Kiwifruit: post-harvest advice with Louise Shepherd

With the last of the fruit leaving the vine in Kerikeri, what should growers be doing next to ready their kiwifruit orchards for winter? Post-harvest advice from Technical Horticulture Representative Louise Shepherd.

Episode Transcript

(00:10):
Welcome to Blushed Diary, a podcast about and for our
farmers and growers brought to you by PG Wrightson.
I'm your podcast producer and very infrequent host, Caroline
Burner. Today's topic is Tech Talk,
where we get technical and seasonal advice from PG
Wrightsons technical field and effort representatives and our
technical team. Joining the conversation today

(00:31):
is Louise Sheppard, technical Horticultural advisor based in
Kerry. Kerry.
She joins us now to chat about Kiwi fruit.
Welcome. Hi.
Hi there. Now I had the joy of just being
up with you in Kerry, Kerry and it's gorgeous in the winter list
north and just last week and I got to see kind of one of the
few orchards left with Kiwi fruit on board.

(00:53):
So how has the Kiwi fruit seasonbeen and how long until it's all
wrapped? Up and it's been a great season
overall. The weather has been a little
tricky just because it's been sowet.
It's been hard to get enough harvesting gaze in.
People are we're about a week away from having it all wrapped
up, apart from the Hayward that is.

(01:15):
The gold will be all wrapped up in about a week, which is great.
Despite the challenges of the weather, the fruit turned out
magnificently, isn't it? I mean, I'm seeing it in our
stores now and it looks fantastic.
It tastes even better. So now that the season is coming
to a close, what's next for growers?
What do they need to look out for?
So post harvest and Kiwi fruit, the big is the big problem we

(01:38):
have up here is PSA, something that's always around and as it
gets, we head into autumn with temperatures dropping and more
rainfall around the incidents ofPS A or the risk period is quite
high. So we recommend an application
of at Tigard post harvest and this also helps to protect your

(02:01):
picking scars because when you pick a fruit you leave behind a
fruit stalk which is an entry point for PSA.
Doing a round of active guard and autumn will also help to
reduce your PS A pressure cominginto spring which is really
important. And then by management, what
does vine management look like, you know, in autumn and then

(02:21):
going into winter? About now, the late quality is
still quite good. As you're probably aware, Kiwi
fruit as a plant that goes into dormancy over winter time.
So while the leaf quality is good, we try to get folias as
well as crop protection sprays on UM, and then once we've done

(02:46):
that, that's when all the orchard workers hidden and will
start to prune their orchards back and tie the canes down
ready for winter time. In winter, is there anything
that you know, do you get to rest or is there anything that
growers should be on the look out for or to keep their eye on
over the dormant months? And can we find there's not a

(03:07):
lot to say because obviously thevine goes completely into
dormancy, so there's no leaves or anything.
It's just a beer cans, beer vineand there's still PS a risk
around. So they still do need to be
applying their preventative sprays for PS A.
And I guess winter time is sort of a bit of a downtime where we

(03:33):
start doing soil testing and getting ready for the next
season really. As they come out of winter, when
is the next sort of what? What month should they start
being in contact with their THR in order to get ready for
spring? Really July, August, they sort
of key period and then once we start hitting into bud break,

(03:55):
that's when they really need to have a good spring programme in
place. So for some of our growers and
farmers are listening to this chat, who don't grow Kiwi fruit
for a living but might have a vine or two on their property
and they want to get the most out of it is do they need to
follow the same rules or the same guidelines as you would for

(04:17):
your professional growers? Yes, yes, um, yeah, the
principles of current managementare still the same.
You still need to feed them. Keep your fruit a big feeders so
you know they need fertiliser togrow fruit.
And yes, the crop, crop protection sprays I would say
would be very similar. So we are about a week away

(04:39):
until we are post harvest. So follow your application is
something that's really important at this time.
What are some of the things thatthey need to be doing?
So well the leaf quality is still good.
Before leaf sinason starts it's a really good time to get a post
harvest foliar application on a product like errors Bud builder.

(04:59):
FL is really good because it contains all the key nutrients
that the Kiwi fruit vine canes are going to store over the
winter time, which is your in nitrogen, frostbite, calcium,
magnesium, zinc and boron. So it's really, really good time
while the leaf leaves are still functioning and the vine is

(05:22):
still functioning to give it some post harvest nutrition.
And that post harvest nutrition will also help come that early
bud break period when the vines start to come out of dormancy.
And then PS A, what are some of the things you need to look out
for when it comes to PS? If you if you realise that the

(05:43):
threat might be there or to be on the look out for to make sure
that PSA isn't affecting your blinds.
So pay your say is quite visibleon the leaves.
You get like a leaf spot on the leaves with a bit of a Halo.
And then in severe cases you canget like a red ooze and the
trunks and canes for that sort of quite an advanced stage of

(06:08):
the disease. And then you can get Kane die
back as well from PS A. And well, the whole vine can die
from PS A if you haven't been doing any preventative sprays or
etcetera on them. So I guess prevention is, is
better than a cure or when it comes to PS A, it sounds like

(06:30):
that Kiwi fruit growers get a little bit of a vacation for
June and July maybe and then getright back into it to create all
the things that we love for our fruit bowls in summer and
autumn. So for we're very fortunate.
We're very fortunate. Yes, Well, thank you so much,

(06:52):
Louise. And until next time, I look
forward to coming back to Kerikeri and having a little
tour of something else. I mean, seeing mandarins and
maybe avocados next time. We're all very excited.
Exciting, yeah. All right.
Thank you so much. Thank you for joining Blushed
Diaries Tech Talk. As always, if you have

(07:12):
additional questions about what is happening on your farm or
orchard, please contact your local PGA rates in technical
field or horticultural representative.
If you have a question or something you like to learn more
about from us, shoot us an e-mail at [e-mail]
dot amazed. We look forward to hearing from
you. Until next time.