Bay of Plenty Business News January/February 2017

Less chemicals key to
Whakatane strawberry venture
Nothing says summer in the Eastern Bay of
Plenty like biting into a sweet strawberry.
BAY OF PLENTY BUSINESS NEWS January/February 2017 21
By KATEE SHANKS
And if you’re fortunate
enough to be biting
into a Blueberry
Corner strawberry, you can
do so knowing it’s as close to
an organically-grown strawberry
as they can get.
It’s not been possible for
Whakatane’s Ben and Heidi
Rosewarne to grow strawberries
organically but they
are getting as close as they
can after making a decision
to stop fumigating their
Thornton Road orchard.
The blueberries at blueberry
corner are now certified
organic.
A few years ago and with
the knowledge fumigation
was not environmentally
sustainable, the Rosewarnes
opted to grow in substrate
and began a journey of learning
that continues today.
Fertigation is the injection
of fertilisers, soil amendments
and other water-soluble
products into an irrigation
system in which the
berries grow in a substrate.
The purpose is to significantly
reduce the chemicals
used to keep the berries disease-free.
“Rain is the biggest threat
to strawberries,” Heidi said.
“Rain brings disease and
that’s why fertigation is so
much more environmentally
friendly.”
Once they had decided
to not fumigate, the couple
went in search of someone
with knowledge on a method
and wound up in Masterton
talking to Alan Bissett, a
Scotland-born, Americanemployed,
Wairarapa resident.
Once he had imparted
his knowledge, he suggested
the Rosewarnes travel to
Tasmania where substrate
grown-strawberries are common.
They did and, on their
return, got busy building tunnels
and putting irrigation
systems together.
The Rosewarnes began
with two grow tunnels and
say they experimented their
way to productivity.
“There were a lot of teething
problems and we made
quite a few mistakes. Boy,
did we make mistakes.”
The berries are grown in
coir, a natural by-product of
the coconut husk that is dried
in the islands and shipped to
New Zealand. Liquid fertiliser
is fed into the coir and
the strawberry plant takes
what it needs.
There are now nine grow
tunnels on the orchard and the
Non-fumigated strawberries at
Blueberry Corner near Whakatane.
2016/2017 signals the second
season the Rosewarnes’ have
used them all. The couple
remains one of only a handful
of New Zealand strawberry
growers’ using fertigation
instead of traditional in
ground methods.
As well as reducing the
amount of chemicals used,
irrigation and fertigation
mean the plants continue to
produce berries until about
Easter.
As well as strawberries
the Rosewarnes grow raspberries,
boysenberries and
blackberries in the tunnels.
Their blueberries are 100
percent organic and they also
produce blueberry honey.
When they first began
producing blueberries,
almost 100 percent were
exported. Now only 15
percent is shipped away as
gates sales take care of the
bulk of the fruit.
The end result: a beautiful
sweet strawberry.
07 578 9144
Tauranga Windscreen
54 First ave, Tauranga 3110
info@taurangawindscreen.co.nz
www.taurangawindscreen.co.nz
15094
Hamilton Windscreen LWP.indd 1
2/12/10 9:23:50 AM