Market Gardening at Opiki

Manawatu Times, Volume 69, Issue 56, 9 March 1944, Page 4

Market Gardening at Opiki

FERTILE AREA NEAR PALMERSTON NORTH. At Opiki (near Palmerston North) there is situated a block of land which is ideal for the production of vegetables. Although a large number of the public is not aware of it, during the past seven or eight years a large acreage has been converted from waste swamp land covered with logs and stumps, into highly productive market gardens producing mainly onions and potatoes for the Wellington City markets. The scheme which is largely financed and supervised by the ManaWatu Mills Ltd., is proving a great success and each season more land is being brought into production. It is expected that in time the area at Opiki will, to a large extent, replace the llutt gardens and become the main market garden ot Wellington City. Owing to the soil being to a large extent comprised of peat it holds moisture extremely well, the price of the land is reasonably cheap, and as railage is near, vegetables can be put on trucks in the late afternoon, delivered to Wellington markets early next morning and sold on the market floor the same morning. One grower who has been cropping for seven years has produced better crops this year, with less manure, than he produced on the same land, during the first two years of production. The main crop of potatoes, the quality of which is excellent, is being dug now. The late rains of the past few days have had the effoct of loosening the soil which is a definite advantage when mechanical diggers are employed for harvesting the crop. Crops are expected to average 5 to 6 tons to the acre, while one grower who crops on a large scale has obtained 8 tons to the acre this season. The early onion crops came out remarkably well and growers who are now pulling the main crops are looking forward to excellent yields of good keeping onions, as the weather conditions this year have been the best experienced for some years past both for growing ana harvesting, the long spell of dry weathef being ideal for ripening. The yiela is expected to average 10-12 tons to the A party of American servicemen, members of which were interested in vegetable production in the -States, visited the area at Opiki and stated that the crops of potatoes and onions were equal in quality to anything grown in their own country.