Thursday, September 26, 2013

Setting Up Macadamia Nut Farms

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By Mia McCall


Today, macadamia nuts are recognized for their commercial value in various recipes all over the world. The crop is indigenous to Australia but was first commercialized in the Hawaii islands before its popularity as a cash crop picked. Macadamia nut farms were established in Australia only in the 1960s as the crop was being introduced across north America.

It is worth noting that the performance of these trees will depend on the temperature swings experienced in your orchard. Flowering will only take place if the temperatures dip below 19 degrees centigrade during the hours of darkness. Frosts and below freezing temperatures will certainly kill young trees or cause flower and leaf shedding in an established orchard.

The trees are classified as evergreen hardwoods, with an ability to compete with deciduous species in a plantation. The crop will do well in granite soils with good drainage and aeration to support their extensive root system and minimize decline and canker disease. Some agricultural officers also recommend the planting of windbreak trees to avoid breakage and uprooting of newly established plants.

It should be noted that the trees can grow up to heights of twenty meters with far reaching branches. For this reason, the planting holes should be designed in a grid pattern across the orchard, with a spacing of between 30 and 50 meters. If you lack the expertise to conduct a thorough soil sampling, you could estimate the drainage rate during rainy seasons by drilling an auger hole to the hardpan layer and pouring in some water to record how long it takes for it to drain away.

Stony areas are to be avoided as they are a hindrance to mechanized processes in the orchard. A landscape expert should be called in to aid in marking out the area to be covered by your garden. If you do it on your own, it may bring contention with neighbors during spraying periods or prove inaccessible with heavy farm machinery.

Designing your rows to run from north to south will ensure that plants will get maximum sunshine at some point during the day. The best crop to grow is one that will ensure increased production throughout its productive life. Consult known farmers and agriculturalists but treat all information with caution as some people may propagate unsubstantiated opinions.

It may happen that the targeted buyer only accepts nuts of a certain variety. For those who may wish to produce mixed varieties the different species should be laid out during planting so that cross pollination is encouraged during the production period. A farm with mixed varieties may have to sort out nuts before marketing.

Do not rush to plant any imaginable tree as a windbreak for your orchard. A major shortcoming with this practice is creating secondary hosts for pests that frustrate farmer efforts to improve production. In some cases, the yields from macadamia nut farms have declined simply because such trees are competing with the cash crop for the available growth resources. Windbreaks are not absolutely necessary after four years of macadamia growth as the stems have developed hardy tissue and an elaborate root system.




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