Hi from South Australia

Discussion in 'Introduce Yourself Here' started by Dairyman, Jan 1, 2017.

  1. Dairyman

    Dairyman New Member

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    hi all,

    I have just bought a 10 acre block in the riverland of SA. I am trying to set up a permaculture farm, with stone fruit trees and vegetables.
     
  2. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    Hi Dairyman and welcome,
    Congratulations on your new property!
    Sounds like you'll have some dairy cows? Where are you in the design/implementation process for your farm?
     
  3. Dairyman

    Dairyman New Member

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    A brief history. About 11 years ago, there was a severe drought where my block is located. This forced about half the farms to shut the water off to their fruit trees and walk away. I have purchased on of these blocks that has been untouched for about a decade. The area has about 250mm annual rainfall, and despite no additional irrigation about 150 from the original 1000 or so trees have survived. Not surprisingly, little fruit was produced.

    I am now undecided whether I should attempt to rejuvenate these trees by working on soil balance and water, regraft onto the proven rootstock or simply remove them and start again. It would be a great shame to remove such proven rootstock but I am unsure if they can be made productive due to age. The surviving trees are mostly pear with some plumb, apricot and peach. Any advice would be appreciated.
     
  4. 9anda1f

    9anda1f Administrator Staff Member

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    When I moved to this property, it had been uncared for a long time (at least five years) and the apricot, apple, and cherry trees were hurting ... especially the apple and cherry trees. We get about 300mm precip annually. First thing I did was mulch heavily, then provided some drip irrigation at the drip line. This past summer we harvested more than 600 lbs of apples from two trees! These trees have their main trunk bark scoured by the wind/sun/freeze cycles and so are living on only about 3/4 of the trunk circumference of live bark. The cherry trees nearly died, but sprouted from above the graft line and we now have two cherry trees about 10 ft tall coming on strong. The apricot trees seem to be much hardier and have put out copious fruit on years late frosts didn't get the blossoms.
    So I think that neglected trees can be revived much more quickly than new saplings will mature (we've also planted new fruit trees to expand the multi-species orchard plus planted support species intermixed, such as black locust and pea shrub).
    With your low annual precipitation, protecting the soil moisture by windbreaks, shade, and mulch will go a long way towards building a self-sustaining system. Are you able to/planning on any tankage type water collection from rooftops?
     
  5. Terra

    Terra Moderator

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    Hi Dairyman
    Welcome
    I'm in the Riverland plenty of dryland challenges here
     
  6. Dairyman

    Dairyman New Member

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    At present there is only a small shed on the property, but I will probably hook up a rainwater tank to it. I spoke to the bloke next door and he is confident the pears will come back, but doesn't think the apricots will. I will probably try anyway. I can always use the plant growth for sheep food that is always scarce in summer.
     

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