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Tim Reid, president of the Tasmanian Fruit Growers Association, is known locally as a great innovator in apples and cherries. For example, he’s found a profitable marketing niche in selling cherries to Japan during their new year. |
Tim Reid of Reid’s Fruits in Hobart, Tasmania, is both a cherry grower and a nurseryman. This new cherry orchard has very wide rows, but Reid expects its overall production to be high. |
Paul Leoni of Hobart, Tasmania, is a large stone fruit grower; on the tour, he outlined his pruning program for peaches, apricots, and nectarines. |
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Howard Hansen is one of Tasmania’s most progressive young growers. Hansen Orchards has been able to weather a sometimes stormy apple market by growing its own trees, and by transitioning some of its crop to cherries. |
Predo Jotic, horticulture manager at the Tasmania Grove Research Station, has been evaluating best planting practices for new apple orchards. While growers planting a hot new variety such as Jazz may be able to afford the high initial investment of some new systems, Jotic explains, growers are often reluctant to move into a new variety until it is too late. |
Tasmanian orchard manager Scott Price pointed out some of the unique characteristics of the local apple market, such as the demand for smaller apples in some markets, and the wallaby problems in some orchards. |
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Simon Webb of Stonehurst Orchard in New Zealand is using Regalis (prohexadione calcium, or known in the U.S. as Apogee from BASF) in his chemical thinning program, and his efforts are paying off. |
New Zealand apricot grower Harry Roberts and Michigan grower/long-time IFTA member Paul Rood swap ideas on stone fruit nutrients. |
Craig Hornblow, a horticultural advisor with AgFirst, was our guide on the Nelson, NZ, portion of the tour. He pointed out that even the best growers in New Zealand are still looking for new ways to do things better in their orchard. |
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At virtually every orchard visit we made, it didn’t take long for the growers in attendance, including this trio from Michigan, to compare ideas and take notes. |
Mike Simpson (in the blue shirt) of Waimea Nurseries explains how the company develops, trials, and manages new apple varieties. |
Richard Hoddy, a third generation apple grower in Nelson, NZ, made an immediate impression on visiting growers with his extremely high-yielding blocks of Cox’s Orange and Royal Gala. |
