The taste and quality toolbox

Shane Max – Zespri

Great tasting, quality fruit, is a key component of the Zespri brand and allows premium prices and more repeat purchases to be achieved. Growing high dry matter, high quality fruit is done by using vine and crop management to ensure optimal resources are directed to the fruit that will end up in Zespri trays. Techniques such as crop load management, pollination, canopy management, root pruning, and trunk girdling as well as good decisions about harvest timing all contribute to the outcome. Some of the growers involved in the recent Zespri Taste Review discuss what they do to ensure high dry matter in their fruit, most of which applies to growing fruit with good storage potential as well.

Phillipa Wright

KWKIWI is the Wright family business growing Gold3 north of Katikati that usually produces fruit with dry matter higher than the industry average. The orchard on Ongare Point Road has some of the steepest blocks in the industry.

While the Kenna-Wright family aren’t organic growers, the growing philosophy that underpins their business is about taking a sustainable approach—they aim to understand their blocks, enhance the soil biology, and grow to what they have. Considering each vine and its needs, in a ‘precision horticulture’ style, is part of this.
The vines on better soils are trunk girdled for dry matter, typically only one girdle. “Know your land and manage the inputs to suit it,” Phillipa explains. “We tend to have lower fertiliser inputs, particularly nitrogen, to help manage the vigour of the vines. I’m absolutely convinced it helps the taste of the kiwifruit.”

She says timing of activities is essential to produce fruit that the market wants, both in taste and fruit quality. Pre-flower thinning is a pinch-point for Gold3 and it is important to get bud numbers down ahead of flowering so that all the resources are going into fruit that will end up in trays.

Phillipa has visited markets and really appreciates the need to produce a quality product. “We as an industry have worked hard to build our brand and deliver what the consumers want to grow our business. However, that reputation can be easily eroded, the 2022 season is a good example. We need to look at our management practices and make changes to improve fruit quality.”