Field days great for growers

Jen Scoular (left) at a field day in Katikati where a record 170 avocado growers turned out.

Grower field days are a fantastic opportunity for us as a team to not only share technical information and vital industry updates, but to also engage with our growers.

We recently held field days in Katikati, Whangarei, Far North and Te Puke. All of them saw great turn outs - in particular the Katikati field day, run in conjunction with Katikati-based packhouse Just Avocados Ltd, which saw a record of 170 growers in attendance.

The key topic of discussion was pruning which included an update of the latest NZ Avocado research, as well as a pruning demonstration led by Erica Faber, Just Avocado's Orchard Productivity Manager.

Phillip West, NZ Avocado's Research Officer, spoke about the latest results from the 'Pruning to Balance' trial that is being managed through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment funded project, 'Avocados for Export'.

This project is a collaborative effort between NZ Avocado and Plant & Food Research. The Pruning to Balance project is aiming to quantify the effects of flower thinning on crop load when used as a tool to correct irregular bearing.

It is a tool many other tree crops use very successfully and we are working to adapt it to avocados.

We have found that field days are also a great place for growers to catch up with other growers, so these field days were no different with plenty of discussion among growers about what is happening on their own orchard and within the industry.

It was a great day and we would like to thank all the growers who turned out to join us.