NZ kiwifruit growers out of the woods after psa disease outbreak
Left unchecked, Psa destroys green and gold vines and spawns leaf spotting, cankers and shoot dieback.
At the worst point of the outbreak, Mark cut out 40ha of his 16 Gold kiwifruit crop as well as partial cuttings of green fruit. At the same time, the more resistant G3 variety was grafted to the vines.
"It's a lingering cancer that can break out. It you don't deal with it, it can destroy plants and destroy orchards."
Mark Gardiner is expecting about 15,000 trays of gold kiwifruit to be picked this season and only now do they feel like they have come out the other side, Mark says. Removing the disease however remains an ongoing maintenance issue and his staff are still finding it on the plants.
Mark believes the industry now has a bright future with average returns for gold kiwifruit at about $98,000 a hectare before packhouse costs are factored in, while the average costs to produce a hectare of the fruit is about $30,000/ha.
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