Auckland Branch

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Branch contact: auckland@treecrops.org.nz
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Older branch news and notices are below.

Auckland Branch – First Annual Tree and Plant Sale

40 year Anniversary of Tree Crops: Special Event

Auckland Branch

First Annual Tree and Plant Sale

Saturday 11 July 2015 Wet or Fine 10am to 1pm

Venue: Auckland Botanic Gardens Manurewa In the covered courtyards.

Everyone welcome: gardeners, lifestyle and small block holders, farmers, nurseries.
You can buy and sell, look, talk trees and ask questions.

Buyers
Anything could turn up for sale on the day. First in – first served!
Trees and plants suitable for Auckland, Common and unusual fruit trees, Subtropicals, pip and stone fruit. Tools and Items for your garden. Experts to answer your questions about growing fruit.

Sellers
This is a great way to sell any trees, seedlings, herbs, garden plants or any excess produce.
Sellers should be in place by 9.30 am and strictly no sales prior to 10 am.

Commission on Sales: There are no site charges but a 10% commission on all sales is payable by sellers on the day, so please report to the Tree Crops information tent before you leave. This money will be used for Tree Crop trials and projects within our Auckland Branch area.

NZTCA National Conference 2015 Northland Branch

NZTCA annual national event, March 20~22, 2015

‘Conference 2015’ hosted by Northland Branch

Biological Growing

– Expert Speakers and Workshops include organic agriculture, bio fuel, seaweed-sourced fertilisers – soil food, moth pheromones and apples, herbs and plants to attract beneficial insects.

– Field trips include a Kiwifruit orchard, Avocado orchard, and a sub tropical nursery & gardens.

Bookings closed – sorry.
Conference 2016 details coming soon…

Details on page Conference 2015 and in December 2014 TreeCropper.

Auckland + Northland branches – Incredible slice of Northland history

Combined fieldtrip Auckland/Northland branches

Carpooling where we can.
What: Incredible slice of Northland history
When: Sunday 12th April 11am
Where: Morrison’s orchard Warkworth

Meeting alongside the Mahurangi river bank in Warkworth (look out for the yellow Treecrops banner down by the i-site information centre Percy St off Baxter St) at 11.00 am for munch (morning tea/lunch) so bring along a rug, munch, thermos, etc as there is a grassed picnic area.

Following brunch we will carpool down the road to the Morrison’s orchard (5 mins) where Tom and Robyn Morrison will give us an overview of the history of the Morrison family history in the North, and wow what a history it is. Following will be a tour explaining the processes of orcharding (have your questions ready).

Just a small excerpt to whet the appetite…………….
“From small beginnings, the Red Bluff orchard and nursery grew to
become one of New Zealand’s largest and, at the peak in 1914, contained
250,000 trees. Morrison and sons provided employment for 20 assistants
and a seasonal force of pickers and packers.”
Any questions please refer them to the respective chairpersons of each
branch.

Auckland Branch – 2014 End of Year Function

Dear Members and Friends,
Just to remind you of our next gathering.
Auckland Horticultural Centre, 990 Great North Road, Western Springs.
Friends and visitors always welcome.

Tuesday 25th November from 7.15pm 990 Great North Road Western Springs
End of Year Function –

Mulled wine (or fruit juice) to start, then
A quick AGM, then –
Pot Luck Dinner – please bring a savoury dish (instead of a sweet plate)

After Dinner – interest table discussion
Sales Table – bring in anything relating to Tree Crops to sell! Please price and add the seller’s name. (10% to the club or, if no name full proceeds to club)

Offers for help in the kitchen during AGM and after dinner please.

Auckland Branch – Reg Lewthwaite – Rants and Raves

Dear Members and Friends,

Just to remind you of our next gathering.

TUESDAY NIGHT 28th October 2014

Auckland Horticultural Centre, 990 Great North Road, Western Springs.

Cup of tea/coffee at 7.15pm before meeting commences at 7.30pm.

Speaker: Reg Lewthwaite – “Rants and Raves”: How I started and where we have gone since. A potted history of horticulture in NZ through my work and research, from DDT the wonder drug to modern times.

Auckland Branch – Speaker Julian McCurdy from Beez Thingz

Dear Members and Friends,

Just to remind you of our next gathering.

Auckland Horticultural Centre, 990 Great North Road, Western Springs.

Friends and visitors always welcome.

**TUESDAY NIGHT 23rd September 2014

Cup of tea/coffee at 7.15pm before meeting commences at 7.30pm.

**Do you have something to bring along for the interest table?

** A small time will be allocated to any question about tree cropping you might have. We will ask if any of our members can give an answer. Either ask during this time, or write down you question before hand and pass it in, or, email it in.

Speaker Julian McCurdy from Beez Thingz: Serviced organic hive rentals & sales . “Julian McCurdy is an urban beekeeping specialist who is trying to develop more bee friendly beekeeping practices. Using design and technology, he hopes to breed a new wave of back yard beekeepers.” Hopefully he will bring some of his new design bee hives to show off.

Grafting morning (apples and pears) Saturday 27th September 9am – midday.

Auckland Horticultural Centre. Bring some cash (gold coin entry to help pay for hall rental) –and you will be able to take home your potted grafts at $7 each. Bring a fixed blade knife (Stanley knife is good) and a pair of secateurs. Some band aid type plaster for cut fingers!
The day will have a teaching session followed by grafting practise with supervisors available.
Parallel, to the grafting session for newbies, will be club grafting of rootstock by members in order to build up the club resource of grafts that at later dates can be available for sale.
There will be willow for you to practise on. Root stock for the apples is M793 -a Northern Spy derivative, larger tree, good on clay with resistance to Wooly aphids, and M26 – Dwarf fruit tree growing from 2-3m recommended for small gardens or for espaliering.
There will also be quince rootstock for the pears.
There will be lots of different varieties of scion wood to choose from! A list maybe available in the next email (members only).
It would be great if just a few members could help with the food supply for the rolling morning tea.

Auckland Branch – August 2014 meeting with Gordon Lees

The August meeting for Tree Crops will be Tuesday, 26 August 2014.
Auckland Horticultural Centre, 990 Great North Road, Western Springs at 7:15pm.

The speaker is Gordon Lees, our committee member. Gordon is a neuropharmacologist and will be speaking on antioxidants, what they actually do, and why we should eat blueberries and other tree crops we might be growing

Please bring contributions of fruit or plant material for our interest table.

We will be swapping plum, apricot, nectarine and peach wood for grafting at the meeting. On our September grafting day we will be working with apples and pears. It will be too late in the season to graft stone fruit by the grafting day, which is why we are holding a scionwood swap for the stone fruit at our August meeting. Any good quality wood from stone fruit needs to be cut immediately if you haven’t already done so, stored in damp paper in plastic bags in the refrigerator. Label it well and bring it along to our meeting for a wood swap.

Auckland Horticultural Centre, 990 Great North Road, Western Springs.
Cup of tea/coffee at 7.15pm before meeting commences at 7.30pm

Auckland Branch – Tuesday meeting – bamboo

Next Meeting – Bamboo

Tuesday 27 May 2014

Auckland Horticultural Centre, 990 Great North Road, Western Springs.

Cup of tea/coffee at 7.15pm before meeting commences at 7.30pm.

Friends and visitors always welcome.

“Bamboo can be found all over New Zealand and yet this incredibly useful plant has never really been seen as a commercial crop. Mark Mortimer has been working with bamboo for the past 17 years and has first hand knowledge of the plant and its uses. He’ll be giving us an illustrated talk on the varieties, uses and scope of this much maligned plant. Whether it’s poles for building or shoots for food, we’ll discuss if bamboo has place as a commercially viable crop.”

Mark Mortimer,
www.bambusero.co.nz

Auckland Branch – David Bayly from Kaipara Coast Plant Centre & Sculpture Gardens

Auckland Horticultural Centre, 990 Great North Road, Western Springs.

Friends and visitors always welcome.

** TUESDAY NIGHT 22nd April, 2014

Cup of tea/coffee at 7.15pm before meeting commences at 7.30pm.

** Do you have something to bring along for the interest table?

** A small time will be allocated to any question about tree cropping you might have. We will ask if any of our members can give an answer. Either ask during the time, or write down you question before hand and pass it in, or, email it in.

Speaker : David Bayly from

Kaipara Coast Plant Centre & Sculpture Gardens

Plants – Art – Environment

1481 Kaipara Coast Highway (SH16), 4km north of Kaukapakapa

Po Box 63, Kaukapakapa, Auckland 0843

Ph 09 420 5655 f 09 420 5654 www.kaiparacoast.co.nz

BRING A SOIL SAMPLE

The most important part of growing a tree is to get the soil right.

Dig a hole on your property and bring around 1 litre of soil to the meeting. David Bayly from Kaipara Coast Plant Centre will talk about soils – what to look for and how to improve them. We will have a look at the various samples and discuss what needs to be done to create a soil that grows plants well.

Don’t be afraid to bring a sample from the worst pocket in your garden! There will even be a few spot prizes for some of the samples.

NZTCA 40th National Conference 2014 notice, April 11-12-13

CONFERENCE 2014 notice: NZTCA 40th National Conference
2014 April 11-12-13
Ashburton, South Island

WATER: The Elixir of Life: The field trips, north and south, allowed you to see up close the efforts being made in this part of Canterbury to ‘farm the water’, while at the same time visiting many excellent places of interest to Tree Crop members and giving a wider view of this area in autumn.

Details on page conference-2014 and in December 2013 TreeCropper.