Ian Turk Management Ltd

<img width=”300″ height=”200″ class=”alignleft size-medium wp-image-920″ style=”background-color: transparent; color: #444444; display: block; float: left; font-family: Georgia,&amp;quot; bitstream charter&amp;quot;,serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; height: 200px; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 24px; max-width: 640px; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; margin: 4px 24px 12px 0px;” alt=”” src=”http://www.feijoa.org.nz/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/190616-Farm-diversification-MB-300×200.jpg”>Starting out with sheep 30 years ago, the Honeyfield family at Welcome Bay, Tauranga, have diversified their 100ha farm into four different revenue streams – and they’re about to plant another produce on-farm this spring.

They started with basically all sheep on the farm but soon began harvesting feijoas.
“The feijoas were already here but we just worked out better ways to manage it…we do as much as we can for the local supermarkets and whatever is not up to standard we have a juice contract for Simply Squeezed,” says Colin. “It took about five years to establish a good income from them.”

Today, it’s called building resilience in your operations.”

For the full article on sunmedia, <a href=”https://www.sunlive.co.nz/news/211976-diversifying-income-name-of-game.html”>click here</a>

<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>When the last feijoa has fallen off, you can have a real go at it.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>No difficult techniques needed (as with apples and pears and grapes – thinking a year or more ahead!): Feijoas fruit on new wood that grows in spring.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>So even if you literally whack them with a hedge trimmer (I do that!), next spring’s new growth will give you fruit.</span></span></p>
(NB not recomended in a commercial orchard)

To read Ruud’s full article, follow&nbsp;
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>But what about a tree that’s getting a bit too high?</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>Easy: you can really cut them back quite hard, because they’ll grow again; but seeing you’re going to do some surgery, you might as well do it real well: thin some of the branches inside the tree; That opens up the interior and gives the new growth a bit of space.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>It also gives the birds a bit of wriggle room to move.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>Birds – like blackbirds and silvereyes – are the main pollinators of the feijoa flowers!</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>(hence the colour red – birds can see red well)</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>If you see a blackbird violently attacking the red flower stamens in late spring, don’t panic! It’s doing its job.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>For those of you that consider having a feijoa tree in the garden, here are two tips:</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>1) plant two trees next to each other (they require crosspollination)</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>2) Plant them now, while there is still some warmth in the soil – otherwise they’d sulk most of the winter.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>Sunny, well-drained soil – little bit of fertiliser each spring, topped by compost of good mulch, to keep roots moist during dry periods.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>For the sixteenth floor, may I suggest a reasonably large pot with quality Living Earth Tub mix and the variety Bambina, a small grafted plant with small feijoas that can be eaten skin-and-all.</span></span></p>
<p class=”p1″><span class=”s1″><span style=”color: #222222;”>Just a bit of liquid fertiliser and regular watering – you’ll love it!</span></span></p><a href=”https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/saturday-morning-with-jack-tame/audio/ruud-kleinpaste-feijoa-pruning-what-you-need-to-know/” rel=”noopener” target=”_blank”>this link</a><img src=”http://www.feijoa.org.nz/wp/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Kleinpaste-300×185.png” alt=”” width=”300″ height=”185″ class=”alignright size-medium wp-image-924″ />