A harvest?begins next month on kiwifruit orchards but not for exceptionally early fruit - it's flowers which will be picked.
Millions of male kiwifruit flowers will be plucked by hand for the precious golden pollen they contain and Te Puna company PollenPlus alone expected to harvest over five tonne of flowers per day using a team of up to 350 pickers.
▲Picking kiwifruit flowers
"Kiwifruit flowers are very light so five tonne represents a lot of flowers. However, the yield of pollen is not high. For every 100kg of flowers picked we extract around 1kg of pollen through our mills," said Allister Holmes, operation manager for PollenPlus, part of the PlusGroup.
▲ Kiwi male and female flowers
獼猴桃園將于下個月開始采摘，但采摘的不是早熟的果實，而是花朵。
數(shù)百萬朵獼猴桃雄花將被手工采摘，以提取其中珍貴的金色花粉，Te Puna 公司 PollenPlus 預(yù)計每天將采摘超過 5 噸的花朵，采摘團隊多達 350 名。
“獼猴桃花很輕，所以 5 噸已經(jīng)很多了。然而，花粉的產(chǎn)量并不高。每采摘 100 公斤花朵，我們通過磨坊提取約 1 公斤花粉，”PlusGroup 旗下 PollenPlus 運營經(jīng)理 Allister Holmes 說道。
▲Picking kiwifruit flowers
Male flowers are picked at what is described the 'popcorn' stage, when they are not quite open, but light and fluffy. Placed into kiwifruit picking bags, the flowers are transferred to net onion bags and trucked to the PollenPlus mills, this season housed in the company's brand new complex in Newnham Rd, Te Puna.
雄花在所謂的“爆米花”階段被采摘，此時雄花尚未完全開放，但又輕又蓬松。雄花被放入獼猴桃采摘袋，然后被轉(zhuǎn)移到網(wǎng)狀洋蔥袋中，再用卡車運到 PollenPlus 工廠，該工廠本季位于該公司位于蒂普納 Newnham 路的全新大樓內(nèi)。
▲Picking kiwifruit flowers
During the milling process, the kiwipollen is dried and separated from the anthers of the flowers before being weighed, batched, tested for viability and frozen.
The pollen comes from the company's 8ha orchard which grows only Chieftain male kiwifruit (the largest all male kiwifruit orchard in the world), and from other orchards it owns, plus from individual growers who sell pollen to the group.
在碾磨過程中，花粉被干燥并從花藥中分離出來，然后稱重、分批、測試活力并冷凍。
花粉來自該公司占地 8 公頃的果園，該果園只種植酋長雄性獼猴桃（世界上最大的全雄性獼猴桃果園），以及該公司擁有的其他果園，以及向該集團出售花粉的個體種植者。
▲the kiwipollen is dried and separated
"We are keen to hear from anyone who wants to sell us male flowers," said Allister, who predicts there may be a shortage of pollen this season.
Growers who sell male flowers aren't compromising their on-orchard pollination as flower harvest stops the day before beehives arrive.
“我們熱切希望聽到任何想向我們出售雄花的人的聲音，”阿利斯特說，他預(yù)測本季花粉可能會短缺。出售雄花的種植者不會損害果園授粉，因為花朵采摘在蜂箱到達的前一天就停止了。
▲Bees pollinate kiwifruit
"A number of growers off-set the cost of our pollination services by supplying us with flowers."
Correctly stored, pollen remains viable for a very long time. "Viable pollen thousands of years old has been found in glaciers, but we keep ours for only a year," said Allister.
Pollen harvested last spring is stored in freezers for use in early flowering orchards, mainly in Northland and the Hawkes Bay, and is superseded by the new season's pollen as soon as it's available.
“許多種植者通過向我們提供鮮花來抵消授粉服務(wù)的成本?！?br /> 正確儲存后，花粉可以保持活力很長時間?！霸诒ㄖ邪l(fā)現(xiàn)了數(shù)千年前的可行花粉，但我們只保存了一年，”阿利斯特說。去年春天收獲的花粉儲存在冰箱中，供早花果園使用，主要在北地和霍克灣，新季節(jié)的花粉一到就會被取代。
▲Large packaged product kiwi pollen
Most of the pollen is applied to female flowers in orchards from quad bikes fitted with PollenPlus's unique QuadDuster equipment which delivers a digitally metered supply of pollen across the kiwifruit canopy, using high performance air fans and CAD-designed volutes.
"This system is promoted by PollenPlus and exclusively used by us and its design offers significant advantages for growers," said Allister.
大部分花粉都是通過四輪摩托車施用于果園中的雌花，這些摩托車配備了 PollenPlus 獨特的 QuadDuster 設(shè)備，該設(shè)備使用高性能風扇和 CAD 設(shè)計的蝸殼，將數(shù)字計量的花粉供應(yīng)輸送到整個獼猴桃樹冠上。
“該系統(tǒng)由 PollenPlus 推廣并由我們獨家使用，其設(shè)計為種植者提供了顯著的優(yōu)勢，”Allister 說。
▲Electric kiwi pollen pollination equipment that has been widely used in recent years
"One of the exciting things about working for the PlusGroup is the emphasis put on innovation and the QuadDusters are a perfect example of that," said Allister, who joined the company two years ago.
Massey PhD student Alistair Scarfe, who is working on a robotic kiwifruit picker in a project partly funded by the PlusGroup, developed the QuadDusters in July last year and by November, 15 units were working successfully in orchards.
“在 PlusGroup 工作最令人興奮的事情之一就是重視創(chuàng)新，而 QuadDusters 就是一個完美的例子，”兩年前加入該公司的 Allister 說道。
Massey 的博士生 Alistair Scarfe 正在研究一款機器人獼猴桃采摘機，該項目由 PlusGroup 部分資助。他于去年 7 月開發(fā)了 QuadDusters，到 11 月，已有 15 臺機器在果園中成功運行。
▲Electric kiwi pollen pollination equipment that has been widely used in recent years
This season 20 bikes, each fitted with large volutes with electric fans attached to the sides of the quad bike, will be dispensing pollen on orchards in Northland, Waikato, Opotiki, Gisborne, throughout the Bay of Plenty and the Hawkes Bay.
Pollen is fed into the system through an auger and the fans softly blow the pollen-laden air into the flowering canopy above.
花粉通過螺旋鉆送入系統(tǒng)，風扇將載有花粉的空氣輕輕吹入上方的花冠層。
▲獼猴桃花粉冷藏保存運輸Kiwi pollen refrigerated storage and transportation
The QuadDuster bikes have digital speed control units to ensure uniform and consistent application of pollen. The fleet has GPS transponders allowing pollen application to be monitored remotely and GPS maps can be supplied to clients showing pollen application history.
PollenPlus has formed an exclusive relationship with long established horticultural consultancy and laboratory testing company AgFirst which is the licensed applicator of the pollen using the QuadDuster equipment fitted to their existing fleet of four wheel motor bikes.
四輪噴灑機配有數(shù)字速度控制裝置，可確保均勻一致地噴灑花粉。車隊配有 GPS 轉(zhuǎn)發(fā)器，可遠程監(jiān)控噴灑花粉的情況，并可向客戶提供顯示噴灑花粉歷史的 GPS 地圖。
PollenPlus 與歷史悠久的園藝咨詢和實驗室測試公司 AgFirst 建立了獨家合作關(guān)系，AgFirst 是授權(quán)噴灑花粉的供應(yīng)商，使用安裝在其現(xiàn)有四輪摩托車車隊上的 QuadDuster 設(shè)備噴灑花粉。
▲Harvest Sunshine Golden Fruit Kiwi Orchard
"It made sense to form this alliance as AgFirst already had the quadbikes which its staff use when taking fruit samples from orchards to test for maturity. The cost for PollenPlus to buy its own fleet of vehicles would be significant and only add to the expense of pollination for growers," said Allister.
The aim is not to replace bees in orchards, but rather enhance their work and any excess pollen which settles on the kiwifruit flowers after the QuadDusters pass through can be further distributed by bees.
“建立這個聯(lián)盟是有意義的，因為 AgFirst 已經(jīng)擁有四輪摩托車，其員工會使用這些摩托車從果園采集水果樣本來測試成熟度。PollenPlus 購買自己的車隊的成本將非常高，而且只會增加種植者的授粉費用，”Allister 說。
目的不是取代果園中的蜜蜂，而是增強它們的工作能力，并且在 QuadDusters 經(jīng)過后，任何落在獼猴桃花朵上的多余花粉都可以由蜜蜂進一步傳播。
▲Bee pollination
"Research by Dr Mark Goodwin of Plant & Food Research, Ruakura has shown the use of both bees and supplementary pollen in orchards significantly enhances pollination," said Allister.
It's that research, plus a recognition by growers of green Hayward kiwifruit in particular, of the impact of successful pollination on their returns, which he believes has increased demands for the company's services this year.
"In the early days of the kiwifruit industry, producing 7,000 to 8,000 trays a hectare was the aim but now growers want 14,000 trays per hectare and pollination is one of the ways to achieve that."
“Ruakura 植物與食品研究中心的 Mark Goodwin 博士的研究表明，在果園中使用蜜蜂和補充花粉可顯著提高授粉效果，”Allister 說道。
正是這項研究，加上綠海沃德獼猴桃種植者對成功授粉對其收益的影響的認可，他認為今年對該公司服務(wù)的需求有所增加。
“在獼猴桃產(chǎn)業(yè)發(fā)展的早期，每公頃生產(chǎn) 7,000 到 8,000 托盤是目標，但現(xiàn)在種植者希望每公頃生產(chǎn) 14,000 托盤，而授粉是實現(xiàn)這一目標的方法之一。”
▲Winter pruning of kiwifruit orchard
Supplementary pollination by artificial means is ideal for orchards where male flowering is inadequate; areas or blocks where pollination maybe compromised because of environmental factors; low bee activity in the orchard because of poor weather conditions or competition from other flower sources or where a general top-up of pollen to maximize pollination is required.
As well as supplying the New Zealand market, PollenPlus exports pollen to Japan where there is strong demand for pollen from male Zespri Gold flowers.
Pollen also goes to Australia, China, Italy and some to South America. "However, our main focus and priority is always our NZ clients," said Allister.對于雄花不足的果園、授粉可能因環(huán)境因素而受到影響的地區(qū)或街區(qū)、由于惡劣天氣條件或其他花源的競爭而導致果園中蜜蜂活動較少的地區(qū)，或者需要補充花粉以最大程度地進行授粉的地區(qū)，人工輔助授粉是理想的選擇。
除了供應(yīng)新西蘭市場外，PollenPlus 還向日本出口花粉，日本對 Zespri Gold 雄花的花粉需求旺盛。
花粉還銷往澳大利亞、中國、意大利和南美?！叭欢?，我們的主要關(guān)注點和優(yōu)先事項始終是新西蘭客戶，”Allister 說道。
▲Bohong Kiwi Pollen Company is the largest pollen supplier in China, planting 1200 acres of high-altitude kiwifruit. The kiwifruit pollen project is the largest single area macaque peach blossom pollen garden in China, producing 400 kilograms of pollen during the high-yield period, providing high-quality, high ploidy, and high activity kiwifruit pollen. Contact WeChat 18030405084
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