Right plants key to success
Farmers thinking of putting in ma¯ nuka for honey are being advised to put in the right plants that flower at the best time for bee activity.
That will prevent the disappointment of some farmers who have put in ma¯ nuka that flowers before bees are flying and most active.
Important points for successful ma¯ nuka honey production were spelled out at Feilding workshop by the Ballance Farm Environment (BFE) group, attended by 200 people, including farm and lifestyle block owners as well as a handful of students and bankers.
Massey University, senior lecturer in agronomy, James Millner said in his early days, he was well paid for cutting ma¯ nuka due to a Land Development Encouragement Loan, which aimed to increase stock numbers on hills reverting to scrub.
‘‘I was interested in going back to see what had happened and it is all gone back into ma¯ nuka again.’’
He said the flowering date of ma¯ nuka was important.
He said anyone interested in producing ma¯ nuka honey should plant a known variety that flowered at the right time, because potentially they were able to produce nectar with a higher active ingredient content od dihydroxyacetone than wild plants.
Milner said establishing the right plants could be difficult and expensive.
‘‘Bare rooted seedlings being grown at a Woodville nursery are likely to cost around, 25 to 30 cents each, while container grown plants are typically 70 to 85 cents. After a year of growth you can’t tell the difference.’’
He said 1100 plants were usually put in to the hectare, but some people put in 1500-plus plants a hectare to account for some plant deaths and earlier production of honey.
Millner said the worst pests were goats, pigs and brushweeds, and they all needed to be dealt with, by spraying or shooting.
He said a pre-plant spray could be an effective and lower cost option compared with post-plant weed control, but both could effectively remove competition.
‘‘On steeper country pigs and goats can be a big problem; goats can actually climb up into ma¯ nuka plants to get the fresh shoots’’.
He said it cost about $2500/ha, to establish ma¯ nuka, about twice the cost of establishing radiata pine.
‘‘But of course there is the potential to produce high value honey from ma¯ nuka.’’
‘‘Bees don’t particularly like ma¯ nuka. It is not the greatest thing as far as bees are concerned. For example I have seen ma¯ nuka in full flower with no bees on it – where were they? On the lotus flowers underneath the ma¯ nuka.’’
Millner said honey producers had told him that the past two years had been awful for honey production because it had been too cold, wet and windy for many bees to work.
He had seen ma¯ nuka plantations fail from problems including goat browsing and competition from gorse. Given the investment required it was important to identify these problems and manage them or consider alternatives such as forestry.