More beneficial insect life, without additional pest problems, time and money saved from reduced spraying and the beautiful smells, colourful flowers and pollinators buzzing about.
These were some of the benefits observed by growers who established biodiverse understory planting in orchards as part of the Summerfruit NZ-ALT understory planting project.
The three year project is now finished, and wrapped up with a field day visiting three of the participating Central Otago orchards and launching grower case studies sharing insights, benefits and challenges. The case studies are from Fairview Orchard in Roxburgh, and the Affleck Orchard and Electric Cherries in Cromwell.
The lush understory at Affleck Orchard in Cromwell in March.
In the case studies, all the growers also noted there is still more to learn about implementing understory planting, including refinement of the understory plant species mix to remove plants that grow too tall as these can interfere with sprinkler and drippers.
Growers found less spraying and mowing was needed in the understory planted area, and insect monitoring carried out by the Bioeconomy Science Institute (BSI) found that that beneficial insects were two to four times higher in the understory block.
Euan White of Electric Cherries shows growers the planted understory.
One of the trial orchards noted that there did seem to be an improvement in the soil quality in the understory area with the worm count moving from zero to a count of over 400 earthworms/m2 after three years. The case studies also acknowledge that the benefits of agroecological approaches like understory planting are long term over many years, and it will take time to realise the benefit of improved soil health and increased beneficial insect populations in the respective orchards.
Growers listen to Jered Tate’s understory planting experience at Roxburgh’s Fairview Orchard.
Each grower’s unique observations, detailed photo diaries and practical management considerations have been published in a case study to share the knowledge gained with industry and other growers.
Data is also shared about plant establishment, flowering timings, insect biodiversity and soil structure and health.
The grower case studies and other grower resources developed from the project to support implementation of understory planting can be found here.
A huge thanks to Jered Tate, Fairview Orchard, Craig and Georgie Affleck, Affleck Orchard and Euan White, Electric Cherries for opening up their orchards to share their learnings and experience with others.
Thank you also to Magali Domingo and Tammy Wilson who also established understory planting as part of the project and contributed to the knowledge gained for the benefit of the wider industry.
