Visitors to the Kaipara Water demonstration sites will spot the beginnings of green growth starting to peek through the soil. Planting days on both sites last week saw a diverse range of crop seeds carefully bedded into the ground. Results are already being seen with a couple of the crops propagating in seven days.

The demonstration sites are part of Kaipara KickStart, led by Kaipara District Council and supported by the government’s Kānoa – Regional Economic Development & Investment Unit, with funding provided from the Provincial Growth Fund. Northland Inc. is contracted by Kaipara District Council to manage the sites, located at Te Kopuru and further north at Maunganui Bluff.

COVID-19 restrictions and then recent wet weather had delayed the plantings – initially planned for early to mid-October – so it was a relief for all involved to finally see seeds in the soil.

Curt Martin, KDC’s Project Manager for the Kaipara Water project, says bedding in the seeds was a vital final step towards setting up real working examples of smart water use on high-value crops.

“With the irrigation set up and seeds in the soil now we are ready to go. Crops for each site have been carefully selected to showcase the centre pivot overhead irrigator and the in-ground system being used. We have also chosen some crops we don’t think have been commercially grown before in the Kaipara. I am particularly interested in the results of the kaanga ma on site two at Te Kopuru, the crop that was selected by community vote.”

“Now we wait for the crops to grow,” says Greg Hall, Northland Inc’s Manager for both sites. “We will be actively monitoring the sites and then adjusting the irrigation where needed to achieve optimal growth. As we move into the summer months the adjustments will be key to demonstrating the irrigation technology potential. We are setting up cameras on each site and planning to have the community able to view the images taken in real time, as well as visit at a later date.”

Different planting techniques have been used on each site. On demonstration site two at Te Kopuru, local contractor Graeme Lawrence used a maize drill to plant out three quarters of the two-hectare site. First up was approximately 28,000 soybean/edamame seeds, 14,400 kaanga ma and 16,000 watermelon seeds. The discs on the maize drill feeding the seeds are adjusted depending on the seed size, with the same discs used for kaanga ma and soybean before being changed out for watermelon. The beetroot seeds were too small for the machine to feed, so the Northland Inc. team completed this last, bedding approximately 110,000 by hand.

Irrigation for demonstration site two is a centre pivot irrigator, fed by a creek that flows through the side of the site. An existing resource consent allows water to be taken and used for the crops. The 242-metre centre pivot irrigator is set up to run an extent of 190 degrees, demonstrating fifty percent of its potential pivot capacity (it can operate a full 360 degrees and cover a much larger site if needed). The farm also sits within the Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust’s catchment for Te Waihekeora reservoir near Te Kopuru, so landowners can use this working real life example to see what crops they could grow if they required a reliable water source and tapped into the Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust’s irrigation scheme currently under construction.

On demonstration site one at a Te Roroa farm in Maunganui Bluff, a team effort of people planted around 2,000 yam, 5,200 watermelon, 2,275 kamokamo and 17,280 sweetcorn seeds all by hand in one morning’s session.

The site hosts an in-ground irrigation system managed remotely via a web application to deliver water and fertiliser to vegetable crops in precise amounts. Irrigation drip tapes connected to 12 underground irrigation heads run across the crop rows. Soil moisture readers are installed across the site, gauging moisture levels and allowing the irrigation to be adjusted accordingly. This means only the exact amount of water required is used on the site each time the irrigation is turned on, and none is wasted.

General Manager of Te Roroa Snow Tane says he’s very keen to see first-hand the results of this irrigation on the crops.

“We run multiple farms across our rohe and we are always looking for ways to further diversify the land use. Our iwi are also learning directly from being onsite, from planting techniques through to gaining knowledge about the types of crops selected and how the irrigation works. We are looking ahead to the possibility of installing this type of irrigation on our other crops and farms.”

Further information, including specific info on selected crops, and planting plans and irrigation techniques used on each site can be found at www.kaipara.govt.nz/kickstart/Kaipara-Water. Soil and fertiliser records will be available soon.

Community site visits have been deferred to 2022, when COVID-19 restrictions allow and crop growth is significantly visible.

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