January 2008
The Daley News
Meet our Staff
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We asked our staff about their favourite fruit trees. Click to read their answers. We would also like to ask you:
What are your 3 Favourite Fruit Trees in Order? >>
Kyogle Floods January 2008
The headlines for the new year have of course been the severe flooding that we received here in Kyogle on January 5th. This was the largest flood that Kyogle has seen in over 50 years and has left many with a huge cleanup, the worst effected here at the nursery was Paning and her family who have had the horrible ordeal of cleaning up after their entire household was flooded. The nursery was on the very edge and surrounded by the water from the Richmond river, it came up into the bottom of our lowest poly house and swamped the lower parts of the orchard,
we were very lucky that there were no large piece of debris in the water to do any serious damage. Thanks to everyone who contacted us with concerned phone messages and emails, the news certainly spread far and wide and in many cases reminded people of their old home lands. For those who are interested their are more pictures and a film by Lauchlan Forsythe on the blog.
What is Fruiting in the Orchard
We are just finishing the last of the plum harvest with the blood plums, the Iluka blood and the mariposa. These have been especially delicious this year and the mariposa has cropped better than ever before, this is possibly due to the severe frosts in the winter. Nashis are coming off and are beautiful when eaten straight from the tree or chilled first, they are the most perfect thirst quenching fruit on a hot
day. The grapes are ripening although they have had a hard time of it with the very wet weather we have been having in Kyogle, the Chambourcin, Pink Iona, Lady Patricia and the Golden Muscat have held up the best in the humidity. My Panama Berry is loaded with fruits which I will enjoy in the shade of the tree as they ripen. This is possibly the fastest growing fruit tree in the world. I have also noticed that the turmeric is flowering, it produces beautiful but subtle flowers that are easily missed in the amongst the large leafy foliage.
Black Booyong - Argyrodendron actinophyllum
The black booyong is one of the most beautiful of the large buttressed rainforest trees. It is a secondary species of sub tropical rainforest and is very common on the rich basalt soils north from Bulahdelah to Gympie in Queensland in closed forests. .jpg)
Black booyongs are large trees to 20 meters and are hosts to many epyphites and vines that climb their way to the light high in the canopy of the forest. The trunks of the black booyong are dark and the often huge buttresses are spectacular in their form. The seeds are winged and spiral down from the canopy of the forest away from the parent tree when they are ripe. Young plants look gorgeous for many years in tubs and are fast growing if giving additional water during dry periods.
