Aug. 5, 2026 |
Where | Bioeconomy Science Institute (BSI) Orchard, 270 Whakarewa Street, Motueka at 1pm; and Lowes Orchard, 233 Waimea West Road, Brightwater at approximately 2.30pm.
The BSI team will provide an update on the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund programme titled ‘Future Orchard Planting Systems’.
This programme is investigating the following areas in experimental and commercial planar cordon orchards of apple, pear and summerfruit:
- Potential barriers in adopting new growing systems
- Tree performance, management techniques & metrics for sustainable yield & fruit quality
- Orchard water use (apple only)
- Economic modelling and evaluation of planar cordon orchard performance versus other emerging and conventional systems.
This field walk is also an opportunity to:
- discuss the performance to date of experimental and commercial pipfruit and summerfruit orchards located nationally
- discuss tree training and establishment of new plantings
- view new proprietary cultivar plantings of apple on planar cordon including novel fruit traits and pest and disease resistant scion selections.
At Lowes Orchard, Andrew and Sue will show us their planar cordon apricots and Sonja apples, and discuss their experiences with the system. They will also show us a few apples trees that have been changed over from the 2D system to planar cordons after disease required a renovation.
For enquiries, please contact: Hannah.McCarthy@plantandfood.co.nz or Rob.Diack@plantandfood.co.nz