50 - $NZ18.00) for a small to medium bunch. The skin on the grapes is very thick.

The Ohuchi family also deals with an organics shop in central Okayama. Organics are not as popular in Japan as they are now in New Zealand, the attitude being that people cannot see why they should pay anymore for them than regular fruit and vegetables. Quality standards are exceptionally high in Japan, which also impacts this view. There is no such thing in Japan as a second, all low quality fruit is either eaten by staff or the farmers, or thrown away.

The time when I arrived in Japan is the traditional time for the rice harvesting. Rice is harvested by a small machine which looked like a snowmobile. I found the Japanese to be incredibly resourceful with the husks from the rice harvest slowly burnt, and mixed with an all-round fertiliser (13-13-13) and used as a feed for the orchids and grapes.

The Ochuchi family have a colour catalogue with examples of wrapped and beautifully presented Cymbidium and Phaelanopsis orchids and cyclamens. When a client orders cyclamens or phaelanopsis orchids these are brought in from other growers and repackaged to be sent out. Some of the phaelanopsis can retail for up to ¥50,000 ($NZ850.00) each. These are gifted for many reasons in Japan, frequently on the opening of a new business for luck.

On one of the many outings I was generously taken on by the family we stopped at a mega centre called Komeri. They had a large range of conifer, shrubs, bedding plants, bulbs and gardening accessories. Cyclamen and pansies seemed to dominate the current bedding trend. On another trip we stopped at a garden centre. Much like in New Zealand the garden centre had a much better selection than the mega centre, however the prices were 30-50% higher at the garden centre. People seemed happy to pay the extra to shop at the garden centre as a trade off for the better selection and more specialised plant advice. I also found the Japanese garden centres sell fresh and dried fruit as well as alcohol. The garden centre at Soja City had some of the Ochuchi families’ dragon fruit on sale. Each dragon fruit was ¥1000 or two in a presentation box for ¥2500.

Suzuka – Uchida Family
I was taken to Suzuka on the 16th of October by car, a trip of approximately 5 hours. The Uchida family consisted of Mr Uchida, his wife and four children (one girl, three boys), being a large family by Japanese standards. Their nursery is called Tumugi, which means “Together we are stronger, like the fibres of a rope bound together”.

Mr Uchida, like most people working in horticulture in Japan, works seven days a week. The second day in Suzuka I went with Mr Uchida to do a landscape gardening job, which he does in the weekends after spending the weekdays at his nursery. The garden we were to landscape was approximately 2.5metres long and 50cm wide – a raised planter box! We removed a tree stump and replaced all the soil, and planted new plants. This took about three hours, and the charge to the client was ¥150,000 ($NZ2,500.00). It looks like a great place to do landscaping work!

Mr Uchida and his wife both start work at 5am on weekdays. His wife is a traditional Japanese baker, who sells at a local farmers market, and is building a café on their land to also sell the baking through. Mr Uchida starts so early to get the work ready for the day at the nursery, as he has ten people working for him. Some of these are university students, and others are (as Uchida calls them) “Brain health people” who come from the local hospital to work each morning.

Our first task was to prune figs. There is a field with about 400 figs planted out, three varieties: Brown Turkey, French Sugar and a variety called Peter, named after Peter Waugh. The figs are two years old and we are pruning them for espalier training. Fruit and all laterals are removed to train the trees into a “Y” shape. The clippings are placed around the base of the tree. The figs are in rows of 15 and the wires for training will be added in winter.

Uchida also grows mondo grasses. We had to get up trays which were approximately 25cm square and had 60 mondo grass divisions in them. The order was for 1040 trays, with each tray sold at ¥400 ($NZ6.50). These were loaded onto the back of a flat deck truck to be delivered to a transfer depot. Uchida isn’t going to keep growing mondos or conifers, as he is in favour of growing strawberries and figs.

The strawberries grown by Uchida are planted in mounded soil in tunnel houses. The fruit is sold by the punnet direct from the farm, as well as to outlets, gaining about ¥500 - ¥700 ($NZ8.00 - $NZ12.00) per punnet. The plants are also sold to other growers, after they have been raised from runners. It was interesting g to learn that the same disorder that Oderings nursery is having trouble with and strawberries dying is also being experienced in Japan. Unfortunately the Japanese have not been able to identify the problem or any solution as yet either.

Another day I was lucky enough to be taken to a grower’s meeting, where I was introduced to Jinenjo which is a mountain yam. Uchida was trailing seed and germinating this whilst I was there. At the meeting we ground these up in a mortar and pestle and made a paste to be eaten raw. It was interesting to see a new vegetable which I haven’t experienced before, and to see the size of it, which can get up to 1metre long.

IPPS Conference – Nagoya
I travelled to the conference with Mr Uchida, who is the President of the Japanese IPPS Executive committee. It was interesting to note that all attendees of the conference were in shirt and tie – a lot more formal than the New Zealand conferences. The first day of conference was entirely dedicated to talks, with the first two special talks on genetic modification and creation of the Suntory Blue Rose and the second talk on management of human resources. These talks went for approximately one hour each. The remainder of the day was filled with 15 minute short topics, including Shigi’s talk on his visit to New Zealand. My presentation was the last for the day, and I showed a PowerPoint on my Job in New Zealand and the New Zealand IPPS. I was lucky enough to be translated by Kaneto Aoyama who is to be my next host.

The second day of conference is dedicated to field trips, and a lot more casual attire. Both trip options start at the Toyoake Flower Auction which is a Dutch auction that runs on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. There are upwards of thirty trucks unloading as we arrive, and numerous flowers moving around the auction floor on a train type system. The groups then split and the other group visits a fig breeding facility. I was lucky enough to be put into the group to visit Hayakawa Engei who is Japan’s largest cyclamen breeder. The nursery is huge and all the cyclamen are grown under glass. At any time 3.6million cyclamen are on site. The head grower has trained many nurserymen about cyclamen and the nursery is considered the ultimate place to learn about cyclamen breeding and cultivation.

After the cyclamen nursery we visit Aoyama’s pot factory Kaneya Co. The company initially began making car parts after world war two and have moved into plant pots since then. Kaneya has a 30% market share in Japan as well as clients worldwide. Recently Kaneya has diversified into chemicals, plant support systems and flower buckets for growers to display plants at auction. We saw the steam sterilising system to clean the flower buckets after use so they can be reused, which was surprising since I had encountered limited reuse of products in Japan before this point.

IFEX Expo – Chiba

Whilst being generously hosted by Aoyama and his company Kaneya in Chiba (20 minutes from Tokyo) we visited a Bonsai Museum. There where bonsai shrines and retail shops in the surrounding area, where bonsai was retailing upwards of $NZ7,000.00. The museum was breathtaking with many specimen, some of which are hundreds of years old. The rules of bonsai style and form are incredibly confusing I found. I also discovered that the art form is dying, with the younger generation not interested in learning the complex art and methods of bonsai.

The next day I attended IFEX, which is one of the largest horticulture expos in Asia. Aoyama’s company has two stands, one for pots and one for a tomato growing system that can be rented, and lifts the tomatoes off the ground and grow them up a frame. Among the numerous other stands I saw in two days of attendance were Fertil, Jeleto, Teku, DuPont and Morel Seeds. Kaneya is also an agent for Morel cyclamen seeds and pinstruop peat. It was amazing to have the opportunity to attend such a large show, and see so many different ideas, some of which I hope to work on in the future.

Synopsis

Phaelanopsis Orchids for dispatch

I was privileged to be chosen to represent both the New Zealand branch of the IPPS in Japan, and also to be an ambassador for New Zealand. I found all my Japanese hosts to be more than generous, kind, accepting and welcoming. The experiences and friendships I have made stand out for me; I also feel that I learnt and will gain from the horticultural experiences I had whilst in Japan. My enthusiasm and passion for horticulture has grown once again, and I look forward to fully utilising my experiences in the future.

Jinenjo (Mountain Yam)

I thank both my host families (Ohuchi, Uchida & Kaneto Aoyama) along with the Japanese branch of the IPPS and the New Zealand branch of the IPPS for this opportunity. I also thank Murray Mannell, Shirley Ogilvy and Peter Waugh for their help and support. I encourage any young member to actively take part in pursing the chance to undertake the exchange that I have, and look forward to working with young members of our society to foster new learning and understanding.