SOMETIMES the idea to venture into a new crop can come by chance.
For George and Jane Mayne, they decided to experiment with growing two different types of nut trees on their property Campanella Cottage in Mount Wilson.
Mr Mayne’s parents Tony and Valerie purchased Campanella in 1950, and the property came with two walnut trees. Mr Mayne had been visiting the place for holidays since 1947.
At that time, the property was mostly cleared, and a few beef cattle were kept until the late 1970s to keep the growth under control.
In the late 1970s, when the Mayne’s children Anton and Danika were young, they gathered a few small sugar bags of walnuts, and the kids set up on the road to sell them.
Anton was the shopkeeper and Danika held up the sign, enticing passing traffic.
“People were stopping and buying them, and I thought ‘this could be an easy thing to do’,” Mr Mayne said.
At the time Mr Mayne was a vet, and another local vet was growing some walnut trees, so the Mayne’s decided to grow them on most of their 11 acre landholding.
“When we started in about 1978-79, nothing was known about walnut growing,” said Mrs Mayne.
“We saw it as a way to supplement our income.”
In 1979, 10 grafted Franquette walnut trees were planted, followed by 30 Freshford Gem (Australia’s then only commercially developed species of walnut) trees in 1980.
“This process of purchasing continued until 100 trees had been planted,” Mrs Mayne said.
“There were quite a number of losses early on, as we would come from Sydney each fortnight on the weekend to water and compost the trees.
“No fertilisers were used, and the only water we could drive out to the trees on each of our visits was administered from 20 litre containers.”
Also growing 40 chestnut trees, the couple operate at the farmgate, and began opening their gates for people to pick their own nuts in the mid-90s.
“The people who come (for the green walnuts) are rarely Aussies,” Mrs Mayne said.
“We get a lot of Italian, Greek, Spanish, Armenian, Lebanese, and Middle Eastern people, and more recently Asians as well.
“They know what to do with the green walnuts. We don’t do anything with them, but people make liquor out of them, pickle them or make desserts. The British actually serve them sliced with beef.”
Green walnuts are in season during December in Australia and must be picked before the shell hardens.
Ripe walnuts and chestnuts come into season throughout March until May, depending on the type of walnut.
Through trial and error using different breeds of chestnuts and walnuts – there are about 40 different varieties of walnut – the Mayne’s have settled on breeds that suit the volcanic soil and climate of Mount Wilson.
The natural vegetation of Mount Wilson is rainforest, and generally receives a good rainfall of around 40 inches per year.
However, for the first four-to-five years the trees struggled until their roots were deep enough to benefit from ground water.
When planting, if they discovered a breed was prone to disease, or if they wanted to try a new variety, Mr Mayne would ‘graft’ a new breed on top of the old one.
“So we started with Sword (a variety of chestnut tree) but found three years later they were very prone to disease where the nuts would rot quickly once they hit the ground, so now we have a French variety.”
Mr Mayne would cut off the branches of the chestnut tree he was replacing, then ‘graft’ seedlings of the new variety to the top of the trunk.
While grafting is difficult, it allows the tree to grow a new variety of nut and keep the already established root structure of the old tree.
The other main problem the Mayne’s faced was Gang-gang cockatoos, who swoop in at the end of each year to eat the green walnuts from trees.
“We found the birds least enjoyed the (walnut tree) variety Irvine, which was developed in Mount Irvine, so George commenced grafting this to the Freshford Gem trees with varied success,” Mrs Mayne said.
However, the birds continue to come. To combat this problem, the Mayne’s enlisted the help of Toby Gow to create a drone to scare them away. (breakout)
For anyone thinking about growing their own walnut or chestnut trees, the Mayne’s said you have to decide what you want them to do for you.
“There are opportunities for little businesses, and it is accelerating,” Mr Mayne said.
“We operate at the farmgate, so we don’t rely on the trees to supplement our income, but we were told when we first put them in that we wouldn’t break even for 25 years,” Mrs Mayne said.
“We probably haven’t broken even yet, but that’s mainly to do with the problem we have with the Gang-gangs.”
The Mayne’s advise that anyone wanting to grow walnuts and chestnuts should consider their market, suitability of location, the size of their land and how soon they want to be selling nuts.
“Dwarfing root stock would be ideal for small areas if it can be found,” Mrs Mayne said.
“Larger acreage may consider closer planting and vertical pruning so mechanical harvesters can be used.
“Walnuts are very slow growing, and people plant them for their grandchildren.”
Chestnut trees, on the other hand, begin providing nuts three-to-four years after planting.
Cropping time of both walnuts and chestnuts vary, with green walnuts coming into season around December, and ripe walnuts and chestnuts are ready to pick from early to late autumn.
Both varieties of nut require acid soil and cold winters.
Campanella Cottage is one of many nut farms that open their gates for families to pick nuts in the Mount Wilson and Mount Irvine region.
Australian chestnuts are not troubled by many of the pests and diseases experienced overseas.
Being close to Asia, where chestnuts are popular, and able to supply fresh chestnuts in the off-season is a competitive advantage for Australian chestnut growers.
According to Chestnuts Australia, the value of the Australian chestnut industry is $11 million and export surplus $3m.
In 2014, the International Nut Council described international market demand for nuts as “incessant” and prices had been rising for five years despite big crops.
The growth was attributed to publicity of results of nutritional studies proving the health benefits of walnuts.
Average production at maturity for a walnut orchard can vary from four-to-six tonnes per hectare, depending on variety, inputs (particularly water) and climate.
More information for potential and established growers can be found from the Agriculture Department and nut-grower groups websites.
