AU: Rare trial of hydroponic blueberries and raspberries
While hydroponic raspberry growth is rare, and hydroponic blueberry growth almost unheard of in New South Wales, Wade Mann believes they are onto a winning idea:
"Most of the original raspberry growers and berry growers were growing directly into the soil," he said. "We believe that we have a lot more control.
Mr Mann says this could result in a longer window of production, up to nine months of fruit-bearing raspberry plants
"We certainly hope to have a longer window of production and so ultimately the yield would be greater," he said "We would hope to come into production earlier and obviously fall out of production a lot later.
Jonathon Eccles is from Raspberries and Blackberries Australia, the peak industry body for growers. He says these longer windows of fruit production are a very real possibility: "With a system like this which is partially closed you can actually control the production through nutrient management as well as through pruning and manipulating the light levels," he said.
Costa Berries grow over 50 per cent of Australia's raspberries and blueberries, using both traditional and hydroponic methods. General Manager Peter Mcpherson says while hydroponic growth has changed the game, there are still some advantages to traditional methods:
"It's changed the game in certain areas to enable a 52-week window," he said "In the right location like Tasmania where berries are still grown predominantly in the soil, you'll probably get a slightly better tasting berry though.
While it is still early days for small growers like the Mann's, they are already thinking of expanding: "Yeah absolutely and at this stage I think the sky's the limit because we do believe we've got a good production system," he said.
Source: abc.net.au