ArborGen Seed Orchard
Summary
TLDRAubergine's genetic tree stock operation in New Zealand and Australia focuses on breeding trees through open and controlled pollination to meet customers' specific forest improvement needs. The orchard serves as a base for a varietal program, selecting superior genetics for traits like growth, branching habit, and wood density. The process involves controlled pollination, irrigation, and pruning to ensure healthy, vigorous trees. The harvested cones are processed to extract seeds, which are then cleaned, sorted, and sent to nurseries for planting, aiming to enhance forest productivity and product applications.
Takeaways
- 🌳 Aubergine provides genetic tree stocks to customers in New Zealand and Australia through open and controlled pollination methods.
- 🌱 The company faces challenges in meeting the diverse needs of customers, which vary based on their forest sites and silviculture practices.
- 🌿 Aubergine's orchard produces controlled pollinated seed, making the company self-sufficient and able to tailor to customer needs.
- 🏞️ The orchard is strategically located near the sea for optimal flowering and close to the Otaio River for irrigation, both critical for seed growth.
- 🚫 Control pollination involves isolating flowers to prevent external pollen contact, ensuring genetic purity of the seeds.
- 🌼 The breeding program focuses on five key traits: growth straightness, branching habit, frost resistance, wood density, and disease resistance.
- 🌱 The orchard is constantly upgraded with new genetics from ongoing breeding trials to improve tree stock for future forests.
- 🌲 Grafted root stock with old physiologically material on top is used to give trees vigor, enabling early flowering and seed production.
- 🌰 Harvested cones are processed to extract seeds, which are then cleaned, sorted, and treated to ensure high-quality planting stock.
- 🌿 The orchard practices meticulous care, including pruning, irrigation, and foliage sampling, to maintain tree health and productivity.
- 🌱 The investment in genetic improvement is crucial for the long-term success of forestry, ensuring future products meet market demands.
Q & A
What does the term 'aubergine' refer to in the context of the script?
-In the context of the script, 'aubergine' seems to be a typographical error. It should likely refer to 'Arbonaut', a company that provides genetic tree stocks to customers in New Zealand and Australia.
What are the methods used for breeding trees in the script?
-The trees are bred through both open and controlled pollination methods.
What are the challenges faced in providing planting stock to customers?
-Challenges include the need to continuously improve forests, meeting individual customer needs based on their forest site and silviculture, and providing end products that meet their requirements.
How does the orchard ensure self-sufficiency in controlled pollinated seed?
-The orchard produces all the control pollinated seed for the company, allowing them to be as self-sufficient as possible.
What is the significance of the orchard's location near the sea?
-The proximity to the sea provides a good flowering site, which is critical for the trees' pollination process.
Why is irrigation important for the orchard?
-Irrigation is important to ensure the trees grow healthy and strong, which is essential for producing good seed.
How is control pollination achieved in the orchard?
-Control pollination is achieved by isolating the flower on the tree during its receptive period in July and August, preventing external pollen from reaching it, and then introducing the desired pollen.
What are the five traits or characteristics that the breeding program focuses on improving?
-The breeding program focuses on improving growth straightness, branching habit, frost resistance, wood density, and the trees' overall genetic traits.
How does the orchard manage the genetic improvement of the trees?
-The orchard manages genetic improvement by introducing new genetics from ongoing breeding programs and trials, replacing lower-ranked trees with better genetics, and introducing new varietals into the seed orchard.
What is the process for harvesting and processing the cones for seed?
-The cones are harvested at the end of the year, air-dried, and then processed through a series of steps including kilning, dehumidifying, cracking, and separating the seeds from the cones and wings.
How does the orchard ensure the genetic integrity of the seeds?
-The orchard ensures genetic integrity by carefully harvesting the cones, processing them to separate the seeds, and using machines to sort and clean the seeds, all while tracking their origin.
What is the purpose of the foliage sampling and irrigation monitoring in the orchard?
-Foliage sampling and irrigation monitoring are done to identify nutrient status and soil moisture, allowing for the application of fertilizer and adjustment of irrigation to maintain the health and vigor of the trees.
How does the orchard's approach to pruning differ from traditional forestry practices?
-The orchard aims to keep the tree low and encourage multiple stems for flowering, which is the opposite of traditional forestry practices that focus on a single straight stem.
What is the long-term goal of the genetic improvement program mentioned in the script?
-The long-term goal is to focus on genetic improvements to ensure that the products from the forest have a wider range of applications and are marketable in the future, considering the 30-year time frame of forestry projects.
Outlines
🌳 Aubergine's Genetic Tree Stock Breeding
Aubergine provides genetic tree stocks to customers in New Zealand and Australia. The trees are bred through open and controlled pollination in nurseries or orchards across the country. The company faces challenges in meeting the diverse needs of customers for planting stock to improve their forests. Each customer has unique requirements based on their forest's silviculture and end products. The orchard is crucial for producing control-pollinated seed, ensuring self-sufficiency and meeting customer needs. The orchard also serves as the base for the company's varietal program, selecting the best trees. The location near the sea and a river is ideal for flowering and irrigation, critical for growing quality seeds. Control pollination involves isolating flowers to prevent external pollen contact during their short receptive period in July and August. The company is involved in an ongoing breeding program, focusing on five key traits: growth, straightness, branching habit, doctor stroma resistance, and wood density. New genetics are continuously introduced into the seed orchard, replacing lower-ranked ones with better genetics. The orchard also incorporates virgin varietals for the next level of tree improvement. The trees are tested for growth and wood properties before being used for seed production. The site, covering 14 hectares with 20,000 trees, is constantly upgraded with better genetics. The trees are grafted root stock, which allows them to start producing flowers within two to three years after planting. Pruning is done to keep the trees low and create multiple growing tips for flowering. Each tree is irrigated, and foliage sampling is conducted annually to ensure nutrient status and apply fertilizers as needed. The cones are harvested and processed to extract seeds, which are then cleaned, sorted, and prepared for sowing in nurseries.
🌱 Seed Processing and Forestry's Genetic Future
The process of seed processing begins with ensuring genetic integrity by carefully selecting and air-drying harvested cones. In April and May, cones are dehumidified, and then kiln-dried at high temperatures to crack them open, releasing seeds. A machine separates the seeds from the cones and wings, and a sizing machine sorts them by size, removing any debris. An air blowing machine further sorts seeds by weight to distinguish between dead and live seeds. The final product is a sieve of clean, viable seeds ready for sowing. These seeds are then sent to nurseries where they are sown, and after twelve months, they become seedlings for planting in forests. The investment in genetic improvements is crucial for the future of forestry, as it can take up to 30 years to see the benefits. The focus is on enhancing the range of applications for forest products, ensuring marketability in the future. The video script emphasizes the importance of ongoing genetic research and investment in forestry for long-term success.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Genetic Tree Stocks
💡Controlled Pollination
💡Silviculture
💡Varietal Program
💡Growth Traits
💡Seed Orchard
💡Irrigation
💡Pruning
💡Seed Processing
💡Genetic Improvement
💡Seedlings
Highlights
Aubergine provides genetic tree stocks to customers in New Zealand and Australia.
Trees are bred through open and controlled pollination methods.
Challenges include providing planting stock for continuous forest improvement.
Customers have specific needs based on their forest sites and silviculture practices.
The orchard is self-sufficient in controlled pollinated seed.
Controlled pollination allows for customization to meet customer needs.
The orchard serves as the base for the company's varietal program, selecting top genetics.
The orchard's proximity to the sea and a river is critical for flowering and irrigation.
Control pollination involves isolating flowers to prevent external pollen contact.
The breeding program focuses on five key traits for genetic improvement.
New genetics are continuously introduced through ongoing breeding and forest trials.
Varietals are introduced into the seed orchard for the next level of tree improvement.
Trees in the orchard are tested for growth and wood properties before use.
The site covers 14 hectares with 20,000 trees, constantly upgrading genetics.
Grafted root stock and old physiological material ensure vigorous growth.
Trees start producing flowers within two to three years after planting.
Pruning aims to keep trees low and create multiple flowering tips.
Irrigation and foliage sampling ensure optimal tree health and vigor.
Cones are harvested and processed to extract seeds for future planting.
Seed processing includes dehumidifying, cracking, and separating seeds from wings.
Seeds are sorted by size and weight to ensure quality.
Investment in genetics now will impact the quality of forest products in 30 years.
Transcripts
aubergine provides genetic tree stocks
to customers in New Zealand and
Australia the trees are bred through
open and controlled pollination and
nurseries or orchards throughout the
country among the challenges is being
able to provide the planting stock the
customers need to continuously improve
their forests each customer has their
own needs depending on their forest
sight depending on the silviculture of
the forest regime that they're growing
and what their end products are this
orchard produces all the control
pollinated seed for our company so we
are self-sufficient as far as possible
and controlled pollinated seed and they
don't Able's us to then work with our
customers and be able to stock the
orchard with the appearance that this
meets their needs and rather click the
pollen from those orchards they'd also
meet their needs in addition the orchard
provides the base for our varietal
program which is effectively selecting
the best of the best
we're only about a kilometre from the
sea here and so it's a good flowering
site which is critical and it's also
close to a source of irrigation from the
our Tory River and again irrigation is
important to be able to grow good seed
control pollination is about isolating
the flower that's on the tree so no
external pollen can get to that flower
while it's receptive a flower is only
receptive for a short period of time
during July and August and so we put a
bag over the flower isolate the flower
so no pollen can reach to it and then
we're able to introduce pollens that we
require so that means for a controlled
pollinated tree that we know both the
mother and the father there's an ongoing
breeding program in New Zealand there
are new genetics coming through all the
time and so for genetic improvement
there are five traits or characteristics
of the tree that I breed for and they
are growth straightness branching habit
doctor stroma resistance and for wood
density and there are breeding if it's
going on and trials in the forest and
from those trials new parents are coming
out all the time and so as those parents
are then
Joost into the seed orchard and then we
have to remove the lower ranked ones and
and replace them with the better
genetics we also are now introducing our
varietals into the seed orchard so these
are our virgin varietals and they are
bringing in the next level of tree
improvement and to our seedling stock in
the future all these trees have been
tested in the forest so we know how well
they grow in terms of straightness and
other wood properties so we're not
worried about what these trees look like
we want them to do is to produce as many
pine cones as many seeds as possible
this site here is 14 hectares and we
have 20,000 trees wouldn't fully stock
we have 20,000 trees on site here we're
constantly changing upgrading the
genetics depending on what our general
want us to do so at any one stage there
will be trees which we're not
pollinating because their genetics has
been improved and will go through and
and mulch them remove them and then
replant them the following year the
trees that we're growing here are
grafted root stock and the material on
top is quite old physiologically and the
root stock was young which gives them
the vigor to grow it means that the
trees will start producing flowers
within two to three years after we've
planted them these cones here were
pollinated in July last year so these
are about six to seven months old and
these will be harvested at the end of
2017 and on the same tree we've got the
crop here which was pollinated into 2014
and we'll be harvesting these in
December of this year 2016 what we're
doing here in terms of pruning is we're
trying to keep the tree as low as
possible so we can do everything from
the ground you'll see on here this is
last utilized pollination at the top
here and this is the Year befores so
first thing we do is we we make sure we
plead our end o so we don't actually
accidentally cut them off and then what
we're looking to do is create as many
fingers coming up or potential growing
tips for flowering in July of this year
so it's the complete opposite of a
forestry if you like where you want one
straight stem we want as many stems as
we can coming at a height that we can
work it
every tree in the orchard is irrigated
so it's more akin to an orchard as
opposed to a forest we also do foliage
sampling every year to identify nutrient
status and apply fertilizer accordingly
and with our irrigation we monitor we
have source two probes which we monitor
the air the soil moisture status and and
adjust irrigation accordingly so we can
we can fine-tune things and and make
sure that the trees are as healthy and
as vigorous as possible because we are
giving them a bit of a hard time with
the pruning that we do we have us the
cones by Christmas and we bring them
into the shed and we stick them into
crates making sure that we've picked
them so the genetic integrity is still
intact we know where it's come from
and then we leave them in the shed to
air dry and then April May we start cone
processing where we'll put them into a
kiln and dehumidifier them for a few
days until their moisture content is 10
to a level we can correct them and then
we put the cones into a kiln and create
them at at a fairly high temperature for
about eight hours and they crack open so
that's the unopened harvested cone and
once they've been through the cracking
process that the tines open up and you
end up with the seeds in there obviously
we can't do that with every cone so we
have a machine that we put them through
like a concrete mixer where they go in
it spins them and it has slots at the
bottom and the seeds fall out the cones
travel on through into a bin and
disposed of and then the seed goes
through a training process the first
stage is to remove the wings each seed
has a a wing which in nature helps it
fly and disperse so we use a concrete
mix of type machine with a little bit of
water dampness which the wing sticks to
and the seed comes away so that's the
first process is to separate them we
then take it to a sizing machine which
will sort the seed by size and also
remove any twigs or branches or anything
left in it and then finally we ended up
with seed but we have a problem with
dead seed and live seeds so we have an
air blowing machine which sorts the seed
based on its weight and the final
product is that we end up with sieve
like this which is basically a finished
product we backing it up and send it
away to aboriginals to take Oh
quarters and then it sent out to their
nurseries we were sown in the nursery
and twelve months later you have the wee
seedlings which go into the forest so 1
1 kilogram of seed that we produce from
here would produce anywhere from 20 to
30 thousand seeds which is enough to
plant 20 to 30 hectares of forest out on
the hillside so you can see the crops
doing really well here these really
healthy forestry is ticking along at the
moment and I think the future is really
in focusing on genetic improvements so
that the product that does come out of
the forest has a wider range of
applications and because we're looking
at on a 30 year time frame then the
investment that's being made now in
genetics won't be seen for 30 years but
if you don't invest in that those
genetics now then in 30 years time you
may have difficulty selling you a lot of
products or or whatever so it's quite
quite important this program was made
with funding from New Zealand on ear
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