Very few of us want to spray our fruit trees, but especially young fruit trees can be susceptible to pest and disease infections. Preventing infections with a few well timed spray applications will help to ensure a bumper crop of fruit and a healthy tree. New generation products are usually organic-based and are very effective. Winter is an opportunity to prevent problems that could ruin the coming crop. 

Winter is the traditional time for planting deciduous fruit trees, though this can easily continue through Spring as long as the trees are well watered through Summer. 

As much as we want our fruit trees to be beautiful, highly productive and healthy with as little attention as possible, being proactive in Spring with disease prevention is well worth the effort.  Fungal diseases like leaf curl and brown rot on stonefruit trees can be prevented with a few well time Spring spray applications, rather than dealing with a bad infection if left unattended. 

Waimea Nurseries has recently been approved as a licensed propagator for Blueberries NZ (BBNZ).  Information about varieties and plant availability will be available in due course.  For more information in the mean time, please contact: Kate Marshall kate@waimeanurseries.co.nz 

Aptly marketed as 'Blue Ribbon', in the US, for its exceptionally flavourful fruit, this variety also offers high yields and excellent post harvest shelf life. 'Blue Ribbon' was one of the highest producers in 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 at Fall Creek’s research farm. This early to mid season Northern Highbush variety, which has a mid to high chill requirement, was released in the US primarily for the hand-harvest, fresh market. Its berries are easy to pick and ripen through multiple harvests.

Bees are critical to our survival, with one mouthful in three and nearly ¾ of the diversity of our daily food is directly attributed to bee pollination.  Honey bees all around the world are in decline because of Varroa mite infestations and other threats including pesticide misuse. Of course, bees are very important for the pollination of our home fruit trees. 

Spring and Summer are the high risk times for biosecurity incursions, with a higher volume of tourism and freight traffic, along with growth lifecycles of most bugs. Ministry of Primary Industries are working hard to keep many bugs out of our shores, with two being of particular high risk. Our horticultural and agricultural production and ability to export to some markets would be affected by new pests, along with being damaging to home production of food crops. Be aware of these bugs as a small population could be controlled, like what has been seen since late 2014 in Grey Lynn, Auckland with Queensland Fruit Fly. If you see any suspicious-looking bugs, please call MPI on 0800 80 99 66. If possible take photographs and/or collect samples.

Waimea Nurseries recently teamed up with local landscaper Graham Smith from Garden Property Services and Green Waste to Zero, planting four fruit trees in every kindergarten from Nelson to Golden Bay.  

Very few of us want to spray our fruit trees, but especially young fruit trees can be susceptible to pest and disease infections. Preventing infections with a few well timed spray applications will help to ensure a bumper crop of fruit and a healthy tree. New generation products are usually organic-based and are very effective. For deciduous fruit trees the following programme is recommended as best practice to prevent pests and diseases: