The reconditioning of the pome fruit varietal collection at Grove, Tasmania (AP10024)

This is a final research report from Hort Innovation’s historical archives. Please note that as these reports may date back as far as the 1990s, the content and recommendations within them may be superseded by more recent research.

What was it all about?

In 2010 the Tasmanian government decided to no longer operate their fruit research station in the Huon Valley of Tasmania. To prevent its sale and the loss of the resource to the fruit industry, OAK Tasmania entered into a contract with the government to manage the site. Of particular concern was the maintenance and preservation of the apple, pear and quince cultivar collection on the site with some trees more than 50 years old. Due to low levels of funding to the research station over many years this collection had been managed at a low level. This had resulted in overgrown and tangled trees with numerous blackberries and rootstock suckers as well as well established weeds around the trees and an inoperable irrigation system.

Due to the age of the trees and numerous tree deaths in the collection this project aimed to re establish all the cultivars at a new site, using trees in a nursery bed propagated by the government and to re-juvenate the old collection site to ensure its survival until the new site becomes established.