A large percentage of kiwifruit growers are now involved in new varieties and many will be facing their first crops. It is important that we send the right message with a consistent taste experience to the markets to make these varieties a winner.

Zespri has given a clear indication the G3 taste needs to be well managed to a high level; and will be reviewing the maturity taste standards again for this variety.

Things to consider up until flowering:
Flower numbers – the sooner you can get your numbers to the level you wish to carry the better. This will concentrate the size and taste accumulation into these numbers only. There is no point in aiming for record crop numbers. This can cause lower dry matter and consequently result in a large portion of your fruit payment being eroded by a low Taste Zespri Grade, or all or part of your crop being rejected for not reaching the minimum taste standard.
Pollination – The new G9 variety definitely has problems in this area with issues concerning male pollinisers. Also, G3 flowers a little later than G9 and appears to line up exceptionally well with M33 and M91. With good male numbers and quality hives, pollination by bees is relatively straight forward.
Unfortunately, flowers of these varieties are only attractive to bees for a couple of days. So if the weather turns bad for a prolonged period then artificial pollination will be needed.
Prolonged Flowering – This can cause a huge variation at harvest; ways to manage this are thinning off late flowers to reduce your pollination window, or segregating fruit at harvest. At Aongatete we utilise near Infra-Red technology and can segregate greener fruit at packing for separate management in coolstore.
The team at Aongatete Coolstores Ltd has been involved in growing new varieties for a number of years and we offer a selection of services to our growers to guide them.
We can assist with all stages of development and have orchards available for grower visits at various stages of development from new grafts to established canopy and are always keen help find answers on specific aspects of growing.