Good growers who achieve top returns
Four years ago Tony and Linda Dimmock planted passionfruit because they expected good returns and they have not been disappointed. They know that vines perform best in their first three years but they hope to adapt their vine management and maintain reasonable production for a few more years. They are experienced horticulturists, selling a 280-cow dairy herd near Waihi in 1978 to set up a kiwifruit orchard in Winroy Grove, Katikati, acknowledged to be one of the best producing areas for kiwifruit in the district.
They expanded by purchasing a second orchard but hard times in the kiwifruit industry forced them to sell one block and their home. They spent the next three years in a rented flat in a kiwifruit packhouse. In 1993 they sold their remaining orchard and bought two hectares just off the main highway near Athenree, north of Katikati. One of its attractions was a house site with a view over the Tauranga Harbour towards the harbour entrance and Tanners Point.
The following year, in late spring 1995, they planted 0.35ha of passionfruit on A-frame structures, as well as tamarillos and ugli. The ugli fruit have not paid and they are being replaced by more tamarillos.
Their first passionfruit crop, in 1997, was heavy and they made $30,000 from the block, picking 19.75 tonnes per hectare. That year they had a 50 per cent export packout. In the meantime they leased an area half as big as their own passionfruit planting from a neighbour for five years and set it up with A-frames and more passionfruit. They have since leased a further hectare at Athenree and planted it in tamarillos and are negotiating for more land. "Passionfruit need very sheltered, frost-free situations," said Tony. "We have looked at lots of land but it is hard to find pieces that are suitable."
They have learned how vulnerable passionfruit is to salt spray. A November easterly burned vegetation and fruit on avocados and other trees in exposed situations around Katikati. The Dimmocks orchard is exposed to the east and the salt severely burnt both leaves and fruit on their passionfruit vines. The tamarillos were not badly affected by the salt but the wind broke branches off exposed trees. Last season they harvested 30 or 40 buckets of fruit each day from that block but this year they are only getting about 10. Additionally, those 10 buckets are yielding only 40 per cent export fruit compared with 80 per cent from last years crop. However, the vines are now recovering.
The vines on A-frames are trained with main leaders running along the top wire and laterals tucked down outside the A so the fruit hangs inside the structure. Winter pruning involves using a hedge cutter to cut off all laterals just below the wires. Now that the vines are entering their fourth year Tony plans to be more selective in his pruning in an effort to maintain vigour for the remaining years of the vines' lives. They are only expected to last seven years. He plans to apply Nitrogen two or three weeks before pruning to give the vines a boost. Because the vines are growing up and out on an angle, A frames double the potential canopy area. The fruit are well supported and wind rub is reduced.
They apply Foli-R-Fos three times a year and spray with copper once a month for most of the year increasing spraying frequency to every 10 days in humid weather. The A-frames shade the fruit so the Dimmocks have to pick up the fallen fruit only once each day. They each carry two buckets and grade into local market and export as they harvest. Tony and Linda pack their fruit using a velvet-covered spiral worm to size the fruit. Tony places the fruit in this sizer by hand and Linda wipes each fruit and packs it into export trays or local market packs. Most of their export fruit is being sent to Friedas in California and this firm's individual fruit labels have to be applied one by one by hand. A hand-held labelling machine can be used for most other labels. The extra $10 a tray offered by New Zealand Tamarillo Supplies Ltd, the exporter handling Friedas fruit, makes Tony's job of sticking on each label worthwhile.
Tony and Linda are concerned that passionfruit growers are not required to keep a record of their sprays for the industry does not have approved spray diaries. They fear that one grower, through ignorance or carelessness, may wreck the US export market by applying an unregistered spray or disregarding the required withholding period for a chemical. The local market fruit is divided into two grades. The better fruit goes into 5-kg cardboard packs and the lower grade is packed into 5-kg plastic bags.
Tony and Linda are also finding their tamarillos are paying well, up to $55 earned from one tree, producing 1.5 export trays and some local market fruit. So far they have planted red tamarillos but plan to plant an orange variety if they lease more land. They calculate that tamarillos are more cost effective per hectare than passionfruit because no structures are required to support the trees.
When they set out to plant their leased block they were not satisfied with the colour of their own tamarillo fruit so they looked in shops and supermarkets for some really superior fruit, but without success. Eventually they arranged to buy a tray of large, well-coloured fruit from their exporter and grew their own plants from seed extracted from this fruit.
"With our young block, we are finding passionfruit are paying well," said Linda. "We started the season very early at $15 a kg on the local market it's dropped to $4 to $5 now. "But we are slaves to our passionfruit for about three months, picking and packing every day. Back in 1997 when we had our huge first crop we decided to take a day off and go and watch a one-day cricket match in Auckland. We arranged for three people to come and pick up our passionfruit and told them they should be finished by lunchtime. "They picked up all morning and by lunchtime they were less than half way through the block. They filled every bucket and container on the place and even put fruit in the wheelbarrow. By the time they finished some of the fruit was sunburnt, of course. "When we got home we had to pack fruit to empty buckets so we could pick up the next day's fruit. "It took us and three extra staff a week to catch up. We had no idea that so much fruit could fall in one day."
Theirs is a genuine working partnership. Every morning Tony and Linda work on their own land. Every afternoon they supervise and work with contracting gangs on three orchards they manage.
As well, Tony does some spray contracting and they also have a long-standing arrangement with Campbell and Maureen Babington, kiwifruit and avocado orchardists, who rely on Tony and Linda to work their orchard.
"They regard us as their family," said Linda.
Article by Rosalie Smith
Reprinted from "The Orchardist" March 1999
