First Plantings Made In Forest Tree Seed Orchard

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31116, 20 July 1966, Page 7

First Plantings Made In Forest Tree Seed Orchard

The New Zealand Forest Service Is now planting the first half of its new tree seed orchard at Amberley. Forest Service nurserymen will have planted 5500 seedling trees on 60 acres of the orchard by the end of the winter and will plant the rest next year. The orchard, covering 175 acres, was bought last year from a sheep farmer to raise the highest quality tree seeds for planting in forests in Canterbury and Southland. The entire project stems from the need to provide trees with as many of the most desirable characteristics sought in all timber. The senior forester (Mr H. H. Wilson) said yesterday it would be about seven or eight years before seeds from the orchard would be available both to the Forest Service and private enterprise. “We are convinced that when seed does become available its produce will be of the highest quality,” he said.

Mr Wilson said the expense involved in setting up and maintaining the orchard would easily be offset by the final return in forest products. There had, he said, been

some criticsm in farming circles of the Forest Service for taking over what was regarded as good class sheep country. “When we bought land for this project we had to take several important factors into consideration,” be said. “The land had to be flat so that we could readily get

machinery on to it It had to be good quality land for orchard purposes. It had to be close to an established forest and should allow us to use some form of hydraulic hoist to get cones from which the seeds will be obtained.” Seedlings already planted out are spaced 20 feet apart to allow maximum sunshine and to give every tree an equal chance of cross-pollina-tion. Buds from selected trees now growing in Canterbury and Southland have been grafted to the seedlings and information about each seedling is recorded on a stake alongside it Mr Wilson said the seedlings would probably grow more quickly than trees in a forest and seeds would also be available earlier. Similar tree orchards have been established at Kaiangaroa and in Hawke’s Bay. The orchard at Amberley is the first in the South Island.