Tree Scheme Autumn 2011Number 5

Volunteer Grower

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A great team effort By MARTINA THOMPSON Volunteer Grower Coordinator

Thank you to all volunteer growers

for the seedlings you produced for Trees For Life in the 2010/2011 growing season.

As the season winds down many growers, whose growing orders were for projects and backup stocks, have delivered their seedlings to the TFL nursery and Happy Valley depot during March and early April. Meanwhile, many of our volunteer growers who are growing for landholders will continue their seedling maintenace for some weeks or months ahead.

Over the weeks following drop off at the nursery, the seedlings are sorted, graded and cared for until they leave for their destinations. Planting locations around metropolitan Adelaide for SA Urban Forests - Million Trees program include the Gawler Buffer in the north and Craigburn and Okaparinga areas in the south. Other project grown seedlings will be

Trees For Life

5 May Tce

Brooklyn Park 5032

Ph: 8406 0500

Fax: 8406 0599

info@treesforlife.org.au

www.treesforlife.org.au

Fast Facts Growing Season 2010/11 VolunteerGrowers 863 SelfGrowers 555 Total 1,418 growers

Landholderorders 643,550 Specialprojectorders 67,550 Back-upstock 58,250 Total Orders 769,350 seedlings

planted at Monarto as part of the Alfred James Memory Tree Program.

Overleaf we provide some feedback on the overall quality of the seedlings that were grown for projects and as backup stock as well as some general feedback from our growers about their experiences this season.

We are pleased to be able to offer three alternative ways of saying thank you and well done to our pool of volunteer growers.

Firstly, with the support of Wallis cinemas we’re able to include a discount movie coupon for our volunteer growers in this edition. Please see the reverse side for this special offer.

Propagation WorkshopsNew Growers | Haven’t attended previously | Refresher

2011 Workshops will be run in October and NovemberLookforthedatesinSpring2011editionofReleaf,availableSeptember

First time growers Joseph and his Dad Tom

Backup In Weekend March 11 - 13

Jan of Hawthorn, grew seedlings

for Adelaide Hills area

Joseph and his dad Tom of Manningham, grew seedlings for Adelaide Hills area

Elaine of Happy Valley, grew seedlings for Alexandrina Plains area

continued over the page

Special Rewards for Growers

Secondly, if you’re growing for a landholder then you have the chance of being entered in to a draw to win a carton of wine just by returning your completed Volunteer Grower Questionnarire to the TFL office before 30 June 2011.

Thirdly, we would like to encourage you to enter a free competition, ‘Thanks to Volunteers’, that is being run by Volunteering SA&NT (VSA&NT) as a way of celebrating National Volunteers Week. There are $4000 worth of prizes to win, so go on, enter the draw to give yourself the chance to win an extra reward. You can enter online by logging on to the VSA&NT website, www.volunteeringsa.org.au or by downloading an entry form. To find the entry form click on the Events tab and then click on option NVW competition. Entries close 16 May 2011 at 12 noon.We hope that you’ll

consider growing for Trees For Life again in 2011/2012.

Thank You Volunteer GrowersAs a way to acknowledge and thank our volunteer growers for their commitment and their contribution of growing seedlings this year, Trees For Life and Wallis Cinemas have teamed up to offer our volunteer growers a special discount movie deal.Wallis Cinemas is offering a discount movie deal of 2 tickets for $20; that’s a saving of $6.70 per adult ticket. Please see the voucher for conditions and expiry date.

Growing Schedule

2011/2012Orders for seedlings: 1st May – 31 July 2011

Register to be a volunteer grower: July – October 2011

Pick up supplies and materials: November 2011

Growing season:November 2011 -April 2012

Feedback from Volunteer Growers

system and weakening the plant’s support base. Please see pages 12 and 13 of your Growers’ Handbook for more information.

Seed replacement was 24% less than for the 2009/2010 growing season. This large decrease shows that growers didn’t have as many problems as last year, possibly due to the milder conditions this summer.

The information in this section has been gleaned from the many phone calls received over the growing season. There have been some common trends

amongst the comments and questions asked by volunteer growers.

Many growers have expressed concern that their seedlings were small and didn’t seem to advance in height even after applying a liquid fertiliser.

Polarised growing results: either it was the best year ever with excellent results or it was the most difficult year with disappointing results.

Germination rates were slow and prolonged with many growers commenting that germination was ongoing 2 to 3 months after sowing.

Trusty species such as Acacia pycnantha proved unreliable this year.

Feedback for Volunteer GrowersNursery staff have

observed an overall improvement this year in the thinning and grading processes that are undertaken by our volunteer growers who grow for projects or backup. This then reduces the workload for nursery staff.

After the ‘Backup In’ weekends at Brooklyn Park and Happy Valley, the seedlings go through a process of sorting within the zone for which they’ve been grown. This sorting involves an upscaled version of the grading process done by individual growers. Each species as a whole is graded so that similar sized plants are grouped together within the same box. By the end of this process the height variation within each box has been minimised. Thinning is done at the same time as the grading as some tubes arrive at the nursery with multiple seedlings that have either been missed or because seeds continue to germinate after the boxes have been delivered to the nursery.

As always, tube-filling is an ongoing concern and we need to re-emphasise that the soil needs to be firmed as you fill each individualtube. The ideal soil level is 1cm below the top of the tube. In tubes where the soil level has dropped, the tube itself creates a heavy shade which inhibits germination or healthy plant growth. After filling each box with tubes but before sowing seed, water each boxful as the soil may settle further and a top up might be required. If the soil isn’t correctly compacted then either the seedling won’t be able to establish a strong root system or the soil will fall away from the roots when the tube is removed at planting time thereby exposing the plant’s root