TreeCropper 50

TreeCropper Issue 50 – June 2007

Front cover:
Peter Robinson walks the Waikato and Thames-Coromandel Branch through his chestnut crop in Hamilton.

 2   President’s report
 3   National Committee
 4   Mailbox / Tree Crop Bed Swap
 5   Tree crops – back to the future
 8   Feijoas
11   Book reviews
12   Chestnuts –
      13   importing in NZ
      19   in USA
      20   growing organically
      24   commercial reality
      25   consuming
26   Apple facts
27   Codlin moth trap
28   Fig research
32   Grazers or browsers
34   Edible oaks
37   Conference 2007 field trips
44   Dr Don McKenzie Award
45   NZTCA research
46   Food Competition
47   Pips and pieces
48   Membership application
Inside back cover – planning for 2008:
      National Conference
      Eastwoodhill road trip

Back cover:
Scenes from Conference 2007.

” You don’t join Tree Crops to learn what to do,” said NZTCA Northern Region and Conference 2007 Committee chairman Derek Craig.
“You join to listen to others to learn what not to do.”
And this summed up my experience of Conference 2007.
Don’t get me wrong, it was definitely not a showcase of errors. Rather, it showed me, who had joined NZTCA looking for answers, the truth of the old cliche – the more we learn the more we realise what we do not know.
We heard from scientists who have studied and analysed one aspect of one disease as it affects one species.
But Mother Nature is a complex web of interactions and consequences – how do we hope to identify, let alone understand, them all?
We listened to a speaker who totally contradicted everything we have previously read about pruning; who unashamedly told us to burn our books and backed up his arguments with a logic that demanded consideration.
We visited a teacher, a guru worshipped for her expertise. We saw her successes, but realised that, like the rest of us, even she has learnt from mistakes.
I guess, like many others, I joined NZTCA with the selfish expectations that I would pick the brains of those who knew – but I realise that, instead, I have just joined the ranks of those who ask the questions.

Sheryn Clothier –