West Coast Agroforestry -

April 21, 2026April 22, 2026

Sweet crabapple (Malus coronaria)

I’m pleased to write that I have finally managed to track down some sweet crabapple (Malus coronaria) fruit. Sweet crabapple is native to the northeastern United States and Canada, and is one of four apple species endemic to North America. Sweet crabapple is not named so because of its fruits, which are actually rather sour and bitter, but the flowers, which are reported to smell like roses. It is closely related to Malus ioensis and Malus angustifolia, the two other East coast endemic crab apples.

I have been interested in the native crab apples of North America for a few years. Pacific crab apple (Malus fusca) is of most interest to me because of its tolerance of wet soils, being able to grow in standing and even brackish water (!). These traits could be very useful for breeding apple rootstocks that don’t just tolerate wet soil, but thrive in it. I believe some unidentified crab apples in New Zealand are actually Pacific crab apple, so I believe it is here although currently unrecorded.

Sweet crabapple was not a species I was originally interested in. However I came across an article mentioning how apple breeders in the USA are looking to use its later flowering trait to breed new apples that avoid late Spring frosts: https://www.michiganpublic.org/environment-climate-change/2025-01-20/a-key-to-protecting-apples-from-climate-change-might-be-hiding-in-michigans-forests

The article describes how sweet crabapples are beginning to become very rare, and so they are working to preserve them before they are lost. Sweet crabapple blooms about 2-3 weeks later in Michigan than Malus domestica. They estimate it could take decades before these genes appear in commercial apple varieties.

Malus coronaria fruits. Dec. 4, 2024, in Meridian Township, Mich. (AP Photo/Mike Householder). As folks may have guessed by now, I’m also a sucker for small golden fruit. 😉

One of the more severe effects of climate changes is that the weather will become increasingly erratic, such as late Spring frosts becoming more common. We don’t have much of a late frost problem on the West Coast here, but we have a related problem which is spring rain and wind that blow all the flowers off or prevent effective pollination. Usually it’s plums that suffer the worst of it, but apples can sometimes have poor crops too. So the ability to spread the flowering period of apples 2-3 weeks later could be very useful for food security.

What really stood out to me though was how sweet crabapple fruits can last a very long time outdoors without becoming rotten. As 18th century description from botanist Pehr Kalm noted:

“They lie under the trees all winter and acquire a yellow color. They seldom begin to rot before spring comes on”

This is the aspect that was most interesting to me, as I’m very interested in “super late apples” from the food security aspect. I suspect most of the super late apples in New Zealand come from a very narrow pool of genetics, and so it would be difficult to breed more out of them without additional genetics. By having a completely separate apple species that has its own set of “super late” genes, there is a lot more scope for breeding other apples that can last so late.

So here I was at an arboretum in the North island, scrounging around in the underbrush with a staff member looking for a tree that probably doesn’t get more than a few visits per decade. The trees there were all tall, with canopies far out of reach and out of sight. The search seemed fruitless. Soon however I spied some shining little green balls lying on the leaf litter, and I knew instantly that we’d found it.

The fruits were small, being roughly the size of a cherry. They have a sticky, waxy skin on them, like a really past-it old supermarket apple does. This was a bit surprising to me. I suspect this thick waxy layer is a key part of why the fruits can last so long.

The fruits themselves are strongly fragrant, with a scent similar to common apples but with much more of a floral character. I’ve probably smelled the same chemical before in certain soaps, but I tend not to eat soap so I can’t be too sure.

The fruits when chopped browned relatively quickly, which I found surprising. As for taste, they have a relatively clean tasting sourness in the initial taste that varies in intensity from as sour as a lemon to much less sour, based on the age of the fruit. Older fruits are noticeably less sour. It will be interesting to taste them in a few weeks. Surprisingly the taste is not very reminiscent of green apples – these have a much cleaner acidic taste. There is a light sweetness to the fruits, but it’s hardly noticeable compared to the sourness. Younger fruits had moderate bitterness as well, with the most bitter being perhaps up to half as much as a grapefruit. The floral scent is also experienced as a flavour that often blends into the bitter taste. I found myself enjoying eating little slices of these – the bitterness was strangely compelling.

I researched the compounds in sweet cabapple and found that it can be extremely high in quinic acid. An astonishing 6.2% w/v of quinic acid (shown in the plot below as 62000 mg/L = 62g/L), a number substantially higher than all but a few other wild apple species. Quinic acid is best known as a key flavour component of roasted coffee beans, formed from the heat breakdown of chlorogenic acid. Taste wise quinic acid is lightly sour and moderately bitter. Maybe this explains why the sweet crabapple bitterness was pleasant – I love drinking black coffee!

Despite the name, quinic acid is not structurally related to quinine, it should be noted.

Quinic acid in wild vs domestic apples. Concentration measured in mg/L. Note the whopping 62000 concentration is for a Malus coronaria accession. From appendixes of Zambiasi et al, 2026.

Sweet crabapple is actually not too uncommon in New Zealand, but is found almost exclusively as the ‘Charlottae’ cultivar grown as a flowering ornamental, which has a double shell of flowers. I wasn’t sure if the ‘Charlottae’ cultivar is actually representative of wild Malus coronaria or not. Is it a strange mutant, a pentaploid perhaps or maybe it’s a hybrid? Hybrid crab apples are often apomictic (= mother tree clones itself via seed) tetraploids, and so then they are not as useful for breeding.

As it turns out, practically all populations of Malus coronaria are apparently tetraploids, with very high rates of apomixis as well (about 75% or so), and so it seems many of the seedlings I’ll end up with will be clones of the mother tree. This is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, I absolutely could not reach up to get scionwood of the mother tree as I think the canopy was only starting at about 6 metres or so, so apomictic seedlings means we’ll have the exact mother plant represented in seedlings (rather than seedlings hybridized by random crab apples that may have unfavourable traits). Similarly by identifying a high proportion of seedlings as being apparently identical, we can be sure that the parent tree was Malus coronaria and not a related species such as Malus ioensis or Malus angustifolia (both are primarily diploid).

On the other hand, it means breeding with them will be difficult. Most seedlings will be apomictic clones, and the F1 hybrids would mostly be triploids, and then their offspring will be also mostly triploids and tetraploids. Getting back to a diploid is probably better for incorporating into a normal apple breeding program, but I’m not yet sure how to detect those among other seedlings. Often leaf thickness can be a clue as to ploidy though, with tetraploids usually having 20-30% thicker leaves than diploids.

Lastly sweet crabapple was in previous centuries used as rootstock, where it became renowned for its hardiness. It’s still occasionally used now by amateur gardeners. Sweet crabapple seems to be able to handle relatively wet soils while remaining a small tree, and with almost no suckering, so perhaps it is useful directly as is. The apomictic behaviour could also be useful if sweet crabapple is used as rootstock, as the uniformity of the seedlings is also one of the useful traits for Citrus trifoliata rootstock.

For now the next steps are to try and sprout these seeds, and to see how long the rest of the fruit last, and what they taste like after as much storage as possible.

References

https://www.michigannativeapples.org/about
https://www.michiganpublic.org/environment-climate-change/2025-01-20/a-key-to-protecting-apples-from-climate-change-might-be-hiding-in-michigans-forests
Keeler, Harriet L. (1900). Our Native Trees and How to Identify Them. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. pp. 133–5
https://blogs.cornell.edu/master-gardeners-cce-oc/2021/06/30/tree-of-the-month-sweet-crabapple-tree/
Zambiasi G, Solovyev P, Degasperi M, Busatto N, Guerra W, Bontempo L, Troggio M, Farneti B, Costa F. Primary metabolite profiling by NMR reveals the key role of sugars and organic acids in driving the domestication process in apple. Scientia Horticulturae. 2026 Feb 1;357:114681.
https://elizapples.com/2016/12/04/rootstocks-do-they-impact-flavor/
Kron, Paul; Husband, Brian C. . (2009). Hybridization and the reproductive pathways mediating gene flow between native Malus coronaria and domestic apple, M. domestica. Botany, 87(9), 864–874. doi:10.1139/b09-045
https://fedcoseeds.com/trees/charlottae-crabapple-7306

January 25, 2026January 26, 2026

Blackball Pear

In a valley near the town of Blackball on the West Coast, there lies an unusual pear tree. It is literally lying there, as it blew over a few years ago in a storm. I’m not sure how old this pear tree is, but I would estimate at least 80 years old as a conservative estimate, but quite possibly substantially older due to the relatively poor soils at the site and the fact it was probably left to fend for itself for most of its life while bush regrew around it.

The current owner of the pear tree said the site was old Chinese mining tailings. It’s worth exploring this aspect a little bit I think as it could possibly be important context.

Chinese gold miners first began to arrive for the West Coast gold rush in 1867, and by the mid 1870s there were a few thousand Chinese gold miners on the West Coast goldfields. They were often treated poorly by Europeans and were usually only allowed to mine claims considered uneconomic or worked out, as well as often ‘encouraged’ to live outside of the European townships. Not all Chinese arrivals came to mine – many were also market gardeners, merchants or launderers. Most intended to return home after making their fortunes. Chinese miners were still a large presence in Blackball by 1890, probably being the largest group of the approximately 100 residents at that time. In 1893 the first coal mine opened near Blackball and continued for a number of decades, presumably with some Chinese miners working the coal seams. So there was a fairly substantial Chinese presence in Blackball for a number of decades.

To be clear, I haven’t been able to figure out if the origin of the pear tree coincides with the period of active Chinese gold mining, or whether it was planted much later, but it is interesting to ponder whether there could be a Chinese connection.

The fruit of the Blackball pear are described by the owner as being a small but otherwise classic European pear (Pyrus communis). She said the flesh was sweet and tasty, and I definitely trust her experience to judge this. Unfortunately since the tree blew down a few years ago, it has not yet fruited (although the tree is very much still alive), so I cannot give my own taste report.

The next few pictures show the size of the tree.

The Blackball pear tree, lying down, wife for scale. All of the dark green leaves new growth that has resprouted from the pear.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-8.png — Looking up at the two trunks of the Blackball pear tree.

The owner also reported this pear tree to be self-fertile. Now as you may know, almost all pear varieties are self-infertile, and require cross-pollination to set fruit. I mentioned to the owner whether it’s possible that each trunk could be a similar looking but genetically distinct pear so that they appear to be the all one pear, but she didn’t think there were any differences among the fruit. We couldn’t rule the possibility out completely though.

She sprouted some seeds from the fruit (and grew those trees out too) and they seemed fine, so we can confirm that the tree is at least getting pollinated sometimes. The Blackball pear tree is also relatively isolated, and so I would consider it low likelihood that it’s getting pollen from a nearby pear tree.

Some pear varieties are able to set fruit without pollination (parthenocarpy), and that can’t be ruled out either (although as some seeds were fertile and produced varied offspring, it means that parthenocarpy cannot explain all of the fruit).

Most unusually though, this pear has burgundy coloured new growth, something that is very rare in European pear varieties.

Red new growth from the original Blackball pear tree.

Red new growth on my grafted Blackball pear. Notice slight hair on the young leaves as well.

The foliage when grown in shade matures shiny and dark green, and has an ovate leaf blade shape.

Foliage when grown in shade is shiny and not quite as narrow.

As I mentioned, there are very few European pears with such dark red new growth, and of those, most are either hybrids with Asian pears (e.g. Chinese white pear (Pyrus x bretschneideri) or are red-fruited sports such as red D’Anjou or red Bartlett sports. As the Blackball pear does not have red fruits, it is thus not a red-fruited sport, and so unlikely to be a pure European pear. There are quite a few European with pale red/orange new growth, e.g. Taylor’s Gold, but there is a large and seemingly empty gulf between those and the burgundy new leaves of the Blackball pear.

I asked two pear genetics experts for assistance in identifying this pear, and they were unable to offer much more than to agree that it very plausible this tree has Asian genetics, and to mention the red-fruited sports of European pears. I asked a friend very knowledgeable with obscure European heritage pears, and he also didn’t know of any varieties with such red leaves and agreed it was probably a hybrid.

So I think the most plausible hypothesis (without any further information, such as genetic testing) is that the Blackball pear has some Asian pear genetics.

It is perhaps possible that this was a seedling pear grown from a discarded European pear fruit bought locally 100~ years ago, that was randomly pollinated by an Asian pear back at the orchard. However my understanding is that Asian pears were few and far between in New Zealand 100~ years ago, and even now with nashis widespread across the country, there are few to no hybrid pears being found.

So perhaps it is more likely that this pear tree came from an existing hybrid pear? It’s worth investigating hybrid pears then to look for similar varieties. There are approximately three eras of hybrids between European pears and Asian pears – the modern era, the recent era and the ancient era – from what I can tell.

The modern era is dominated by the work of the former Plant & Food Research (now merged into the New Zealand Institute for Bioeconomy Science). They embarked on a large breeding program to create interspecific hybrid pears between Asian and European pears. The broad goal for that project is to develop pears with the crisp texture of Asian pears and the aromatic flavour of European pears. The main success of this program to date is PremP009, which is sold under the trade name ‘Piqa Boo’. As the Blackball pear is predates this work by the better part of a century, this era is not directly relevant.

The recent era is dominated by chance hybrids and breeding program selections from the USA from the last three centuries. Fireblight was first observed in the late 18th century in New York. Over the next century, fireblight spread widely and threatened to wipe out all apple and pear cultivation on the East Coast. Asian pears such as the Chinese sand pear (Pyrus pyrifolia), known as nashi in New Zealand, Ussurian pear (Pyrus ussuriensis), and the now infamous Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana) were introduced to the United States to provide fireblight resistant genetics. Chance hybrids between Chinese sand pear and European pear were regularly found during the 19th century, such as ‘Kieffer’, ‘Le Conte’, ‘Pineapple’, ‘Hood’ and ‘Orient’. These tended to be intermediate between the parents, with a more rounded shape and usually crisp flesh. In the 20th century, various universities and the USDA started breeding programs to develop fireblight resistant pears for commercial use. Hybrid pear varieties released include ‘Moonglow’, ‘Magness’, ‘Flordahome’ and more recently ‘Potomac’ and ‘Sunrise’. New releases are slowly being released from these programs, but they are increasingly complex hybrids that have lower contributions from Asian pears.

The ancient era of hybrid pears is the least well understood, and is mostly represented by two pear populations – Pyrus regelli and Fragrant pear (Pyrus x sinkiangensis). Pyrus regelli is an apparently wild pear native to Central Asia, but it’s rare, little known and not cultivated.

Fragrant pear is one of the main cultivated pear types in China, and has long been associated with the Xinjiang region, in the North West of China. The Silk road passed through Xinjiang and so the region was a major trade hub for approximately 1500 years. Fragrant pear is a group of varieties that tends to be somewhat intermediate between European pear and Chinese white pear (Pyrus x bretschneideri), with some varieties having crisp flesh, and others melting flesh. In general the fruits are small sized, yellowish-greenish coloured, and with a characteristically long fruit stalk (pedicel). Sometimes the calyx can be persistent as well. Genetic testing results are conflicting, but results from China indicate that Fragrant pear is descended from cultivated (not wild) European pears, and cultivated Asian pears. Interestingly there is a historical record from about 2000 years ago of a Han dynasty diplomat, bringing over cultivated Asian pears to the Xinjiang region.

When I first read this description and saw the photos, I felt a few sparks fly. Could Fragrant pear be the explanation for the Blackball pear? Could a Chinese gold miner, over a century ago, have brought in some seeds or fruit from China, and long after all of their buildings had fallen down and become earth again, their treasured memento of home is still peacefully growing there?

The general appearance of the fruit and the flesh texture being more towards European, the long stalk, the red new growth, and the Chinese connection. Most of the Chinese miners who came to Blackball were said to have come from Canton, a fair way away from Xinjiang, but maybe it’s still possible?

Fragrant pear (Pyrus x sinkiangensis) fruit that look similar to the Blackball pear.

Well, that is where the story ends for now – with questions and no answers. I will continue to research this pear and the local history, and I hope the answer is as interesting as the research. Regardless, we will propagate this pear locally to ensure that it can still be found here after another century has elapsed.

There is one thing we can roughly deduce from the Blackball pear, and that is by growing a few dozen seedlings we can look for either segregation (grouping into fairly distinct groups of offspring based on appearance), or uniformity. Segregation implies the Blackball pear has high heterozygosity, which means it is likely an F1 or F2 hybrid itself, which points to a more recent origin. If the offspring are uniform, it implies the Blackball pear has high homozygosity, which implies it is a long established genetic line from either a landrace or a species, and thus has an ancient origin.

If you’ve read this far and you know of any heritage pears with burgundy new growth – please do contact me, as that may abruptly end this mystery. And if you know of some very very old heritage pears in New Zealand that you believe have been overlooked, also please get in touch.

References

https://researcharchive.lincoln.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/68f94592-437f-4d5f-a01a-c53b096bee89/content
https://shantytown.co.nz/attractions/chinatown/
https://www.handsonhistory.co.nz/students/chinese-minners/
https://westcoast.recollect.co.nz/nodes/view/30309
https://www.plantandfood.com/en-nz/article/evaluating-the-potential-for-genomic-selection-in-interspecific-pear
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2861&context=extension_curall
https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1167&context=utk_agbulletin
https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2024.1474143/full
https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/callery-pear-bradford-pear-other-varieties-and-their-invasive-offspring
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=PRP18910124.2.4.2&e=——-en–20–1–txt-txIN——–
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5996476/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7466967/
https://www.actahort.org/books/1308/1308_1.htm
Korban SS, editor. The Pear Genome. Springer International Publishing; 2019 Jul 3.
https://www.asianflora.com/Rosaceae/Pyrus-sinkiangensis.htm

September 2, 2025September 2, 2025

More new Citrus varieties!

We have just imported a large quantity of new Citrus varieties into New Zealand (as seed). These came mostly from an overseas Citrus arboretum, and the import was inspected and approved by MPI.

For almost all of these varieties, it’s the first time they have been available in New Zealand (only Cox and Swingle were already imported previously). The reason we imported these is to increase the Citrus genetic diversity in New Zealand, which is relatively narrow at the moment. Genetic diversity will help us grow more food for ourselves, and give us a better chance to handle diseases and a changing climate. Some of these varieties may also be fantastic Citrus rootstocks for certain regions with challenging conditions, such as the West Coast or inland Canterbury/Otago and central North island.

These Citrus have various usages from eating fresh, for marmalade, for juice and for cooking. Many are ultra cold tolerant (to -15 Celsius).

Almost all of these varieties will will ‘clone’ themselves via seed (weird thing Citrus do called Nucellar embryony – article here). A few will produce very unusual seedlings and there could be the next favourite Citrus variety in those.

Seeds are available here: https://agroforestry.co.nz/product-category/seeds/

List of mostly-new Citrus varieties:
Barkley ichandarin
Zao Yang trifoliate
Swingle citrumelo
Cox citrandarin
Ichang papeda
Knights citron
Indian wild orange
Karna khatta hybrid
Beni Amanatsu
Jeruk limau
Citremon

And another half dozen varieties came in very small quantities and so we will grow those on ourselves, before eventually selling grafted varieties. We will make most of these varieties available as grafted plants in the future, but for now buying these seeds is the only way you will be able to grow them.

Any questions – just ask us!

August 27, 2025September 8, 2025

Very Early Leafing Walnuts

We so far haven’t written much about walnuts, although we have been working with them for a few years. Walnuts are not huge fans of the West Coast climate, to say the least. They prefer hot and dry Summers, and deep and free-draining soils – neither of which are plentiful on the Coast. However the nutrition provided by walnuts is very hard to find in other tree crops, being both high in protein (not too difficult to find in other tree crops) and omega-3 essential fatty acids (good luck finding this in other perennials!), and so we believe that it’s worth persevering, despite the challenges.

On the plus side, our climate is relatively frost-free, and late frosts are rare and usually not severe. So we hypothesize that very early leafing varieties of walnut will give us a longer growing season, which would help counterbalance that our Summers are relatively mild. Most walnut breeding programs around the world typically breed late-leafing varieties to avoid the risk of late Spring frosts.

The other reason most walnut breeding programs aim for late-leafing is avoidance of walnut blight. Wet Spring weather during bud break is the ideal time for walnut blight to spread and take hold, so delaying leafing out by a few weeks can avoid wet Spring weather altogether in continental climates. Susceptible walnuts in a wet Spring can have almost the entire crop lost to blight, so it’s a serious problem. As there’s no guarantee that our West Coast late Spring is any drier than our early Spring (often the opposite!), I suspect that blight avoidance is not a feasible strategy for our region anyway. To this end, we are looking to work with interspecific hybrids to introduce true blight tolerance.

Other countries have access to many wonderful and productive interspecific walnut hybrids, often selected from the best of hundreds of seedlings, however in New Zealand these sorts of hybrids are essentially unheard of, and extremely rare. The few walnut grafters in New Zealand have worked with Paradox hybrids (Juglans hindsii x regia hybrids) for use as rootstock decades ago, but none do any longer. There are a few recorded Juglans ailantifolia x regia trees, but at least one has extremely poor quality nuts (double shell thickness) and I’ve not seen anything from the others.

What we do have in New Zealand though are a few successful hybrids with the iron walnut (Juglans sigillata). The iron walnut is native to the eastern Himalayas and western China, and is the closest relative to Persian walnut, having diverged an estimated 49 million years ago. Nick Nelson Parker has selected at least two apparent sigillata hybrids that are productive nut producers and have vigorous growth (‘Legacy’ and ‘Prolific’).

The seedling below is an open-pollinated seedling of ‘Legacy’, and has been leafing out for over a week now (it was in some shade as well). This is the earliest I’ve seen a walnut leaf out, and is earlier than all of my plums and roughly at the same time as almond and quince.

Open pollinated Juglans sigillata x regia F2 seedling

Of course there’s no guarantee that this seedling will amount to much, but if nobody ever tries, then we’ll never improve upon what we have.

Limited research has shown that Juglans sigillata x regia crosses can apparently have true blight resistance. Two J. sigillata x regia hybrids (in Sassafras, Australia and Guangxi, China) had anomalously low blight measurements in the study. Guangxi region has a warm and wet subtropical climate, with rainfall peaking in summer – sounds similar to the West Coast.

Walnut blight incidence for various walnuts vs rainfall accumulation post bud burst. The Sassafras hybrid and Guangxi hybrid (highlighted with a red triangle and blue circle respectively) are both believed to be J. sigillata x regia and are noticeable outliers from the general trend of wetter weather = more blight. Graph modified from [1].

We have been planting out a mother orchard of varied walnut genetics, to later make some crosses from ourselves. We’re also working on walnut grafting as well, which are one of the more difficult temperate tree crops to graft. The first ‘variety’ we’re attempting to graft is a walnut seedling found in Canterbury that appears to be mostly blight resistant. It was the best by a long shot of approximately 30 walnut trees I inspected during last Summer, with extremely few signs of blight on nuts or leaves, and no shoot dieback. As last Summer was considered extremely wet and poor by Canterbury standards, it was an ideal time to look for blight resistant walnut trees.

Lastly, we are always interested in hearing more about interspecific walnut hybrids already in New Zealand, or if you think you have seen a particularly unusual or blight tolerant walnut please let us know 🙂

References

McNeil, D.L. (2016). Walnut blight disease development on Guangxi walnuts. Acta Hortic. 1109, 261-264
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2016.1109.42
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2016.1109.42

August 17, 2025August 17, 2025

Second Bunch of Bananas Ripened

Our 2nd bunch of bananas is ripe now, after ripening the last few weeks inside. The banana stem had snapped and fallen over a few weeks ago. Probably because I haven’t had enough time to maintain that patch, such as weeding. Weeds at the base area can cause it to remain damp for too long, leading to rot problems.

I wasn’t sure this bunch would ripen inside, but it has. They are creamy, sweet and taste similar to a slightly-green supermarket banana. These are from a Pisang Awak variety (originally from Auckland Botanic Gardens via one of their plant sales).

This banana patch received no protection or anything, just good soil and a good planting site with surrounding plants sheltering against wind.

Pisang Awak banana bunch on the ground 🙁

July 18, 2025July 30, 2025

Citrus Update July 2025

Well we are finally sold out of Alemow and Furr C-57 seeds, a huge thank you to everyone who bought some seeds and is helping to trial them in New Zealand. We couldn’t do these kinds of things without your support, so thank you.

Seedlings from our first test batch. Furr C-57 in the top pots, Alemow in the bottom. A slug got into the right-hand Alemow pot hence the smaller size.

We have also finished compiling all the information we can find about these varieties into ‘comprehensive’ plant profiles. Please give them a read if you’re interested in Alemow or Furr C-57 to get the latest up to date information.

If I had to pick 3 key things to mention:

Genetic testing has shown that Alemow is actually a papeda x citron (same cross as Mexican / Key lime), and not a papeda x pomelo as is commonly reported, and so Alemow is actually a true giant lime
Alemow is very susceptible to Citrus Tristeza Virus [CTV], and so it’s recommended to graft it with CTV resistant scions such as lemons, trifoliata and hybrids, Meiwa, Etrog-type citrons, rough lemons, rangpurs (partial list of CTV resistant varieties in the plant profile).
Furr C-57 seems to actually taste pretty good for a trifoliata F1 hybrid, with nearly top marks from a taste report.

Alemow (Citrus macrophylla)

Furr C-57 citrandarin (Citrus reticulata x trifoliata)

Last and definitely not least, we apparently didn’t get enough chaos from importing Citrus seeds, and so we decided to do it again!! This time an incredibly special opportunity was presented to us to import rare and genetically distinct Citrus, and so even more special Citrus seeds are on the way. We’re very excited to share more once everything is final. 🙂

July 6, 2025September 17, 2025

Superlate Apples

Apples that hang on the tree well into July (at least) while still retaining great eating quality are what I’d describe as ‘superlate’ apples. Other people have called them ‘Long keeping apples‘ (but I think that is a misleading name as usually ‘keeping’ / ‘keeper’ usually refers to storage off-tree). I think these traits are important for food security, as these days relatively few houses have the space to store apples in a cool and dry place. Plus who doesn’t love physically picking apples in July.

So far I’d never come across any roadside apples that I’d describe as superlate until this one. I found this apple somewhat hidden in Weka Pass 2 days ago, still holding a decent crop of apples (more than in the photo). The tree is on a fenceline by itself, so I’m pretty sure it’s a seedling.

These apples are completely crunchy and juicy, no dryness or flouriness. In fact, some of the apples were still not fully ripe! I would describe the flavour as being slightly tart and lower-medium sweetness. On the spectrum between a Gala/Braeburn and Granny Smith, this one would be roughly 1/4 – 1/2 of the way towards Granny Smith (maybe it’s a Granny Smith seedling? As Granny Smith is also known to store on the tree very late).

These apples I think could hang on the tree another 2-3 weeks, but also the birds were getting into them so maybe by then they’d all be pecked through.

Very keen to hear about what other apple varieties folks have or know about that are still hanging on the tree 🙂

The tree still holding a crop (only about half or so of the apples are visible)

June 25, 2025June 25, 2025

Ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans Ate Taro

One of the most astounding facts that I’ve ever learned is that taro is not just a crop of the Asia-Pacific region, but has about two thousand years of history as a food crop in the Mediterranean.

It seems almost anachronistic to me, as if someone had told me the Ancient Egyptians liked to go surfing. In one sense, we could even say that taro is more traditionally Italian than tomatoes!

This article will take a look at this topic, and spoiler: perhaps this ancient taro is not just ancient history: https://agroforestry.co.nz/ancient-egyptians-greeks-and-romans-ate-taro/

June 23, 2025June 25, 2025

Torreya nucifera var igaensis in New Zealand (?)

Recently I was kindly sent some extra Torreya seeds collected from trees labelled Torreya nucifera in the North island by a friend. Initially I was very doubtful of the identification, as the size of the seeds was vastly different to the other Torreya nucifera seeds I have received.

Clockwise from top left 1) North Island Torreya fruits 2) North island Torreya nuts 3) Torreya nucifera seeds from Austria 4) Torreya californica seeds from California

However the Gymnosperm Database in its description for Torreya nucifera has this enigmatic paragraph [1]:

Ohwi (1965) recognizes a number of varieties, which are not mentioned by Farjon (2010). Var. radicans is shrubby, native to the Honshu mountains. Var. macrosperma has a large seed 35-40 mm long, and is found only in the Mie and Shiga prefectures on Honshu. Var. igaensis has shorter (10-18 mm long), abruptly spinescent leaves, with a short (20 mm) seed. It is rare, found only in Iga Prefecture on Honshu.

The $2 coin has a diameter of 26.5mm, so perhaps the seeds are from Torreya nucifera var igaensis. The seeds from Austria look to be about 35mm long which matches Torreya nucifera var macrosperma.

Close up photo showing seeds as well as the single leaf blade that came with the seeds. The length of the leaf blade matches the description for igaensis.

Since we’re selecting for larger seeds, there may not appear to be any benefit to selecting this variety with smaller seeds. However it’s always worth growing out extra genetics if you have the space, as it’s possible that the smaller seed size is offset with vigour, precociousness or productiveness.

Hopefully we’ll be able to plant out a trial row of Torreya within the next 1-2 years and begin the next phase of our Torreya project.

References

https://www.conifers.org/ta/Torreya_nucifera.php

May 10, 2025May 10, 2025

Second Bunch of Bananas

Well it turns out our second bunch of bananas is on the way. This time it’s from the Pisang Awak patch, with plants originally sourced from Auckland Botanic Gardens. The names attached to various banana varieties within New Zealand is layers upon layers of mixups. Just when you think you have a good grasp, another layer peels off and you see something different. So whether this plant is actually Pisang Awak or not, I am no longer sure, but at least I am sure of where I got it and that I didn’t change the name 🙂

This banana patch has been completely neglected the past year, receiving only 1x feed and nothing else, not even chop and drop. Unlike last time, this time I will try to protect the bunch with a banana bag or similar to see what kind of effect it has and whether it keeps more of the fruit in good condition compared to last time. Of course, it may still fail to ripen next Spring.

Huacatay

This banana patch is growing with huacatay (Tagetes minuta) for company (a few stems are visible behind the flower bell), a perennial herb of the marigold genus, native to the Southern half of South America. Huacatay is a fantastic herb and due to vigorous growth can be used for chop and drop. It also has strong effects on the soil microbiome. I would describe huacatay as ‘passionfruit mint’. Others describe the taste as a mixture of sweet basil, tarragon, mint and citrus.

Huacatay exudes powerful anti-fungal and anti-nematode compounds from its roots. I’m pretty sure the amount of these compounds released by huacatay are orders of magnitude more than those released by annual marigolds which many gardeners will plant as a companion crop for tomatoes, due to its deeper root system and much more vigorous growth habit (I haven’t researched this yet though so could be wrong). We’re trialing huacatay as a companion plant for mountain papaya (Vasoncellea sp.) due to their relatively poor tolerance of damp soils – with the idea that the huacatay will ward off fungal & oomycete problems while also drying the soil through active growth in Winter. It’s likely that huacatay could be allelopathic to some plants (or at least the effect on beneficial mychorrhiza may be negative), so we haven’t used it everywhere.