<< Return to 'Project Overview'

This section was updated in April 2009

LISTED FROM THE LATEST REPORT TO THE EARLIEST REPORT....

Flowering – September 2008 

The project sees its first flowers as Variety A203 as well as the first plantings of variety 816 flower and set nuts. Macadamia’s produce flowers in long racemes which then set strings of nuts. Flowering times vary by variety but range from early august to late September.

MPC Visit – May 2008

Jim Patch the agronomist from Macadamia Processing Company visited the 2007 Macgrove project. As well as inspecting the orchard growth Jim reviewed the food safety systems within Maccmanagement (The orchard Managers), a result of this that we have achieved “Premium Approved Supplier Status” for MPC.

Farm Update – Feb 2008

Lots of rain in early Feb has the orchard looking great. The soil in our tree rows is in great condition with worms and other organisms flourishing with our high levels of organic matter.

Moore Park Planted – June 2007

A very hectic 12 weeks has seen 300 acres of watermelons turned into 259 Macclots along with the construction of a new 100Megaliter dam. The efforts of the team have been nothing short of amazing and the outcome is one of the most efficiently designed orchards in the world. The dam and planting were completed just in time as unseasonal June rain filled our new dam in 3 days.

TREE UPDATE – FEB 2007

Tree growth so far has been nothing short of amazing. Our earliest plantings are now nearly 1.8mtrs tall with excellent vigour and health. The recently planted trees are all growing well with a mild summer helping to promote growth.

STAGE 6

Pruning (Tree training)

Shaping of the trees starts before they are even planted. During their time in the nursery they are pruned to promote growth of a central leader and lateral branching. This provides a tree that is both strong and precocious. This process continues after the tree is planted with several pruning rounds per year required.

STAGE 5

Orchard Maintenance

Once planted the work really begins with custom built equipment used to maintain our orchard to the highest possible level. All equipment used in the orchard is as light as possible and large tractors are kept in the centres of the rows and away from trees to avoid soil compaction problems in the future. Our over the tree sprayer is used to control grass and weeds along the tree row with special care taken to not affect any trees with spray drift. A variety of mowers (2.1 and 3.4mtr) are used to control inter row grass. All grass cuttings are deposited along the tree row to provide mulch for the young trees. A range of custom blended fertalisers are applied to the trees at regular intervals (6 -7 times per year) to stimulate growth. This is done by hand to ensure even and accurate distribution.

STAGE 4

Planting Begins

With the mounds settled and the first lot of trees nursery trained and ready the planting begins. The trees are planted using an automated planting machine that allows up to 3,000 trees per day to be planted. As the trees are planted the irrigation is connected and the trees are thoroughly watered as soon as planting is completed. Each tree receives approximately 100gms of organic fertaliser as it is planted to stimulate root growth.

STAGE 3

First Rows

Our first mounds are formed using a square plough and a 4 meter rotary hoe guided once again by GPS technology. This leaves perfectly straight mounds that will allow us to make use of double sided harvesting equipment as well as future developments in tractor automatic steering. The soil in the mounds is also extremely light as no compaction or glazing occurs during the process. This will allow our young trees roots to spread quickly through the mound leading to healthy and robust trees.

STAGE 2

Marking Out and Irrigation Installation

The farm has now been surveyed and detailed irrigation maps and plans designed.

The first stages of the farm have now been marked out using GPS guidance technology and the irrigation installed ready for the mounds to be formed.

STAGE 1

Soil Management

The process of turning land originally used for small crops and sugar cane into an industry leading macadamia orchard is by no means quick or easy. Over the past six months the original crops have been ploughed under and the soil worked and planted with sorghum. This cover crop not only helps to protect the topsoil from erosion but also returns invaluable organic matter to the soil.

Areas of light forestation were also cleared to aid in pest control during the orchards productive years.