Canterbury Branch

Branch contact - canterbury@treecrops.org.nz
The national calendar of events below shows events for all branches.

The posts below show archived events and news that were mainly published prior to the switch to using one events calendar for all branches.

Canterbury Branch – 2015 Pruning Workshop at Southern Woods Plant Nursery

Upcoming Pruning Workshop at Southern Woods Plant Nursery

Southern Woods will be hosting a pruning workshop next month. Demonstrations and talks about fruit trees. Everyone is welcome at no charge. They are located on State Highway 1 between Templeton and Rolleston.

When we have a confirmed date in July it will be emailed to Canterbury TCA membership and it will also be on www.southernwoods.co.nz or freephone 0800 800 352.

Event cannot be listed in the All-Events Calendar without a starting date/time – web management

Canterbury Branch – Two places to visit near Rangiora

Sunday 10 th May 2015
Two places to visit near Rangiora

10.00 am. A visit to Dudley’s property at Mt Thomas Road, Fernside.
Dudley and Beryl have a 3 acre property at Fernside. This is a transformation that needs to be seen to be believed, from a stony paddock to a highly productive and immaculate garden and orchard.

Dudley worked for Forest Research at Rangiora up to his retirement and is one of a handful of national experts on cypresses. In retirement, he has poured his energy and knowledge into growing food of all sorts and while May will be the end of the season with just feijoa left to harvest, they have a wide range of pip fruit, espaliered cherries, grapes, mulberry, hazels, walnuts, quince and kiwiberries.
Please park and gather on the road verge.

12.00 noon. Bring your lunch and we’ll find a suitable picnic site – to be advised.

1.00 pm. On to Patrick’s Leyland cypress nursery at Raddens Road, Ohoka.
“Southern Cypresses” grow several varieties of Leyland cypress, Oven’s cypress and macrocarpa clones for forestry and shelter planting. Patrick is another (perhaps the other) national cypress expert.
Patrick will give us an overview of the nursery operation, the virtues of the various clones and we will be able to inspect the stumps of the recently harvested Eucalyptus nitens provenance trial. This will be an interesting venue for anyone contemplating planting shelter or an alternative species woodlot.

To get to Southern Cypresses from Dudley’s: from the end of Mt Thomas Rd, turn left into Johns Rd, right into Fernside Rd, right into Flaxton Rd and where Flaxton Rd swings left turn right into Threlkelds Rd. At the end turn right into Ohoka Rd for 20metres and left into Jacksons Rd, next left into Tram Rd and then the next left is Raddens Rd, Southern Cypresses are about half way along. Drive up the long driveway to park near the greenhouses.

Canterbury Branch – Grafting Demonstration, April 2015

Sunday 26^th April 2015 at 2pm
Grafting Demonstration
Venue: Bill Ellery’s Hazelnut processing shed, North South Eyre Road

Bill Rae is a professional grafter and also President of the National Committee of the Tree Crops Association. He will be visiting Canterbury over the ANZAC weekend and has kindly agreed to share his expertise. He is a kiwifruit specialist and has covered all aspects of grafting in his long career.

Bring along any grafting tools you have (or can borrow). Learn how to maintain and sharpen tools then practice your cuts.

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.

Canterbury Branch – Field Day at Little River

Upcoming Field Day at Little River

14th February 2015 at 10 am

Mark your calendar now.
Gilda and Nick (Harmans Track, Little River) are hosting a field day starting at 10 am.

This is an interesting property based on permaculture design principles. They have a 2 ha commercial orchard of hazels plus native bush, forestry woodlots, large vegetable gardens and fruit orchard.

Gilda and Nick’s house was lovingly owner-built and is an energy efficient, healthy home. Nick is a Park Ranger and Gilda teaches organics part time.

Find out more at their website: www.permaculturehazelnuts.co.nz

Canterbury Branch – Orton Bradley Park maintenance

Orton Bradley Park Sunday 18th January 2015

Volunteers are invited to a weed control session at Orton Bradley Park on Banks Peninsula. 9 am start. We will finish at 12 noon so you’re welcome to byo picnic in the grounds.

The native riparian planting is in its fifth year and becoming well established. It may only need two more years of input from the TCA before it is self-sustaining.
Please bring along any useful tools such as a ‘weed eater’ or sickle, weeding gloves etc.
Contact Dave if you wish to discuss shared transport.

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.

Canterbury Branch – 2014 AGM and suggested field days

The AGM was held on 8th December. In summary, sufficient members put themselves forward to form a ‘caretaker’ committee so that the branch does not need to go into abeyance in the short term.
Opinion was expressed that the issues for our branch are similar to those that are currently being discussed nationally – structure, purpose, ageing membership etc.
It was agreed that it would be prudent to hold off making any local decisions until after the national AGM to be held at Conference (Ashburton, April 2014).

[weaver_html div args=’style=”text-align: center;”‘]ATTENTION Canterbury Branch members. Recommended:
SOUTHERNWOODS Tree Nursery
electronic Newsletter
downloadable as a pdf from their website at
http://www.southernwoods.co.nz/emag.htm
as a way of keeping informed about the many special interest open days that the nursery organises through the year; as well as plant info, tips and nursery news.[weaver_html /div] The nursery-organised events will hopefully compensate to a considerable degree the lack of Canterbury TCA branch-organised field-days this year.

Canterbury members, especially new members, are encouraged to voluntarily subscribe to the Southern Woods’ electronic newsletter.
Southern Woods has had a long association with Canterbury Branch of NZTCA.

Canterbury – Apples, Pears and Plums

TCA Field Day
11 March 2013
Sunday 11.00 am.

Q & A: Apples, Pears and Plums

Varieties, Uses, Cultivation facts, Diseases & Problems.

At the property of Hans and Christina
Hawarden-Hurunui Road
Hawarden, North Canterbury

This fielday will follow the successful format of last year’s Nuts Q and A.

Two speakers will talk about the three fruit crops, and after each topic the audience will have ample opportunity to ask questions and discuss the crops.
After the Q&A, we’ll break for lunch.
Then Hans will show us around his orchards, which some of you may have visited in February 2010. Since the original visit, plantings have matured and been expanded, and the range of fruit tree crops has increased.

The property consists of 15 acres of sloping land in the Amouri Basin, with stunning views. Hans and Christina have now been at the property for six years, and developed it from a completely bare land block.

There are orchards of:
• Almonds;
• Apples; including a large selection of the Heritage Apple Archive varieties;
• European Plums;
• Figs;
• Prune Plums;
• Peaches and Nectarines
• Heirloom vegetables.

How to get to there:
Drive along SH1 as if going to Hamner Springs, turn left along SH7 at Waipara. Carry on until Waikari, but keep on going as if to Hamner springs. Take the second road on the left (after Waikari) towards Hawarden, which is called the Hawarden-Hurunui Rd.
There will be the TCA event sign at their letter box.

Lunch Arrangements:
Hot water available on site, bring your own picnic lunch.

Canterbury – NZTCA Canterbury Branch AGM

NZTCA Canterbury Branch AGM
Sunday at 1.15 pm 9 December 2012
719 Telegraph Rd.

All email submissions (by Wednesday 5 th December) from any members wishing to bring up TCA issues at the AGM, gratefully received. These will be added to the agenda and discussed.

Also, anyone wishing to join the ‘electronic’ committee (see recent newsletter editorial) should contact Krystina or Margaret via email, by Wednesday 5^th December.