Innovation has always played a key role in the success of the New Zealand kiwifruit industry. Some ideas come from scientists, consultants or industry technical staff. However, others such as stringing, trunk girdling, alternate row cropping and GOLDconditioning started with an orchardist trialling a new idea. To encourage and support such grass roots innovation and ensure that grower trials are conducted in a robust fashion so that industry can have confidence in the results obtained, ZESPRI has created the SmartKiwi Innovation fund. In this, the first year of the programme, seven orchardist run trials are being supported: 1. Timing of trunk girdling; 2. The effect of overhead shelter on pest pressure; 3. Summer grafting techniques; 4. Novel Passion Vine Hopper control; 5. Picking bucket assessment; 6. Stringing Hayward canes; 7. Improving calcium content of Hayward fruit.
展开▼
