The Open Tatura design (continued from last month)
The 3.0 m CCA-treated pine poles are spaced at 6.0 m with a cross-bar on each frame.
The poles are angled at 22.5 degrees to the vertical.
The trellis has four wires on each side. In the centre of each frame is a 3.6 m vertical pole with a central wire spanning these poles (total, nine wires).
The two top wires and the central wire are insulated with polyethylene tubing to prevent the leaders from breaking off when they are draped over these wires.
Anchors are of the ‘dead man’ type or are screw anchors.
Training the plants
Planting is on a diamond shape, which means that each plant is spaced 1.0 m on either side of the trellis.
Each leader is encouraged to grow to the top wire as soon as possible and is then draped over the central wire and attached to the opposite top wire.
As branching commences, three or four suitable branches are retained from the top-half of each plant on the south-end (right side) of the plants (row orientation is north–south).
When the branches have sufficiently developed, they are trained downwards with plastic ties that securely clip on the high-tensile wire. Thus, the main leaders and pendant branches are spaced at 200 or 250 mm for four or three branches respectively.
If branches become unproductive over time, new branches can replace them. Unwanted branches are frequently removed.
Tropical fruits and Open Tatura
Of the many tropical and ultra-tropical fruits already grown on Open Tatura, Dragon Fruit has the potential to further expand and sustain a viable and profitable fruit industry in north Queensland where conventionally-planted trees were recently devastated by two cyclones (Larry in 2006 and Yasi in 2011).
For more information, see Tree Fruit June 2014
