It has been quite some time since we have posted an update here. We are updating slightly more often at our facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/westcoastagroforestry if you want to take a look there 🙂 That is also usually where we are putting rarer seeds for sale that we aren’t likely to source often. These rarer seeds we currently sell via our trademe page here: https://www.trademe.co.nz/members/listings.aspx?member=7680909
Earlier in the month we sold some plants at our first local market in Carter’s Beach. This could be considered our soft launch for our plants nursery, and we enjoyed the day greatly talking to many people and seeing our plants go to good homes.
We grow our plants outside all year round in local West Coast conditions, sourced from local seed sources where possible, and without artificial fertilizers or pesticides – just the same kind of conditions they would experience planted in your garden.
Some of the plants we had for sale (most of which we still have stock of):
– Avocado (Zutano, Fuerte mostly, but also some other varieties)
– European sweet chestnut (grown from West Coast seed)
– Hybrid sweet chestnut (grown from West Coast seed)
– Macadamia (seedlings from multiple varieties)
– European oaks (Quercus robur, grown from West Coast seed)
– Silverberry (Elaeagnus x ebbingei, cutting grown)
– Lucuma (Pouteria lucuma, seedlings from multiple varieties)
– Horse chestnut (grown from West Coast seed, not edible, but apparently can make soap from the nuts)
We have also been hard at work trialling new species in our nursery which will begin to be available in the coming seasons. Red pineapples (Ananas bracteatus), American persimmon (Diospyros virginiana), Lotus persimmon (Diospyros lotus), Hybrid persimmon (Diospyros virginiana x kaki), Asian persimmon (Diospyros kaki), Yangmei / Chinese bayberry (Myrica rubra), Bunya (Araucaria bidwillii), Jaboticaba (Plinia cauliflora), Tall guava (Psidium giganteum), Tropical guava [white-flesh] (Psidium guajava), Chilean guava (Ugni molinae), Davidson plum (Davidsonia pruriens), Large-fruited hawthorns (Crataegus species), Oncoba spinosa, Mountain papaya (Vasconcellea pubescens), Hybrid mountain papaya x babaco (Vasconcellea x), White butterfly ginger (Hedychium coronarium) – just to name a few! A lot more experimental plants are also growing that we’re still evaluating as well.
In terms of our garden, we have been doing a lot of soil building the past few months, preparing the avocado terraces. They are getting nice and thick and hopefully will be planted in the next few weeks with some avocado varieties. We have some tougher named varieties (Mexicola Grande, Zutano, Hashimoto, Jan Boyce, Bacon, Duke 7, Edranol) that we will be trialling, as well as a few very promising fruiting unnamed selections (‘Tobi’, ‘Peru’, ‘Mark Mexicola’) that have yet to be trialled down here. A few mexicola seedlings with superior vigour/hardiness we have grown will be planted as well, and lastly a few seedlings from other varieties that appear vigorous too. We will be propagating these varieties as well.
I think that’s about it for now! It’s been a very busy year, and it’s taken all of our energy to work in the nursery and garden, and live life. Plenty of new articles are to be written and we look forward to sharing them 🙂