NZTCA Franklin Branch July 2016 newsletter

NEW ZEALAND TREE CROPS ASSOCIATION FRANKLIN BRANCH NEWSLETTER

In this edition...

Volume 37, Issue 4 - July, 2016

A stroll in the rain at Joy Plants’ field trip

Forthcoming events...

Sat 30th July 2016 Auckland Branch Tree Sale

Sun 31st July 2016 Franklin Pruning Workshop

Sat 13th August 2016 FFF practicum - building bird nest boxes

Sat 20th August 2016 Franklin Grafting Workshop

Sat 24th September 2016 Auckland Botanic Gardens propagation

Reminder All TCA members are welcome at other meetings so look at the web site to see Events coming up www.treecrops.org.nz Articles appearing in this newsletter may be reproduced in whole or in part provided that credit is given to the Franklin Branch of the NZ Tree Crops Association and the Author.

TCA Branch Newsletters

Each area Newsletter Editor receives a copy of the other branches Newsletters by email. If you are interested in getting these forwarded to you, please let me know at franklin@treecrops.org.nz

Welcome to New Members: Hester den Ouden (Pukekohe) Steve Ball (Hunua) Graeme Ford (Bombay) Rolf & Alie Boxem Rochelle Parrich & Andy Dickson Stephie & Philip Walmsley Dougal Harding

Forgotten nuts

The Franklin Food Forest gets labelled!

Auckland Branch Tree Sale Saturday 30th July 2016, 9am-1pm at the Auckland Botanic Gardens, Manurewa in the covered courtyards. Please let Julie know if you can help on the day or if you want your own sales table - email hylander@xtra.co.nz . Don’t be L8!

Training & Pruning Young Trees Workshop please note the change of date

Sunday July 31st, 1.00 pm at Graham Wheeler’s property, 33 Needham Rd, Paerata Pukekohe We will be pruning young trees (2-year olds) and training them for shape.

Franklin Food Forest practicum Build a Bird Nesting Box Saturday August 13th, 1.30 pm at the Franklin Food Forest, Pukekohe High School orchard (Glasgow Road entrance). The cost of this workshop will be $35 (to be confirmed).

Birds are an essential part of the permaculture orchard so here is an opportunity to build your bird nesting box and take it home in time for spring nest building. Stefan Sobkowiak has 150 nesting boxes in his three acre permaculture orchard - that’s one for every 9m x 9m square!

Franklin Grafting Workshop Saturday August 20th, 10.00 am at Ian Laing’s barn, 67 Hunter Road, PUKEKOHE. 100 x MM106 apple rootstock @ $5.00 members first 2 then $7.00 each for non members.

50 x BA29/BH quince/pear interstocked @ $8.00 each members first 2 then $10.00 non members Please phone or email Raewyn to order.

Ph: 09 292 5051

email: rjarkie@gmail.com

Payment can be cash on the day or direct via Internet banking.

Various pear & apple scion wood will be available but please bring along any you have to share with others (named variety if possible). An article in Tree Cropper, issue 82, page 48, on “How to harvest & store scion wood” will guide you obtaining psion wood. We supply grafting tape, wax and labels for you. You will need a sharp knife, Stanley knife with a new blade will suffice.

Auckland Botanic Gardens propagation unit

Tentatively planned for Saturday September 24th, Details to be confirmed.

Climbing abutilon at Joy Plants

Franklin TreeCroppers TCA Franklin newsletter

Letter from the Chair

Thank you to those that attended our Smallblock Sunday Seminar on the 19th June. The event again proved informative for those who took the opportunity to learn about some new crops.

After a very wet Autumn we have now had a couple of good frosts out my way and most of the deciduous trees have finally lost their leaves.

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The apricot budding that I mentioned in the last newsletter is looking better than I had first thought, after an inspection by Sandy Cooper. The Franklin Food Forest is looking fantastic and John Allen has some great workshops. Join their Facebook page and be fully informed as to what is going on and when.

July, 2016

We have a pruning workshop and of course the grafting workshop coming up so be sure to check out the details in this newsletter. Rootstock needs to be ordered for the grafting workshop. We will have various dessert/cooking apple scion wood available and pear. This workshop is a great way to learn how to graft and also increase your variety of trees at a very small cost.

The Auckland Branch of NZTCA has their annual Tree Sale day coming up, Saturday 30th, at the Botanic Gardens. This event is a great way to acquire different plants/trees and to meet other Tree Croppers.

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NZ Tree Crops Association

Auckland Branch Tree Sale Last year’s Tree Crops’ Auckland Branch annual tree, plant and resource sale was a great affair with many bargains to be had and unusual varietals available to the early birds.

The 2016 sale is scheduled for 9am-1pm on Saturday 30th July 2016 at the Auckland Botanic Gardens, Manurewa. Stalls are set up in the covered courtyards.

Many different types of fruit trees including heritage apples and pears, subtropicals and unusual varieties are for sale along with resources, Don’t forget! equipment and tools to look the Auckland after trees.

Tree Crops tree sale Saturday Jul 30th 9 am

There will be experts willing to answer questions and give advice.

Free entry and parking.

People interested in having a stall, or helping on the day please contact Julie at email hylander@xtra.co.nz

Forgotten Nuts in Drury Little is known about the Tree Crops Pecan nut plantation in the Ngakoroa Reserve (corner Karaka and Great South Roads, Drury. If anyone can shed some light on this then please get in touch with Raewyn.

At Conference 2016, the NZTCA appointed a Research coordinator who’s job is to, well, coordinate research trials.

We’d like to get a trial or two underway in Franklin, so get your ideas for a beneficial research project to me.

Biofuel crop trial anyone? Miscanthus? Hemp sounds interesting.., There’s so much we could do.

Raewyn Jarkiewicz

Bits ‘n Bobs

Olive Oil extr action

Fo r tr ee cr o p p er s w it h o li ve s o r h as a 30 kg o th er o il cr /h r o il ex tr o p s, Ea rl M ac ti o n se tu a fe w ki lo s ar d le p. A n yo n e (p ro b ab ly w an ti n g to m in im u m en d p ro d u 10 kg to g et h av e ct ) o f th ei r at le as t 1 li o w n fr u it tu h ap p y to d tr e rn ed in to o o th at . C o st il , $1 a kg . h e w il l b e In te re st ed ? C o n ta ct Ea rl in B o m b ay (5 6 K an u ka R o ad )

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A base for Fr anklin Treecr

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pers We are abou t to submit a Building Co Auckland Co nsent applic uncil for a ‘C ation to ontainer Sh Forest. We n elter’ at the eed some as Franklin Foo sistance - ca the enginee d n anyone off ring work re er help with quired to get a building co nsent?

Please call Jo hn - 021 463 686 or emai l franklin@tr eecrops.org .nz Gathering nuts in Drury (L - R) Raewyne,Jarkiewicz, Diane Smith, Graham Wheeler

friends of the Franklin Food Forest

TCA Franklin newsletter

We have a new time for the friends group to meet, 2:30 to 4:30 pm, every Thursday at the Franklin Food Forest site in the Pukekohe High School orchard (corner of Glasgow Road and John Street).

Franklin TreeCroppers

Much has been completed in the food forest over the autumn.

The hugelkultur and Beetle Bank is in and growing well. An information plaque describing this feature is in (see pic below) as is the Banana Circle and the rustic gate fencing off the urban food forest.

3 July, 2016

The latest project is the construction of a Biomass Belt (under construction in the pic at top right) that aims to supply all of the fertiliser needs of the four food forest areas.

We have an excellent friends network supporting the development on a weekly basis plus students from Pukekohe High School working towards their Duke of Edinburgh award (seen gathering a winter harvest with Greg Quaiffe in pic bottom left).

Coming up are practicums in such diverse areas as bird box building, insectaries, companion planting and vermicast tea (with the feedstock available following the last month’s composting practicum).

Plans are in hand to get a secure storage unit and work shelter installed in the spring and for that project, we do need some expert assistance. In particular, we need help in getting the engineering work done for the Building Consent application and will need manual help when it comes time to erect the container shelter.

One other thing - does anyone have some quarry stone/rock for a planned project in the food forest?

John Allen

Franklin TreeCroppers TCA Franklin newsletter

Field trip report

What a Joy!

21st May 2016 saw a large group of Treecroppers visiting the Hatch family at Joy Plants, a perfect name for a fantastic place growing plants that are rare or endangered.

The property comprises 24 acres with half in bush, half in pasture and gardens. Their web site is www.joyplants.co.nz/.

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Lindsay (pictured on right) took us on a tour of this large and fascinating property. He is following in the footsteps of Terry & Pam with the plant nursery and various conservation works, revegetation projects, taking cuttings and seeds of various NZ plants to ensure they survive and spread further afield. Planting at Mercury Island has been a 33 year project to date.

July, 2016

Terry was also with us and with so many questions from everyone, it was good to have the two to answer them all.

They have an area for alpine plants grown from seed or cuttings. Lindsay’s “Wall of Hernia” (pic below), is a frost-exposed area that demonstrates alpines can be grown locally in a suitably chilly area to ensure their survival. It was great to see how they can be used in our environment.

A great source for NZ natives, some that are quite rare, their philosophy is to make the plants available at a reasonable price to ensure plant survival. Most plants for sale are growing somewhere on the property which is a great way of finding out their growth habits and if it will fit into that area you want to plant in.

Under some trees the Clivia plantation was delightful and requiring a revisit during the flowering season later this year, so keep an eye on our Newsletter for the date.

Hints: Honey (1 tsp) water (1 cup) is a great rooting promotor: dip poles in mixture.

Fertiliser tabs - use after 1 years growth, don't fertilise in the first year.

Heather Douglas

Field trip report

SmallBlock Sunday Seminar We had a great lineup of speakers, opening with Peter Brown from Miscanthus NZ talking about Miscanthus as a biofuel crop and its other uses. Is anyone interested in participating a bulk purchase of Miscanthus plants? The minimum order quantity is 2,000 rhizomes at a price of around $1.50 each. Let John know - email franklin@ treecrops.org.nz Glenn Hunter helped our understanding of small block accountancy and Aaron Sanders from Moumoukai Hemp discussing Hemp growing and to round it off, Lynda Hallinan on Fruit trees and preserving.

We didn’t have the usual numbers but we had a great support from Treecroppers, some also coming from BOP branch. We’ll have to avoid Fieldays weekend next year!

Have to thank the great Exhibitor’s and their wealth of knowledge they happily shared and, as usual, we finished with the Cuppa, good country style. Raewyn still has some Franklin homemade jams and marmalades for sale so do contact her if you run out.

We had so much fun talking with members and the public that this writer took her camera and forgot to take any photos!

TCA Franklin newsletter

July 19 was the Fourth Annual Franklin Treecroppers SmallBlock Sunday Seminar, again at the Puni School Hall.

Franklin TreeCroppers

Heather Douglas

5 July, 2016

Franklin Food Forest practicum - composting The June practicum at the Franklin Food Forest was run in conjunction with Jennifer Kerr and Chris Kean from The Compost Collective. This Auckland Council initiative aims to reduce waste streams going to landfill by composting household and garden wastes.

Three types of composting systems were demonstrated.

First was a bin compost system which, as the pic (left) shows, was a very hands-on experience for at least one person.

Alternate brown (carbon materials including autumn leaves, twigs and small branches) and green (nitrogen materials including grass clippings) were layered in a ratio of around 3:1. Other materials were added throughout the growing pile. These included cow manure, biochar, some household wastes as well as compost activators such as seaweed (solid and liquid), EM (Effective Micro-organisms) and water.

A discussion on worm farming and Bokashi compost systems concluded the demonstration.

Their web site is http://www.compostcollective.org.nz

Franklin TreeCroppers

Field Day driving directions.

Training & Pruning Young Trees Workshop Sunday July 31st, 1.00 pm 33 Needham Rd, Paerata Pukekohe

TCA Franklin newsletter

Franklin Branch Committee Queen Bee: Raewyn Jarkiewicz 09 292 5051 Email rjarkie@gmail.com Honey Bee Secretary Dianne Smith dismith@xtra.co.nz 09 238 7996 Honey Treasurer: Ian Laing Ph 09 236 3796

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Hive Vice Chair Heather Douglas Ph 09 232 1103 Email heather.douglas12@gmail.com

July, 2016

Bee Chatter Editor John Allen Ph 09 238 1357 Email John@WJohnAllen.nz Hive Coordinator Stephanie Coles 09 236 3554 rosscoles@xtra.co.nz Honey Gatherer Convener: Stephanie Coles 09 236 3554 rosscoles@xtra.co.nz Worker Bees: Graham Wheeler 09 239 1177 graham@thewheelers.co.nz Greg Quaife 022 310 2807 gregquaife@xtra.co.nz The date on your NZTCA newsletter label shows the renewal date of your membership.

To log on to the membership section of the web site http://treecrops.org.nz, you will need your membership number which is also given on the newsletter label.

SAFETY DECLARATION. For the purpose of Field Days, the properties we visit are designated as work places.

As there are multiple hazards, please take particular care.

Parents are responsible for their children.

Franklin Grafting Workshop Saturday August 20th, 10.00 am Ian’s barn, 67 Hunter Road, PUKEKOHE.

Fr a n k l i n T r ee C rop p ers Not ic e s Can you help?

Buy Se ll & Swap

Franklin TreeCroppers To ad ve rt is eh C o n ta ct H ea er e, fr ee to m em b er s, th er D o u g la s at H ea th er @ co ld o u co ld o u g .c o

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We are planning a couple of small scale permaculture projects to complement the food forest areas. They will be part of the learning and demonstration features.

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g .c o m

TCA Franklin newsletter

Used food-g rade 20 litre buckets - $5 contact Hea each ther at H ea th er @

One is a herb spiral.

The other is a keyhole garden

If you have some stone (Auckland bluestone would be great) or scoria, please call John on 021 46 36 86 or email franklin@treecrops.org.nz.

Many thanks.

Member web sites:

Do you have a Web site that we can put a link to on the Newsletter? Please email us and we can add it on the next Newsletter. Include a short note on what the web site is about. https://www.facebook.com/ groups/treescrops/ https://www.facebook.com/ groups/FranklinFoodForest/ RuralConnect.org.nz Assisting rural people and businesses in the broadband society

July, 2016

These use quarry rock to create the form which will cover an area of around 10 square metres.

In this edition...

Report of Joy Plants field trip

NEW ZEALAND TREE CROPS

Report on SmallBlock Sunday Seminar

FRANKLIN BRANCH

Advice of Field Days in July, August, September Franklin Food Forest update

NEW ZEALAND TREE CROPS ASSOCIATION FRANKLIN BRANCH NEWSLETTER Secretary: P O Box 1200, Pukekohe 2340