Thursday 15th May from Christchurch to Blenheim via Kaikoura
First stop of the day Elliot’s wholesale nursery.
Geof f Elliot, the nursery owner, took time out from painting nudes to take us round. Geoff is an ideas person , an innovator and an enthusiast. This is a first generation nursery supplying just to the South Island with a customer base of no more than 500 K. Geoff started growing rhododendron in the 1980s but quickly found that the South Island did not possess sufficient numbers of rhodo enthusiasts for him to make a living. Diversification was again mentioned as the key to supplying a market of this size.
As with Oderings , he chooses not to supply multiples and went on to describe the different effect supplying multiples and independents has on a nursery business. The former was like submitting your business to a certain and quick death and the latter , a slow but equally certain death. He has chosen to die slowly.
The most interesting aspects of his business included his use of fertilisers, lack of use of pesticides, irrigation systems /water supply , growing structures and his propagation facilities. The photos I took reflect all of these.
Following the visit I discussed the propagation facilities with Laura Liverman the prop supervisor from Walberton nursery in the UK who is also on our tour . Her prop facilities utilise low polythene tunnels over heated concrete, while Geoff, in the main, preferred sand beds covered with mypex with mist, to maintain humidity. Much of what Laura props roots easily (penstemon, fuchsia, lavandula ) but she was very taken with the idea of using sandbeds and mist to provide positive drainage around the cutting’s base for more difficult to root subjects.
This nursery has automated its irrigation to the extent that there was little or no need for anyone to come in at weekends. Irrigation lines were also added to all prop tunnels containing mist. Geoff felt that having both ensures greater uniformity. The mist is controlled with a calorie counter, the irrigation, with a time clock and both are turned off if the temperature in the tunnels falls below fifteen degrees Celsius.
Many years ago following Geoffs visit with the IPPS to the States the nursery began to utilise fog for propagation and chlorine for disease control. Sometime later he decided to replace fog with mist and naturally occurring beneficials for chlorine. Today Geoff applies recycled ‘dirty’ water over the growing crop, and feels that this has dramatically reduced the need to apply pesticides as the plants are now growing with a greater sense of immunity.
Geoff also has a novel approach to nutrition. He has gone through both controlled release and liquid feeding phases but has since moved on to using agricultural combination fertiliser and dispensing it over the top of the crop every two months. All water is recycled so that the leached nutrients are put back on to the crop.
This was a thoughtful guy. Why apply liquid fertiliser when much of it is going to run off down the drain? The run- off is nutrient rich so why not collect it and put it back over the crop ? Changing to cheaper agricultural fertilisers and recycling water has not led to any drop off in plant quality.
The nursery utilised many different shade structures including a large area covered in hail proof netting. This area was cheaply constructed with a polythene membrane, gravel base and wind resistant irrigation nozzles (maestro) This efficiency of the irrigation reached a level of 96 CU . When every second nozzle was turned off the system still reached a level of 80CU
Geoff espoused a great pioneering spirit . ‘when problems occur on the nursery you should just get working and enjoy the effort of putting it right’ With that Geoff departed to collect the male model for the days painting session.
Whale watching in Kaikoura followed . Two sperm whales were spotted, all was excellently organised and presented during our two hour trip out in the bay. W hile many found the experience both exciting and exhilarating , I am happy to say I have seen a whale and am even more happy to subscribe to the argument that we should not be killing whales, not even for scientific purposes , however I like plants not animals so onto Blenheim and wine tasting with Montana.
First stop of the day Elliot’s wholesale nursery.
Geof f Elliot, the nursery owner, took time out from painting nudes to take us round. Geoff is an ideas person , an innovator and an enthusiast. This is a first generation nursery supplying just to the South Island with a customer base of no more than 500 K. Geoff started growing rhododendron in the 1980s but quickly found that the South Island did not possess sufficient numbers of rhodo enthusiasts for him to make a living. Diversification was again mentioned as the key to supplying a market of this size.
As with Oderings , he chooses not to supply multiples and went on to describe the different effect supplying multiples and independents has on a nursery business. The former was like submitting your business to a certain and quick death and the latter , a slow but equally certain death. He has chosen to die slowly.
The most interesting aspects of his business included his use of fertilisers, lack of use of pesticides, irrigation systems /water supply , growing structures and his propagation facilities. The photos I took reflect all of these.
Following the visit I discussed the propagation facilities with Laura Liverman the prop supervisor from Walberton nursery in the UK who is also on our tour . Her prop facilities utilise low polythene tunnels over heated concrete, while Geoff, in the main, preferred sand beds covered with mypex with mist, to maintain humidity. Much of what Laura props roots easily (penstemon, fuchsia, lavandula ) but she was very taken with the idea of using sandbeds and mist to provide positive drainage around the cutting’s base for more difficult to root subjects.
This nursery has automated its irrigation to the extent that there was little or no need for anyone to come in at weekends. Irrigation lines were also added to all prop tunnels containing mist. Geoff felt that having both ensures greater uniformity. The mist is controlled with a calorie counter, the irrigation, with a time clock and both are turned off if the temperature in the tunnels falls below fifteen degrees Celsius.
Many years ago following Geoffs visit with the IPPS to the States the nursery began to utilise fog for propagation and chlorine for disease control. Sometime later he decided to replace fog with mist and naturally occurring beneficials for chlorine. Today Geoff applies recycled ‘dirty’ water over the growing crop, and feels that this has dramatically reduced the need to apply pesticides as the plants are now growing with a greater sense of immunity.
Geoff also has a novel approach to nutrition. He has gone through both controlled release and liquid feeding phases but has since moved on to using agricultural combination fertiliser and dispensing it over the top of the crop every two months. All water is recycled so that the leached nutrients are put back on to the crop.
This was a thoughtful guy. Why apply liquid fertiliser when much of it is going to run off down the drain? The run- off is nutrient rich so why not collect it and put it back over the crop ? Changing to cheaper agricultural fertilisers and recycling water has not led to any drop off in plant quality.
The nursery utilised many different shade structures including a large area covered in hail proof netting. This area was cheaply constructed with a polythene membrane, gravel base and wind resistant irrigation nozzles (maestro) This efficiency of the irrigation reached a level of 96 CU . When every second nozzle was turned off the system still reached a level of 80CU
Geoff espoused a great pioneering spirit . ‘when problems occur on the nursery you should just get working and enjoy the effort of putting it right’ With that Geoff departed to collect the male model for the days painting session.
Whale watching in Kaikoura followed . Two sperm whales were spotted, all was excellently organised and presented during our two hour trip out in the bay. W hile many found the experience both exciting and exhilarating , I am happy to say I have seen a whale and am even more happy to subscribe to the argument that we should not be killing whales, not even for scientific purposes , however I like plants not animals so onto Blenheim and wine tasting with Montana.
1 comment:
Great work David, following your trip with great interest and a shared enthusiasm, regards to Pete Bingham and all from IPPS GB&I, Bernard Brennan President 2008
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