There are a number of avocado orchards and producers in the south west of Western Australia who seek to time their production to fill a niche market between say October and January each year.
This is really a niche market opportunity when summer avocado demand in the eastern states of Australia is strong and the northern producing areas of NSW and Queensland are not able to supply.
One of the original producers at Eastbrook near Pemberton is the business of DR & DJ Roche Farms who planted one of the first orchards in the district over twenty five years ago.
A family business now in the second generation under director Lisa Roche their orchard is in five blocks with about 4,500 established trees spread over 17 hectares or 42 acres.
The Roche Avocado orchard has just upgraded their spraying equipment with the purchase of a new Silvan Trailed G2E Supaflo 4000 Litre Sprayer with the Radak Conveyor Assembly.
The purchase clearly reflects that the orchard trees now mostly twenty five years old are substantial in size and scale and the challenge of course is to achieve spray penetration into the voluminous and bulky canopy of the trees.
The spraying process at the Roche Avocado Orchard is the application to protect against dieback and the application of copper supplements.
The new Radak Sprayer replaces an original 2000 litre capacity Silvan sprayer that has served the Roche’s well for over ten years.
The design and flexibility of the Radak Conveyor and fan assembly directs the spray application up and into the canopy of established trees.
The conveyor has readily adjustable hydraulic operated top wings which can serve a wide range of orchard plantings especially where trees are of different ages of establishment and their canopy growth.
The Silvan Supaflo G2E 4000 Litre Sprayer delivered to the Roche Orchard has a number of unique features.
Amongst these are a 182 litre a minute Comet diaphragm pump with an Arag Bravo 180S automatic spray rate controller in the tractor cabin while the safe operator features include a fresh water hand wash tank and a chemical induction suction probe.
The sprayer is fitted with the aluminium leaf guard assemble that prevents the induction of orchard floor material such as loose grass or leaf matter into the 920 mm diameter fan.
Lisa Roche says that the benefits she is seeing from the new sprayer are increased flexibility, with a faster response time across the orchard giving the ability to spray in the specific window required in terms of weather and application timeframes.
Silvan Australia’s WA Sales Manager Peter Hele says that the Radak Conveyor and fan design has become the standard choice for growers with large, well established and bulky tree plantings common in orchards like avocado, walnuts and also citrus groves.
“Our Radak assembly design is preferred in numerous plantings of this nature and we are regularly seeing growers in all producing districts moving over to this design as the spray needs of established groves and orchards are demanding better efficiency and especially spray penetration.
The Silvan G2E Supaflo 4000 Litre Sprayer was supplied to the Roche Avocado Orchard by district dealer STANS Manjimup Farm Machinery.
For more product information or technical support call 1300 SILVAN (1300 745 826) or email [email protected] or in WA contact Peter Hele on 0418 390 131.