By ROSALEEN MACBRAYNE
TE PUKE - While the annual multimillion-dollar kiwifruit harvest is in full swing in Te Puke, the area is still battling to halt the spread of the rogue variety.
A 15-week pilot programme designed to find the most effective, environmentally acceptable and economic method of eradicating wild kiwifruit has
finished.
Coordinator John Mather, an Environment Bay of Plenty plant pest officer, said it was too soon for conclusive results, but at this stage a special herbicide was "looking very promising."
A Taskforce Green control scheme, administered by the Te Puke District Enterprise Agency and sponsored by Kiwifruit New Zealand, tested six herbicides.
Mr Mather said two workers used several different control methods, including stump treatment, stem injection and overall herbicide application.
It would be next summer before a decisive outcome was known.
"They have probably achieved control of about a quarter of the established wild kiwifruit that we know of around Te Puke," he said.
"But kiwifruit are notoriously hard to kill - they keep popping up."
The rogue vines spring mainly from seeds spread by waxeyes, blackbirds and rosellas.
Plant pest officers estimate there are about 20 sizeable naturalised patches in gullies between Te Puke's No 2, 3 and 4 Rds - the area from which the export wonder was launched on to the international market.
The hardy wild vines, which have been flourishing for the past few years in bush, pine plantations and scrub areas, are now regarded as part of the "alien invasion" of noxious plants that threaten native bush.
Mr Mather said the pilot control programme had been very valuable and funding would be sought for a further 26-week eradication project.
