TomatoesNZ AGM and speakers event

On 17^th August growers and industry joined the TomatoesNZ (TNZ) annual general meeting which was held online and in Pukekohe. The AGM saw the election of Ben Smith to the board and approval of the 2022-23 budget. The Annual report is available to download on the website here.

We had really positive feedback to the speakers who shared their knowledge either as growers or as leaders in their field of energy. Ben Smith, General Manager of covered crops at T&G spoke about his experiences of dealing not with one but two possible incursions in the same crop when they first suspected Tomato Brown Rugose Virus and later had a positive test for Pepino Mosaic Virus in the very same plants. This unfortunate coincidence did have some positive outcomes though as Ben spoke about how quickly and efficiently the MPI response team worked in the first few weeks after identification and also how helpful both Helen Barnes (former TNZ general manager) and Barry O’Neil (TNZ Chair) were in leading the communications on behalf of the growers with MPI. 

Stefan Vogrincic from Grower2Grower spoke about all the differing elements to consider when planning the perfect irrigation system for crops. From substrates to delivery, water temperature and quality, to the active climate there are many many factors to get right and even with monitoring it can be hard to judge if the plants are getting the perfect amount of water. As plants are yet to develop voices audible to humans, electrical signals are the next best thing to understanding what is going on. The use of the latest technology can be extremely beneficial.

Celia Wells spoke about the latest research and developments from GNS Science around ground source heatpumps as a sustainable way of heating commercial greenhouses. She also told us about research into capturing CO2 which does not involve heating.

Marcus Baker from ApricusEco concluded our talks with an overview of how Ofoken pellet boilers work, what is involved in terms of costs, location and costs involved. For more information, please contact Marcus on marcus@ecohotwater.co.nz

Unfortunately we ran out of time to hear from Gerard Dobbs of Nature’s Flame, a supplier of wood pellets from their base in Taupo. Check out the short video on how wood pellets are created here.

Presentations by Stefan, Celia, Marcus and Gerard are all available along with a recording of Celia and Marcus speaking at the event. Just email dinah.cohen@hortnz.co.nz

TNZ Awards

We were delighted to award Malcolm Pook a Lifetime Membership award at the AGM, for services to the tomato industry, especially his years spent on the TNZ Board. Here's what Barry O'Neil, TNZ Chari said on presetning Malcom with his award:

Malcolm has horticulture in his blood as 3 generations of his family were market gardeners and after leaving school he whetted his appetite with kiwifruit, stone fruit and citrus for around 30 years before looking towards the greenhouse tomato growing sector and starting Ponoama Gardens Ltd. He was a foundation member and then director of the successful Beekist brand.

But Malcolm wasn’t ‘only’ a grower, he has always put his hand up to represent the sector and share his knowledge. He was an active member of the local vegetable society for many years, joined the Vegfed board in 2004 and saw its transition to become the TomatoesNZ board, retiring after 15 years of service which included 2 years as vice chair and 14 years representing tomato growers on the NZGap board AND the board of the promotional organisation of vegetables.co.nz

Malcolm was passionate about representing ALL growers although being a small to medium grower himself, was particularly concerned with sharing this voice in the ever-changing environment, especially around R&D.

Malcolm’s fellow board members appreciated his common sense and down to earth attitude. We’re delighted that Malcolm’s son Gavin has joined us today and look forward to working with him as he pursues his career with tomatoes at Ponoama Gardens!

Key Concerns from TomatoesNZ

We have been working with growers to identify the main issues that they face at the moment. We have used this information to put together a document that we can present to government delegates and policy makers so that we can focus their attention on what really matters to growers. If you’d like to contribute to this living document, please download it from our website here. Or email me for a copy Dinah.cohen@hortnz.co.nz

Residue Compliance Booklet – 2022 updates

This document has been updated with current compliance for fungicides and insecticides. If you would like either a digital or printed copy, please get in touch Dinah.cohen@hortnz.co.nz

United Fresh Technical Advisory Group (TAG) – update on crate hygiene

In July, Anne-Marie Arts updated the TAG meeting on hygiene for returnable plastic crates (RPCs). This is a culmination of research and other work completed over the last xxx. The webinar is free to watch at the United Fresh website and with Anne-Marie presenting around the 17-minute mark.

Key take aways:

The right cleaning products at the right concentration are important but cleaning across the whole chain of movement is crucial. This includes both for external returnable crates and internal crates which travel between greenhouses and from production sites to packhouses and even to farmers markets. Sometimes internal crates are used as temporary rubbish bins as produce is sorted and graded. Internal crates need to be washed to the same standards as external RPCs and growers should have a standard operating procedure for handling their crates within their sites.

The document referred to in the webinar, which pulls together all of United Fresh’s research into crate hygiene, can be downloaded here.

Final reporting from Lincoln University study on whitefly

Based on the research undertaken at Lincoln University into pest incursions such as whitefly, a statistician has developed the following advice as a suggested protocol for identifying the overall strength of infestations:

• Score number of whiteflies per plant (see below for an example scale)
• Do 50 samples that are representative of the glasshouse.
  • This can be individual plants
  • Find a convenient way to collect samples.
  • Make sure your sampling is representative of the entire glasshouse.
  • Since outbreaks can grow rapidly, it is good to sample often, for example once per week.
• The first few samples are most important. There will be diminishing returns for additional samples.
• Charts in section 1 show how much variability to expect for the average score of your sample. This variability depends on the average score.

ALT website resources

A Lighter Touch (ALT) have a range of resources available for growers on their website including recordings of previous webinars. Worth checking out here.