'Grow Your Own Waikato” is the theme for the NZ Tree Crops Association annual conference in April next year which will offer participants an intense three day interactive experience.

The NZ Tree Crops Assn is a voluntary organisation promoting interest in useful trees, such as those producing fruit, nuts, timber, fuel, wood, stock fodder, bee forage and other useful crops.

For the first time in 12 years the Waikato Branch will host the association's national annual conference at the Hamilton Gardens Pavilion April 26-28, 2013. On offer are lectures, workshops, demonstrations and field trips to explore the latest in growing solutions, with an emphasis on practical, do-it-yourself, kiwi solutions - GYO Waikato.

Guest speakers include Dr Will McClatchey from the Botanical Research Institute of Texas who will talk on the ethno-biology of cider. Others will inform on karaka and native tree crops, chestnuts and soil botany. Buses will then take delegates on field trips to visit a selection of properties grouped by theme: See and Saw, Urban Appetite, Producing Profits, Sustainable Sustenance, Tests and Trials. These visits will include practical demonstrations and workshops. Saturday evening is a social dinner with an entertaining guest speaker and several NZTCA awards to be presented.

Organisers are urging anyone interested to ‘come prepared to learn a lot and get your hands dirty'.

The New Zealand Tree Crops Association grew out of a philosophy of seeking and sharing information about the many and varied types of trees which might grow in New Zealand to produce a useful crop, be it for humankind or animals.

NZTCA members have quietly been at the forefront of research and innovation in developing new forms of productive land use.

Membership has spread throughout New Zealand, and have become an association of gardeners, householders, orchardists, farmers, smallholders, scientists and researchers. To find out more go to www.treecrops.org.nz