How to Increase the number Nut Trees and why should I???

 Nut Trees need to be Increased!

I have recently been pondering the future of our property and what we should be producing and what we shouldn't be producing. 

I would love to plant a lot more trees on the property but it has some challenges (see Revegetation Blog). However animal are a major contributing factor to Climate Change especially ruminants that burp and fart methane which is 28 times more potent a greenhouse gas than CO2.

So what to do?

We have some hazel nut trees on the property as well as a couple of Sweet Chestnuts (I had originally planted 8 but only two have survived and they really struggle to cross pollinate despite being located next to each other! So I have decided to increase our nut tree population in two ways.

I reached out to Jennifer on the West Bank of the Motueka River and from who we have in the past bought Sweet Chestnut from to see if she would allow me to buy some sweet chestnuts that I could try to germinate. And of course, after I had explained the objective of my call, she said, "What the heck John, you don't have to pay me just come over and pick up all the chestnuts that you need from under our mature trees". This is soooooo typical of people in New Zealand, incredibly generous and friendly, something that I love about living in New Zealand.

So I now have around 50 chestnut seeds stratifying in our fridge for 90 days, with my fingers crossed that they will germinate. I have previously germinated Chestnuts this way so have high hopes that this will work.

Now for the hazel nuts I decided to try a different method, mainly because our hazel nuts are not yet producing nuts and because I thought that layering would be fun. By layering we will get a clone of the parent plant which in itself is pretty useful if only I hadn't been so stingy as to buy unnamed mother plants which have dubious production abilities! Urgh:>)

Anyhow laying of hazel nut is supposed to be easy.

This diagram shows the basic principal. With Hazel Nut trees one uses the suckers that they produce and I struggled to bend the suckers so much as in the diagram so decided to bend the sucker to a pot and hope to get the sucker to root in the pot which I can plant in a new location!

So I layered eight hazel nut tree suckers into pot with metal pegs to hold the sucker under the compost and a bamboo cane to hold the sucker shoot as straight up as possible. Looked back on my work and proudly walked away.

But unknown to me the chooks had also been watching me and they immediately walked over to check on my work and obviously disapproved as they immediately started digging in the soil of the pots which resulted in the hazel nut suckers coming to the surface thus destroying what I had done.

Damn those chooks!!!!

Once I realised what had happened I realised that there were two options. Kill the Chooks or protect the pots from the chooks.

I decided on the second option, although it was a close thing!

I used two different methods and to date both have been successful. Now all I have to do is wait six months to see if any of the hazel nut suckers actually root! I am starting to realise that agriculture really requires a lot of patience and perseverance!

Revegetation: How many Plants!!!!!

 Revegetation: How Many Plants!!!!

We were recently fortunate enough to be given 400 native plants under the "Restoring the Moutere" project which aims to have 270,000 new trees planted in the Moutere Catchment are over the next three years using a $1.9 million grant from the One Billion Trees initiative. The project aims to achieve a catchment-scale restoration of native riparian ecosystems and wetlands and improve the water quality for the Moutere River and its tributaries and inlet.

All the family have been involved in the planting (some a little reluctantly I have to say:>) but I think that it is important that they understand and get first hand experience of planting trees and see that their parents also think that it is an important activity. We have set aside about 10% of our property for replanting, largely around its perimeters where the Flaxmore drain and the Company Ditch runs.

All the family were involved in the planting

Plants by the Company Ditch

Plants by the Flaxmore Drain.

To date we have planted around 300 plants and I can tell you it is a herculean task especially where the soil is stony and a pick axe has to be used to make the hole! It is slow and arduous! But we are getting there.

However once we started planting it became apparent that the number of plants that we had was insufficient for the areas that we wanted to plant so I ask for additional plants and got another 300 plants.

Lets look at the maths for how many plants are required to revegetate a 1 hectare plot. If the plants are planted at 1.5m intervals this means that in one line there would be 100/1.5 plants = 67 plants. so in 1 hectare (100m x 100m) we would need 67 x 67 plants = 4,489 plants!!!! What the heck that is a lot of plants!

Our property is 10 acres big = 4 hectares. If we intend to revegetate 10% then that is 0.4 hectares which would require 4,489 plants per hectare x 0.4 = 1,795 OMG so many!!!!

We have received 700 plants so far which is only 39% of the number of plants that we require. 

I can see another request for plants being developed for next year ( which is the final year of the programme).

It is INCREDIBLE just how many plants are needed for revegetation programmes.

Free Pots

 Free Pots & Trays.

I am amazed at just how generous people can be and also how many pots are produced by the horticulture business that are just thrown away, and would end up in landfills.

A friend has just recently given me the below tray and tubes. He had plants delivered in these for his own business. As he had already planted the plants the trays and tubes had been lying around on his property for several years until he knew that I was looking to start a horticulture business when he gave them to me.

But at the same time horticultural businesses are throwing away an enormous number of pots with companies (Nelmac and Franks Trees) having bins outside their premises with pots being given away for free. I'm pretty sure that if people don't pick up these pots they would simply end up in landfill so good on these companies for at least trying to recycle their pots.

But it does also make me wonder just how much plastic from horticulture is simply thrown away!

However there is some good news as this problem has been recognized by the industry and various companies are now trying to make pots in a more sustainable manner. One company that I was recently made aware of is Cow Pots in the USA that use cow manure to make plants pots 

https://cowpots.com/

If only these were available in New Zealand!

Kowhai Seeds

 Kowhai Seeds and how to Germinate.

From my recent experience with Kowhai seeds I can say one thing. They are tough! I have read several books that say that you just have to put them in warm water to get them to start to germinate but from my experience this just doesn't work. I have even tried pouring boiling water over them and leaving them for 24 hours but have had to do this three times before I have managed to get the seeds to take up the water and swell. Basically the seed coat is super tough.

However the easiest, although time consuming, method that I have used with great results to date is using a toe nail clipper and snip the ends of the seed. Be sure to avoid cutting the slightly darker indent on the seed as this is where the embryo resides. However by clipping the ends of the seed and soaking the seeds in warm water I have at least managed to get the seeds to swell and hopefully start the germination process. It is still early days so I am unsure as to how successful this technique is but I believe it is a step in the right direction and FAR better than the first kowhai seeds that I tried to get to germinate which I placed in warm water (as mentioned in a book I had been reading) and which after two months in a seed tray were still as hard and wrinkled as they were the day that I had sowed them there!

 

Clipping Kowhai Seeds (all 850 of them:>)

The Top Photo show the original Kowhai Seeds, then next the seeds clipped and soaked in warm water for 12 hours, then seeds that have had their seed coat completely removed and seeds that have just been soaked in hots water.

Comparison between a seed that has been clipped and one that was just soaked in warm water. The above seed has obviously taken up water while the one just soaked in water remains wrinkled and small.

Some of the Kowhai seeds sown in a seed tray.

Now all I have to do is wait to see if the clipped seeds are now going to germinate!

Eco-sourcing seeds?

 Eco-Sourcing Seeds.

I am not entirely sure that I am always strictly eco-sourcing seeds but I really do enjoy collecting seeds from plants that are on our property or on nearby properties this has led us to make new friends and has shown us just how easy it is to do even though one might not initially be 100% sure of the exact sub species (or even species:>)

We have eco-sourced (in the strictest sense of the word) a lot of native seeds from both privately owned Native Bush (with the owners permission) as well as from public lands and are actually very surprised at what can be found within a very short distance of our property.

However what I enjoy the most is to collect seeds from within our property and we have recently collected Manuka, Kanuka and Akeake seeds. We also have Olearia's with seeds and Banksia's that we shall be collecting seeds from in the near future. As we increase, over the next couple of years, the number of different species on the property the range of available seeds will also greatly increase as will our knowledge and expertise in germinating and reproducing the plants. Exciting times:>)

Eco-sourcing Akeake seens?

Loads of seeds readily available although it is best to take seeds from the green Akeake as the reds are hybrids!

The result of and hours work, sourcing, and cleaning the seeds. Now to put in the fridge at 4 degrees centigrade for three weeks with some moist sand.

Improving the Protection of recently Planted Plants.

 Installation of new Plant Guards.

On our property we have a major problem with rabbits destroying our plants. It has become such a problem that we have had to install rabbit fencing around the vegetable garden and where we had planted trees around the property had installed plant guards. However the plant guards were of a very poor quality being made of very flimsy plastic and not sufficiently tall. The rabbits were both digging under the guards and ring barking the trees as well as topping them. Basically the plants guards weren't doing their job so we decided to up our game and make life a little more difficult for the bunnies and bought solid plant guards made of corflute (a corrugated plastic) 40cm high and far more robust.

Previously I had struggled to install the bamboo canes to support the flimsier plant guards (which required three canes per plant guard). Although the new plant guards required only one bamboo cane I didn't relish trying to pushing the cane into our soil which can be very stony. So I came up with the idea of hammering in the canes but with the canes being so flexible I was worried that they would break, so the solution was to drill a hole partially through a piece of wood which could be placed over the cane, providing some support to the cane and this hammer the piece of wood (a far easier target:>)

This system has worked very well with only a couple of canes having broken and the ones that didn't break have made for a FAR more stable plant guards that should give the bunnies more trouble to dig under or to top the plants. Just for good measure I have also added a square piece of weed mat under the plant guard. So far the system has worked very well with no rabbit damage to date, although it is still early times.

Plant planted with weed mat in place.

Bamboo Cane with drilled wood and mallet.

How it works. Simple but effective, the cane passes through the weed mat where it has been cut to fit around the plant.

The Plant Gaurds are very stable and should provide effective protection against rabbits (hopefully:>)

Collecting Horse Manure

 Horse Manure.

The use of horse manure can be a controversial subject perhaps surprisingly with it being said that the compost is high in antibiotics and that it is a big source of weeds. Although with this in mind I still actively source it and have a great supply that keeps my garden well supplied with organic matter. However it is important to acknowledge the above issues and take steps to minimise their impact. This can be done by composting the manure (the heat helps to kill the weed seeds), and to not apply the horse manure immediately on the vegetable beds (taking us back to point one, composting).

We compost in a big bay for over a year in order to do the above as well as to "mature" the compost. However there is a cost to maturing the compost as this results in a lose of nitrogen in the process but this lose has to be simply accepted so that a more balanced and healthy fertiliser is eventually added to the soil.

Great to have a trailer and ute to pick up the horse manure although it would be very useful to have a trailer that tips but good exercise:>)

A couple of hours latter the job is completed (although could be tidied up a little better). Still need to do one more trip in a months time to really fill up the bay and have a source of manure for the next year.