HOA Field day at Adina 30/1/22

HOA Field Day held at Adina, January 30th 2022

Our first field day for 2022 was held on a hot, humid day at Adina Vineyard and Olive grove. The main theme of the meeting was preparation for Olive harvest and oil pressing, for this Adina is our main centre, so thank you to manager Steve Smith for his hospitality and his prepared list of instructions for those wishing to use the mill at Adina(found at the end of the letter).
   Peter Herborn, the NSW representative at the AOA and our Vice President, who has led the research looking at last year’s harvest and problems and their resolution, led the day. His help in answering the many questions came from Steve Goodchild, who runs Pukara Estate and has such a wealth of experience which he generously shared in very practical observations and answering questions from the participants. Chris Iacono who owned and operated a harvester for many years pointed out how to prepare for that day so unnecessary time and money aren’t wasted. Joel Booty, who is operating the only harvester in the valley available for hiring was also present and ready to answer questions.
    The Hunter Olive industry has been operating since late 1990s, and in recent years has seen the sale of many original groves. It was very encouraging to see new members present, despite a coming harvest with little fruit but keen to learn from those with experience. We were  pleased to welcome Marcus and Eliza Padmore, Robin Brigden, Lawrie and Lee Rawson, Peter and Katrina Allen, and Jason Hollard. The rest of us, with various years of Olive experience, were there to learn from the experts .
     This meeting was set up as a pre harvest information discussion to promote communication between the grove owner, harvester operator, those providing bins and transport of fruit to the press, and the Olive mill. It was obvious prior to the meeting that 2022 will be a very reduced harvest, not least because of the devastating effect of lacebug across the valley, reducing many groves to skeletons with little or no fruit.
       The instructions from the panel showed quite a lot of overlap in lacebug management/recovery and preparing the grove for a good harvest . At the end of the letter is one from Prof. Spooner Hart with much more detail but It was pointed out to us that after a heavy harvest the trees need more nutrition to give a crop the following year and that the trees most lacking in nutrition and water will be most prone to disease. Detailed treatment for the lace bug is in the letter below.
 Grove pruning will be important this year, not only suckers and lower branches but the older groves often have trees too tall for optimal shaking so need their height reduced.
There was much discussion around treatment of the lacebug, much better found in the following letter from Peter Herborn/Prof Spooner-Hart.
 By the end of the morning we had been given enough information to act on, the detail is in the two attachments below. Also, I hope people have found a network to get further information and help. In the next few weeks we will have a page set up on the website of grove contractors for help with pruning etc, there are two smaller mills for pressing less than 500 kg, and several of the members present do grove visits to offer advice.

Bellow are 3 attachments to click on for you info.
        Many thanks to every one who came along.

Regards      

Marie Kearns
President Hunter Olive Association