SCH Spring Strategy Day

The SCH Spring Strategy Field Day last month involved Cropping, Establishment, Seasonal Labour Unit (SLU), and Innovation teams meeting on orchard to discuss the upcoming spring season and start planning their management strategies. Heading into spring, kiwifruit vines come out of dormancy and new vegetative growth forms. The cold and wet spring weather combined with young susceptible growth makes this time of year a high-risk period for Pseudomonassyringae pv actinidiase (PSA). Megan Fox, SCH Orchard Technical Manager, outlined best practise for spring management and the importance to monitor and control PSA as well as other pests and diseases for kiwifruit.

With bud break and shoot growth ramping-up, the busy spring period begins starting with shoot ripping, shoot spacing, and flower bud thinning. We have had a good bud break this season with most of our orchards having flower numbers higher than what is required for pollination.

At the Spring Strategy Field Day, the innovation team outlined systems for data collection and reporting for Orchards Managers to make data driven decisions and form a spring thinning strategy to reduce flower numbers in the most efficient and effective way.