NEW ZEALAND TREE CROPS ASSOCIATION FRANKLIN BRANCH NEWSLETTER Volume 36, Issue 2 - May, 2015 Welcome to New Members: Rachel Vince (Remuera) Denise Pollard (Remuera) Annemarie Preston (Pukekohe) Ray and Verna Hook (Bombay) 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 [email protected]e Permaculture Orchard - Beyond Organics 2:30pm on Sunday 24th May at Town Mouse Café, (video will screen from 3 to 4:30 pm) 191 King Street, Pukekohe (right next to Possum Bourne’s statue) This 2015 video has been seen by a few people now and without exception, all have been impressed by the practical advice given by Stefan Sobkowiak. Stefan runs an organic orchard and this is his story of how he got from being an organic orchardist to an international speaker. Many thanks to Holly at the Town Mouse for making a room and video projector available. Tea Coffee and other drinks plus cakes and biscuits will be available for purchase from 2:30 and following the screen which ends around 4:30. CUSTOMKIT BUILDINGS’ 2015 smallBlock Sunday Seminar Sunday 21st June 2015 12 Noon - 4:00 pm at the Puni Community Hall This popular seminar series returns for our 3rd year of helping lifestyle block owners get more from their small blocks. We are delighted to have Customkit Buildings as the event sponsor. Waikato & Auckland Plant Sales Saturday 4th July, 9 am - 1 pm. Waikato Branch Annual Plant Sale @ Hamilton Gardens. Sat. 11th July, 10 am - 1 pm. Auckland Botanic Gardens Manurewa (covered courtyard) 2015 Franklin Pruning Workshop Saturday July 25th, 1.00pm - venue to be confirmed. 2015 Franklin Grafting Workshop Sunday 23rd August, 10:00 am start. At Ian Laing’s barn. MM106 rootstock will be available (at $3 each) for grafting both eating and cider scion wood. We will also do some pear and perry pear grafting subject to the availability of interstock pear rootstock. This is your chance to learn to graft with expert assistance and then take home and plant your new trees. Interested in bud grafting stonefruits? We will have peach root stock available to a bud graft- ing workshop planned for February 2016. Mark-up your diaries now. Forthcoming events... Sunday May 24th - Video showing of “The Permaculture Orchard” Sunday 21st June - smallBlock Sunday Seminar, Puni School Hall Saturday July 4th - Waikato Plant Sale Saturday July 11th - Auckland Plant Sale Sat July 25th - Franklin Pruning W/S Sun August 23rd - Franklin Grafting W/S 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. In this edition... Franklin Food Forest Conference2016 update May Field day - a video
Transcript
NEW ZEALAND TREE CROPS ASSOCIATION FRANKLIN BRANCH NEWSLETTER
Volume 36, Issue 2 - May, 2015
Welcome to New Members:
Rachel Vince (Remuera)Denise Pollard (Remuera)
Annemarie Preston (Pukekohe)
Ray and Verna Hook (Bombay)
TCA Branch NewslettersEach 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 [email protected]
The Permaculture Orchard - Beyond Organics2:30pm on Sunday 24th May at Town Mouse Café, (video will screen from 3 to 4:30 pm)191 King Street, Pukekohe (right next to Possum Bourne’s statue)
This 2015 video has been seen by a few people now and without exception, all have been impressed by the practical advice given by Stefan Sobkowiak.
Stefan runs an organic orchard and this is his story of how he got from being an organic orchardist to an international speaker.
Many thanks to Holly at the Town Mouse for making a room and video projector available. Tea Coffee and other drinks plus cakes and biscuits will be available for purchase from 2:30 and following the screen which ends around 4:30.
Sunday 21st June 2015 12 Noon - 4:00 pm at the Puni Community Hall
This popular seminar series returns for our 3rd year of helping lifestyle block owners get more from their small blocks. We are delighted to have Customkit Buildings as the event sponsor.
Waikato & Auckland Plant SalesSaturday 4th July, 9 am - 1 pm. Waikato Branch Annual Plant Sale @ Hamilton Gardens.
2015 Franklin Pruning WorkshopSaturday July 25th, 1.00pm - venue to be confirmed.
2015 Franklin Grafting WorkshopSunday 23rd August, 10:00 am start. At Ian Laing’s barn.
MM106 rootstock will be available (at $3 each) for grafting both eating and cider scion wood. We will also do some pear and perry pear grafting subject to the availability of interstock pear rootstock.
This is your chance to learn to graft with expert assistance and then take home and plant your new trees.
Interested in bud grafting stonefruits? We will have peach root stock available to a bud graft-ing workshop planned for February 2016. Mark-up your diaries now.
Forthcoming events...
Sunday May 24th - Video showing of “The Permaculture Orchard”
Sunday 21st June - smallBlock Sunday Seminar, Puni School Hall
Saturday July 4th - Waikato Plant Sale
Saturday July 11th - Auckland Plant Sale
Sat July 25th - Franklin Pruning W/S
Sun August 23rd - Franklin Grafting W/S
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.
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Franklin Food Forest Conference2016 update May Field day - a video
A very quiet start to 2015 at the Franklin Branch. We have had quite a few committee members resign due to work commitments and as we are a volunteer organisation we all need to do our bit to keep the branch running.
We have a subcommittee formed that is organising the 2016 conference but we do need more general committee members on board. Please drop me an email if you can offer some of your time.
I hope you all have had a great fruiting season and have managed to overcome any wasp invasion. As autumn draws to a close the leaves have started to fall on the de-ciduous trees with temperatures remaining relatively mild.
I do hope most of you can attend the 3rd Smallblock Sun-day Seminar coming up on 21st June. Once again it will be at the Puni Hall. We have a pruning workshop in July and grafting workshop in August. This year we hope to have MM106 apple rootstock available for grafting. We are also seeking some interstocked pears - quince rootstock that has a pear graft already on it - for grafting in February. This makes it a compatible rootstock for all pear varieties.
For scion wood, we are looking to source several different varieties of cider apple, perry pear plus eating pears and apples. If you have any of these varieties and are happy to keep your prunings, then bring them along and share with others.
Raewyn Jarkiewicz
Note these events in your diary
Auckland BranchFirst Annual Tree and Plant Sale
Saturday 11 July 2015 Wet or Fine 10 am to 1 pm
Venue: Auckland Botanic Gardens Manurewa In the covered courtyards.
Everyone welcome: gardeners, lifestyle and small block hold-ers, farmers, nurseries. You can buy and sell, look, talk trees and ask questions.
Waikato Branch 2015 Annual Tree Crops Sale @ Hamilton Gardens.
4 July gates opening at 10 am.
Big ... Bigger ... Biggest According to the NZ Herald, a member of the Bay Of Plenty NZTCA branch claimed the ‘biggest feijoa’ prize at 233 grams. That was then and in a rush of ever-bigger claims this year, the biggest has, well, got even bigger and bigger and bigger.
So how big is yours?
The Conference BF ChallengeStart your planning now to grow the Biggest Feijoa for display at next year’s NZTCA Conference. The weight to beat is 385 grams.
272 gms (pic Duncan Brown) >>> 316 gms (pic Paul Taylor) >>> 385 gms (pic Paul Taylor
Like to help?
We need someone who can take over the important secretary’s role for the Franklin Branch.It’s not too onerous - six committee meetings per year .
Call Raewyn
May, 2015
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Biochar Interest Group NZA field day for the Biochar Interest Group was held recently at Treecropper Cam Smith’s property in Mauku.
Biochar makers on display included two TLUDs and a pyramid kiln.
I hear some ask huhh? What is a TLUD?
The name ‘Top Lit Up Draft’ describes how the biochar maker works. A stack of dry organic matter is placed in a 120 litre steel drum and lit at the top. Air feeds the fire through holes in the base of the drum (giving the up draft).
If simply left to burn down, ash will be produced just like in an incinerator.
The secret to making char and not ash is in the second drum on top of the first (pics 1 & 2). This provides a space for the wood gases driven off the heat-ed organic matter to burn. Oxygen is introduced into this secondary burn chamber to ensure a cleaner, smoke-less burn. A flue is not essential but it increases the draft creating a hotter burn that further reduces smoke.
Pic1 - two TLUDs at the start of the burn - note there is no smoke.
Pic2 The burn is quenched when ash falls from TLUD’s bottom, pre-venting the char turning to ash.
Pyramid kilns will often be dug into the ground. This example (Pic 3) is constructed in steel and fed with wood at a rate that maintains a smokeless fire. Char is created below the fire and when the pyramid is full of char, the fire is quenched.
In both biochar makers, it is the flame cap above the burning material that restricts air flow to the char beneath the flames. This burning in a reduced-air environment is the pyrolysis process that creates char. The flame cap in the TLUD’s secondary chamber is fuelled by wood gases driven off the heated wood.
The primary purpose of these systems is to make biochar (each 100 cubic meters of feed stock produces around 25 cu m of char) and the heat they produce is not utilised.
Other types of pyrolysers that produce a similar volume of biochar also allow process heat and synthesis gas (Syngas) to be captured. Syngas, mainly hydrogen (H) and carbon monoxide (CO) plus carbon dioxide (CO2), can be used as a fuel or, if cleaned of contaminants like sulphur, run an engine or be condensed to make biodiesel.
Biochar has many uses. It is an effective filter, a soil conditioner (when inoculated with
Pic3 - A pyramid kiln just starting up. Note there is some smoke.
compost tea), or can be buried to near-permanent-ly remove CO2 from the atmosphere and seques-ter it in the soil. Biochar is also finding increased applications in animal farming, including as a feed supplement and as a bedding material.
The organic matter we used was waste timber and corn cobs. Post shavings, manure, sawdust or pine needles could also be burned with the properties of biochar differing according to the feed stock used.
Waste organic matter is a great feed stock but with increasing competition for that resource, alterna-tives would be better. Especially if grown locally.
Double benefits accrue from the permaculture approach of growing trees that provide feed for stock and feed stock to make biochar and biofuels.
Tree crops suitable for growing under a SRC (Short Rotation Coppicing) regime include poplars and willows. These crops can be harvested two to three years after planting and coppicing. Miscanthus is also a suitable biofuel crop.
Interested in joining the Biochar Interest Group NZ?
Give me a call - John Allen on 021 46 36 86.
Pic4 - Biochar produced from wood chips.
Pic4 - Biochar produced from corn cobs.
Pic5 -From wood shavings to Biochar
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FranklinTreeCroppers
The establishment of a community learning and demon-stration food forest in Franklin is all go with an agreement between Franklin Treecroppers and Pukekohe High School.
What is a food forest?
A food forest, also called a forest garden, has been defined as ‘a perennial polyculture of multipurpose plants‘.
Perennial plants grow for more than two seasons, so a food forest implies permanence.
A polyculture is the opposite of monoculture with all the implications of sustainability, reduced use of poisoning ‘cides’ and fresher, healthier foods.
Multipurpose means they can provide two or more of the seven ‘F’s: Food, Fibre, Pharmaceuticals, Fodder for animals, Fuel or Fertiliser. And not to forget Fun.
One important thing is that food forests are designed to mimic a forest ecological system, producing a stable and sustainable agricultural structure.
Franklin Food Foresta Tree Crops project
Community Learning and Demonstration facility
The prime objective of the Franklin Food Forest is to establish a community learning and demonstration facility. This will be in the Pukekohe High School’s existing 2,500 square metre orchard.
That is not a lot of are in which to create a food forest. But being a demonstration facility, we are establishing not one but four forests.
One, the smallest at 128 square metres will be for urban applica-tions - a productive, low-maintenance home orchard.
The other three will each be 256 sq m and will explore the design elements needed to achieve: an economic use on lifestyle blocks; beneficial companions in commercial growing operations; and biologically diverse shelter belt plantings.
The project is supported by a $2,000 grant from Auckland Council’s Environmental Initiatives Fund plus $1,000 each from the Tree Crops Association national committee and Franklin Branch.
Your can follow the project at https://facebook.com/groups/Fran-klinFoodForest/
Jack MilbankManaging Director Hortus Technical Services
Hortus is Austral-ia’s leading certi-fied independent laboratory and agronomic serv-ices company.
Located in Bundaberg Queensland Australia
Jack was bought up on mixed farming property in Zimba-bwe. Jack moved to Australia in 1999 to study Agronomy at the University of Queensland. Jack worked in a range of farming, food and beverage sectors from 2003, in 2009 Jack became the Managing Director of Hortus Technical Services, Australia’s leading independent NATA certified laboratory and agronomic services company. In 2013 Jack Founded Biofilm Crop Protection Pty Ltd to research, com-mercially ferment, and distribute biotechnology, Biofilm has subsequently patented their production process and established an office in the USA. In 2014 Jack founded the Bargara Brewing Company, producing Craft Beer for Queenslanders.
As a 2006/7 Nuffield Scholar studying “Globally competi-tive horticultural production processing and marketing using renewable energy” over eighteen months Jack spent time researching best practice agronomic management, product processing, clean energy and marketing in India, New Zealand, China, UAE, UK and the US.
Along with proven theoretical knowledge, Jack combines practical international experience in Large scale Agri-cultural and horticultural projects, Environmental Sci-ence, technical management, commercialization, project development and implementation, client service, training and organisational structure streamlining. Jack has had an active involvement in the implementation of industry wide research projects, and finding solutions to improve the efficiency and profitability of producers by facilitating the optimal use of crop production inputs through monitoring, testing, research, training and consulting services that repre-sent worlds’ best practices in crop management systems.
A draft schedule for the three-day conference has been prepared and we are busy finding speakers and field trips to make it a stimu-lating event.
Our focus is on Franklin and there are a number of local innovators being featured either as speakers or in field trips.
So if you know of a local speaker with something to say around our conference theme, please contact Heather Douglas.
The conference web site will go live around May 20th at the url http://TreecropsConference.nz (sorry it is not available for you to see today)
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.
A Field day at your property?
This can be useful if you have something you would like to show us, some problem that we can discuss and help with, or you need ideas of what to plant.
Please have a chat with someone on the committee or just let us know that you would like us to include your place, and the best time of year for you.
Franklin Branch CommitteeChairRaewyn Jarkiewicz09 292 5051Email [email protected]
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.
Field Day driving directions.
An apple tree flowering in May at Graham Wheeler’s Ramarama property.
Franklin TreeCroppers NoticesBuy Sell & SwapTo advertise here, free to members,contact Heather Douglas at [email protected] food-grade 20 litre buckets - $5 each
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.
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