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.

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.

In 2008 our first winner, Ngaroma Ngata of Tolaga Bay, took home the winner’s trophy and a runners up certificate.

Jan MacKenzie, of Christchurch, with her ‘Jan’s Jungle’ pickled walnuts

was the other runner-up.

Overall there were 23 entries forwarded from all parts of New Zealand.

The second Grand Pickled Walnut Competition

run by the New Zealand Walnut Industry Group

is to be held in conjunction with the

New Zealand Tree Crops Association’s National Conference

to be held at the Sudima Hotel, Christchurch, Canterbury

Thursday 25^th – Sunday 28^th March 2010

A special dinner on Friday 26^th March as part of ‘Taste of Canterbury’

will feature the Pickled Walnut Competition entries and the winners will be presented with their awards.

The judge for this event is well known food writer and food identity,  Mavis Airey, who will speak at the ‘Taste of Canterbury’ dinner and present the awards.

Entry Form

Entry form and competition information is also available on

the NZTCA Conference 2010 website www.treecrops.org.nz

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

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.

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.

[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).

Lara flowers quite late – 28 days after Serr in Tasmania – and its budburst is also 28 days after Serr’s budburst, according to Tasmanian data. The budburst of Howard is 20 days after Serr budburst, and flowering 25 days after Serr flowering.

This should lower the frost risk compared to Rex and Meyric. At Lightfoot Walnuts (near Lincoln, Canterbury) , Rex budburst is around 20 days after Serr, but its flowering is around the same as Serr. Meyric budburst is about 7 days after Serr budburst, and its flowering also about 7 days after Serr flowering.

The Tasmanians say that Serr is the particularly early variety that they have, whereas all their other varieties leaf out at fairly similar (later) times, with only a few days between them.

In the Lincoln University test data, Howard and Lara also looked good for crackout (both over 50%), in comparison to Rex (43%) and Meyric (over 50%). They are also good enough on shell seal and strength, scoring 15 and 13, respectively, out of 20. Rex scored 19 on shell seal. Meyric scored 12, and we know from experience that it’s on the weak end of the scale. It’s adequate, but we probably wouldn’t want to go much weaker than Meyric. Meyric is easy to open with your hands, making it a good table nut, but it’s more risky for letting moisture in or cracking under pressure in the sacks.

Both Howard and Lara come highly recommended by the Tasmanians.

CHANDLER

We’ve already made a decision not to import this one. It is recommended by the Tasmanians as a good variety, though it’s probably fourth out of the four that they recommended to us. We cannot rule out Chandler on the basis of flavour – it came out well in the taste test, with scores equal to or higher than Rex and Meyric. However, we do need to rule it out on the basis of shell seal and strength, where it scored only 3 out of 20 in the Lincoln University data (far lower than Meyric at 12 out of 20). We must assume, however, that Chandler’s shell seal must be fine when grown in California, as their mechanical harvesting knocks walnuts around far more than we do here, and they don’t appear to have any problem with the nuts breaking. Chandler budburst in Tasmania is 21 days after Serr budburst, and its flowering is 28 days after Serr flowering.

TULARE + FERNETTE

We need to make a decision between Tulare and Fernette for our third cultivar to import.

The Tasmanians recommend Tulare, whereas they do not plant Fernette commercially. They use Fernette only as a pollinator for Lara, as it has its catkins quite late (we should be able to pollinate Lara with Rex I think). The Tasmanians say that Fernette is late to come into bearing, so production would be delayed with this variety. I am not sure what the nut size is like – one Tasmanian has said to me that they’re small and another said they’re OK! Fernette came out just as heavy as all the other Tasmanian nuts in the Lincoln University measurements (all quite a lot bigger than the NZ varieties), but the nuts we brought in for tasting were their jumbo grade, so we probably can’t take too much from this.

Unfortunately we don’t have much data on Tulare, because we did not bring it in for the Lincoln University taste test, and the trees they have in Tasmania are quite young, so they have not collected flowering data yet. I would be very surprised if it did not match up to the others in taste, but we have no data on this. As far as I understand, it leafs out at a similar time to most of their other cultivars (significantly later than Serr) but we have no Tasmanian data. One of the Californian researchers who was at the recent Walnut Symposium in Melbourne and who visted us in NZ afterward has given us Californian data showing that Tulare’s budburst falls between that of Howard and Chandler, and its flowering falls between the flowering of these two varieties also. Thus it should also have a lower frost risk than Rex and Meyric.

According to the Tasmanians, Fernette budburst is 36 days after Serr, and flowering is 37 days after Serr flowering. That’s almost sounding ridiculously late, like the G026 in the Lincoln Uni trial block!

Fernette came out looking great in the taste test – significantly better than the others – and that’s the reason members have been asking us to think about making this our third cultivar for import.

However, its shell seal and strength was only 9 out of 20, which is quite a bit lower than Meyric (which scored 12). This is probably not a great characteristic.

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

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.

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

In respect to the importation of new a new cultivar [or cultivars] I feel that if we have a SGM (Special General Meeting) on this matter that all information should be tabled well before the meeting so that members can study and analysis it. At the meeting no new data or information should be introduced. However issues concerning new cultivars other than those considered for importation should not be avoided nor should issues arising from the growing of other new cultivars.

To be able to make appropriate and correct decisions all the peripheral info and data issues need to be tabled prior to the meeting. If the answers are not known then that should be clearly and concisely stated and where possibly the reason, or reasons, for the unknown should be provided. The extent of this periphal info and data might require brianstorming sessions or some prior consultation with members known to be on both sides of the importation arguement. If this is not done correctly then there is a possibility that unforseen arguements may arise at the time of the meeting. The side issues are important and should not be sidelined, they will not go away regadless of the the decision the Group makes so they need to be correctly and appropriately addressed in an open forum. All information and data provide should have both the pros and cons stated. There should be no bias or skewing presented in a discussion document.

The following lists are some of the issues that may arise and should not in any way be suppressed

Climatic variation

Growth rates

Effect of wind on this / these new trees

Shelter requirements for this / these new tress

Soil type differences and the effect of trees

Nutrient dominance or deficiency effect on trees at variuos stages of growth

Disease and pests

Resistance to coddling moth

Effect on trees of other diseases not yet known in NZ

Blight resistance

Pollination

Pollination success rates

Polinators needed

Early, mid reason or late flowering

Effect of frost on this / these new trees

Effects of drought or soil wetness [or levels of water application or miosture tolerance]

Crop Yeild [from adolesence to adult trees]

Crop data

Crack out ratio

Storage [Reduction in kernal quality of given time spans in NZ conditions]

Tree Growth

Tree shape and planting spacing

Pruning regimes available to growers for best yeild

Grafting success rate [if known from overseas sources]

Any particular root stock

Tree growth rates [anticipated in NZ and NZ regions, known in other country /. regions]

THIS LIST SHOULD BE REGARDED AS IMCOMPLETE.

Is this tree / these trees likely to be successfully in specific areas of NZ

Also has any progress been made on the quality of other trees and crop from other NZ regions.

Has any progress been made to discover if this cultivar [or cultivars] already exist in NZ

Is this tree [or these trees] new and if so what is the history of its / their development.

What is the marketing value of this / these new nuts and their value added products

What arguments are going to be employed to convince new growers to plant this / these cultivars instead of the existing cultivars of known quality.

What arguement, or arguements, is/are going to used to convince the consuming public that THIS IS SOMETHING NEW