South Australia’s apple industry has the potential to produce up to 60 to 70 tonne crops annually if growers follow in the footsteps of their New Zealand counterparts.

That’s according to a group of local growers who’ve recently returned from a four-day study tour of New Zealand’s most modern apple orchards in Nelson, and the Hawkes Bay regions.

Paul James, Rural Solutions SA’s senior horticultural consultant with support from PIRSA Horticulture joined Lenswood’s Kym Green and young growers Matt Hannaford (Cudlee Creek) and Noel Mason (Forest Range) to see exactly what makes one of the worlds’ greatest apple growing countries so successful.

Paul says New Zealand growers are much more focused on achieving maximum marketable yields and economic returns for their fruit, instead of reducing their inputs like many Australian growers.

“New Zealand apple growers are specialist growers who concentrate on growing quality produce and supplying it to licensed pack houses and exporters,” he said.

“Australian growers tend to be more vertically integrated and have to spread their resources and focus wider. In New Zealand the apple growers tend to be specialised growers.” 

Paul says right from the start of the season New Zealand growers know what size and quality of fruit is needed and therefore strives to produce that result.

“They tie down branches all season on young trees to optimise their early cropping potential, and work them a lot harder to produce optimum results,” he said.

“Australian growers generally do not put the same level of resources and effort into new orchard block development or young tree management.”

Utilising the best in technology and investigating new mechanised equipment is the way forward according to Paul.

He says New Zealand growers have embraced technology and use solar powered pruning platforms to manoeuvre around trees to tie down branches.

“Workers quickly and effortlessly use string to tie down branches, which lets in more light and reduces vegetative growth – promoting increased fruit production,” Paul said.

“Their orchards are also set up efficiently from the start to take into account the usage of machinery.

“It was amazing to see by using these practices, all of their young trees were comparatively tall and every branch had good quality, even sized fruit, and that was only at two or three years of age.”

Paul says New Zealand growers aim for maximum results by implementing good trellis systems, pruning strategies to ensure trees are kept high but narrow to make the best use of sunlight and on-going monitoring to keep on top of any irrigation, fruit size and pest management changes needed.

“The trellis’ in New Zealand are at least 3.6m in height, which results in taller trees . . . Our growers however try to save money on trellis systems, but they loose out on getting increased tonnage in their crops,” he said.

Paul says Australian growers are also very conscious of sunburn and the effect our climate has on fruit quality, and therefore tend to be more conservative in their tree management.

“With the recent introduction of fruit sunscreens and environmental nets, our growers can now take big steps forward in improving orchard performance by using these tools in conjunction with higher density planting systems on dwarfing rootstocks,” he said.

Paul encourages all Australian growers to take notice of New Zealand’s success and make real changes in their whole approach and attitude.