- Report by Mark Christensen
On 10 June we went to Ray and Jean Hollis' 14 acre property at Te Horo. This was a combined fieldday with Wellington/Horowhenua Branch and the turnout was very impressive.
The property has a lovely feel about it, which may be related to a gentler hand upon the land, evidenced by their recent Biogro certification. We did learn a little about this certification process and I was surprised at just how rigorous it is. Ray and Jean use liquid seaweed sprays, lots of compost mulches and a rock fertiliser called Organic 100 to feed their trees.
We learnt from Ray that their feijoas need to be irrigated and are pretty much gross feeders. They need a lot of pruning, which includes pinching the tips out to encourage branching. They do respond well to heavy pruning back, and it’s important to open up the middle, because they are bird pollinated. "Unique" is a very good cooler climate variety. Apollo, Ray thinks is the nicest tasting. It does tend to be a bit woodier in its growth habit, so lateral fruiting needs to be encouraged. It is also a little more thin skinned, However retailers and customers love them. They also have the Triumph variety which ripens a bit later and is also nice to eat. Feijoas are touch picked, This means you cradle the fruit in your hand and nudge it with your forefinger. If it comes away, then it's ready. The picking season for Ray and Jean lasts for 8 weeks, with picking every day.
Now for the olives - Leccino, a Tuscan variety, is picked first and looks to be a promising variety for the area. (It had ripened 2-3 weeks previously). Ray pointed out that "floppy" branches were the best for fruiting, rather than those that were vertically seeking. Pendolino is a very early variety. It is still a maturing variety on this property, and is a pollinator for Leccino. The Koroneiki were being netted. Those not covered were totally stripped by the birds. The fruit is very small, with a high attachment level. However its advantage lies with its very high oil content. It does however mature very late in the Te Horo area and may therefore be marginal for that location.
The possible use of reflective weedmat or foil was discussed. This can give a 10-14 day advantage with earlier ripening times. It also assists with ripening the fruit on the understory of the tree, which would normally ripen last. During the summer months, olive trees can require 60 litres of water per tree, every 3-4 days. As an experiment to try and increase the pollination potential with the Barnea olives, Ray had tried various grafting techniques. The most successful he showed us was a bark graft. Ray suggests that 10-15% of olive trees planted should be pollinator varieties. Some of these will of course be good olive producers in their own right, e.g. Picholine. Some of Ray's picks for olive varieties that are shaping up well in his area are Sourani, Leccino, Picual, Koroneiki, and Chemlali.
We looked at the fig trial that Ray and Jean are conducting. They have 30 varieties, of which 7-8 do well in their area. However some fruit too late in the season. They have varieties such as Marion Street (an early season variety), Ada Renolds, Mrs Williams. Sugar figs do well, as well as Lesa, which has beautiful crimson red flesh. The markets are for fresh figs. They are potentially a good crop, but they have a nil shelf life. Ray is toying with the idea of covering some of his figs to stop the bird competition. We saw this done successfully at the Christchurch conference and it would greatly improve the quality and amount available for sale.
One of Ray and Jean's latest ventures is in growing passionfruit. We were impressed by their structures for the vines. The passionfruit are doing well, although they are somewhat susceptible to frost damage.
Whilst discussing one of Ray's Tamarillo trees it was mentioned that a Tamarillo will only branch after it has produced 40 nodes on its trunk. This is apparently why a Tamarillo grown from seed grows tall with one trunk before it branches, while one from a cutting thinks it has already reached 40 nodes and branches close to the ground.
Ray and Jean's property was wonderfully diverse, and we were all able to learn a considerable amount as we walked around. We thank you for your hospitality and a wonderful visit.
Over lunch we had an opportunity to sample a selection of exotic subtropical fruits from Rosemary Steele of Nestlebrae Exotics in Helenville. Everyone seemed to be especially taken with the Casimiroas. Varieties such as Millie, Hendriksen, Scheffler, and a Te Puna selection were all delicious and we now know why the Casimiroa is also known as the ice cream fruit. The Surinam cherry and Vanilla passionfruit were also found to be enjoyable to eat. Some also tasted the fruit of the Japanese raisin tree which many had never seen before, the edible bit being the stalk and not the berry on the end.
We finished the day with a very interesting look at the Olive Press at Lindale. It costs $1 a kilo or a minimum of $60 to press your olives. There are also arrangements to amalgamate small lots. The owner of the Press, Robin Pennell, said that from indications so far he believes that the Nelson region will turn out to be special for olive oil. He also said that the official acidity tester that he had bought from Europe measured acidity up to 6%. The acidity from Ray and Jean’s oil was 0.17 of one percent! Why then would the Europeans need a measure to 6%! It was however sobering to know that because of EEC national tonnage rules, Spain had a surplus of 382,000 tons of olives last year.
