Cultivar import update

We have more news and latest photos of the cultivar trees that we imported from Tasmania on our website …here. The trees are growing well.

Graeme

Cultivars Arrive in NZ

Our consignment of walnut trees from Tasmania to begin our new cultivar trial successfully received biosecurity clearance from MAF Biosecurity at Auckland Airport on Friday, which is a great result. To follow their progress and check the story to date, go to our special page … here.

Grand NZ Pickled Walnut Competition

Get ready to pick those green walnuts soon if you are wishing to enter the second Grand New Zealand Pickled Walnut Competition to be judged during March 2010.

Working Be – 9 August

We will be doing a winter clean up at the Lincoln trial block this Sunday – 10.30am.  It is basically pruning work.  It would be great to have a good team of workers there.  Please bring pruning equipment: saws, pole pruners, loppers.  See the map of how to get there on the Events web page.

If the weather is very bad, check this page for up-dates.

Graeme

Follow the Cultivar Import Project

New on the NZWIG Website is a section providing the background and updates on the cultivar importation project.  We intend to keep the pages up to date with progress through the years so that growers can take an interest in how the selections are doing.

Check it out — here.

Talk on Climate Change for Tree Croppers

Tuesday 21 July, 7-9pm, Talk by NIWA on Climate Change

Venue: Canterbury Horticultural Centre, Hagley Park, Christchurch. Talk will be in the Wattling Room on the ground floor.

Climate science, adaptation to and mitigation of changes re tree crops; the value of trees as carbon sinks; tree species suitability in global warming scenarios; historical cycles vs anthropogenic changes in climate.

Choosing the cultivars to import for trial

[the following information has been supplied by Heather North from the NZWIG Research Committee, for members' information and comment.  It outlines the characteristics under consideration for each of the cultivars  - GN]

HOWARD + LARA

Going by the recent Special Information Meeting, people seem pretty happy with Howard and Lara as two definites for import. They came out looking fine in the Lincoln University taste test (no significant difference between these and Rex – though Meyric came out a bit lower).

Walnuts help diabetes control

Walnuts help diabetes control (ScienceAlert)

A new study has found that keeping the diet for type 2 diabetes under control gets a lot of help from including daily amounts of foods with the right kind of fats such as walnuts.

Check out the full article by clicking the link above.

Graeme

A heads up on the future of irrigated Walnut orchards in NZ.

Under the disguise of “The Restorative Program for Lowland Streams” eCan are reviewing water consents in the Rakaia Selwyn region.

The Rakaia Selwyn Consent Review covers 620 existing consents of all sizes, we are one of the smallest consents with only 10ha and a consent of 5 l/s, many of our neighbours are huge farming corporations, unfortunately eCan is insisting we all jump through the same hoops some of which are very expensive, no consent holders will gain anything from this review and most will loose a great deal of their current annual allocation.

It should be noted with alarm that whatever the results of this review it WILL be inflicted on all other consents throughout the eCan’t region in the coming years and other district authorities will use the same results in their areas, this is a National problem.

The next step we face is to have our case presented to a set of commissioners to decide on each consent, the full cost of this falls on the consent holder and is very expensive per minute. Pay up or shut up is the clear message from eCan’t.

What eCan wants is to inflict a water use restriction based on their WQN9 usage plan which results in around 50-60% of the water that is needed to grow large deciduous trees or grass! The figures vary depending on where you are situated.

There is a newly available alternative to WQN9 available from Aqualink and Irrigation New Zealand that is much more realistic and closely matches the results we are seeing in our orchard, I can work these figures for people or burn the CDs or DVDs if requested via   walnut (at) mermadale (dot) com

For our orchard WQN9 offers 56,000 cubic metres per season whereas the Aqualink model offers 90,000 cubic meters both are based on intensive pasture with 80% efficient irrigation, my research indicates that Walnuts need 1.1 times this figure. You can see from these figures that we will struggle to grow good Walnuts, if any, using the WQN9 figures if the Aqualink figures are correct.

The Aqualink figures have been internationally pier reviewed so should be scientifically acceptable, time will tell if eCan can live with these figures which looks doubtful at the moment.

I would welcome any irrigation or evaporation figures from other walnut orchards world wide, please get in touch by email or post a response to this discussion. The more evidence we have the greater the chance of obtaining a realistic consent.

The future of our industry depends on getting these figures right please lobby your MPs and region counsellors to let them know that WQN9 could be the death of tree crops in New Zealand.

As a minimum I strongly suggest that you join Irrigation New Zealand, they are a strong voice and do listen to all their members and are acting to change eCan on the issue of WQN9.

Walnut wood available

We have received a query  through the NZWIG website, as follows:

Maybe not your usual question, however I have just had a large walnut tree felled on my property.

Does anyone / anybody buy these? I have been told the wood is great for wood turning, therefore it would be a pity to sell as fire wood.

I am in the Hawkes Bay and would appreciate any guidance, should you have any.

The message is from Tobias.  He is happy to be called on 021 2862427