Kem Ormond's garden: How to grow tamarillos, my favourite fruit
It is more closely related to the guava than a tomato.
Originally from South America, they have become widely grown in New Zealand. They can be tricky to grow (speaking from experience), but once they have found their happy spot, they are away.
Tamarillo trees take about two years to produce fruit and will then be productive for around 10 years.
They like warm summers and a mild winter - I can understand that myself!
Fruit will ripen any time from April to November and can take eight months from pollination to ripening.
What I like about them is that they are available during winter and are so nice stewed with a plate of porridge.
Mind you, cutting in half and scooping out the pulp is equally satisfying.
They like to grow in full sun, but if the area you plant them in is extremely hot and prone to drying out, partial shade will be needed to keep them happy.
They are a subtropical plant, so they are not keen on cold or blustery wind, so if down south, I don't think they will be very tolerant of your weather conditions.
They prefer to grow in the warmer regions of this country.
They do not like frost, so the best time to plant is in late autumn or early spring when the risk of frost has passed.
Once fully developed, they will tolerate a very - and I mean very - mild frost.
You need to prepare the soil with some good compost or sheep pellets; in fact, I have planted mine right next to one of my compost bins and it is happy as.
Kem Ormond's tamarillo tree. Photo / Phil Thomsen
Tamarillos are evergreen and incredibly fast-growing, so they will need some feeding in the growing season, along with a good watering and some mulching.
They do not like to have their feet in wet, soggy ground, so make sure they are planted where there is good drainage.
Tamarillos are shallow-rooted, so mulch around the base during summer.
You need to plant your tamarillo tree in a sheltered position, as they can be prone to stem and branch breakage.
I would suggest staking as well.
Tamarillos are self-fertile, so don't require a pollinator as their flowers are pollinated by insects and bees, as well as the breeze.
They fruit on new season's growth, so it is important to prune at the end of each season after they have finished fruiting, and when the risk of frost has passed.
Let your plant grow to around 1.5m, then snip the top out of it, and hopefully this will encourage branching.
When the branches get to around 50cm long, take the tips out to make sure they fruit close to the centre as to avoid getting overweight with fruit and breaking branches.
Tamarillo varieties
When it comes to varieties, you may need to try some of the different varieties of fruit to decide what you prefer.
There are basically red-skin or yellow-skin varieties.
Red is more tart and yellow sweeter.
Ted's Red, Oratia Red and Ruby Red are popular red varieties, while Bold Gold and Goldmine are the popular sweeter yellow varieties.
Pest and disease control
You need to watch out for whitefly that can reduce yields if in large enough numbers; the honeydew they excrete gives rise to deposits of sooty mould on the fruit.
Any sap-sucking insect needs to be eradicated, as they can be the instigators of several viruses to which tamarillos are susceptible.
Some of the fungal diseases that can affect tamarillos, such as Phytophthora and other root rots, manifest themselves where the drainage is poor, the soil is heavy, and there is high humidity.
If you find the right spot in your garden to grow a tamarillo, you will be greatly rewarded with the most delicious fruit that can be eaten fresh, stewed, as a delicious jam, relish or even peeled and sliced on toast.
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NZ Herald
02-08-2025
- NZ Herald
Kem Ormond's garden: How to grow tamarillos, my favourite fruit
Tamarillos were formerly called tree tomatoes because of their subtle similarities, but that is about as far as it goes. It is more closely related to the guava than a tomato. Originally from South America, they have become widely grown in New Zealand. They can be tricky to grow (speaking from experience), but once they have found their happy spot, they are away. Tamarillo trees take about two years to produce fruit and will then be productive for around 10 years. They like warm summers and a mild winter - I can understand that myself! Fruit will ripen any time from April to November and can take eight months from pollination to ripening. What I like about them is that they are available during winter and are so nice stewed with a plate of porridge. Mind you, cutting in half and scooping out the pulp is equally satisfying. They like to grow in full sun, but if the area you plant them in is extremely hot and prone to drying out, partial shade will be needed to keep them happy. They are a subtropical plant, so they are not keen on cold or blustery wind, so if down south, I don't think they will be very tolerant of your weather conditions. They prefer to grow in the warmer regions of this country. They do not like frost, so the best time to plant is in late autumn or early spring when the risk of frost has passed. Once fully developed, they will tolerate a very - and I mean very - mild frost. You need to prepare the soil with some good compost or sheep pellets; in fact, I have planted mine right next to one of my compost bins and it is happy as. Kem Ormond's tamarillo tree. Photo / Phil Thomsen Tamarillos are evergreen and incredibly fast-growing, so they will need some feeding in the growing season, along with a good watering and some mulching. They do not like to have their feet in wet, soggy ground, so make sure they are planted where there is good drainage. Tamarillos are shallow-rooted, so mulch around the base during summer. You need to plant your tamarillo tree in a sheltered position, as they can be prone to stem and branch breakage. I would suggest staking as well. Tamarillos are self-fertile, so don't require a pollinator as their flowers are pollinated by insects and bees, as well as the breeze. They fruit on new season's growth, so it is important to prune at the end of each season after they have finished fruiting, and when the risk of frost has passed. Let your plant grow to around 1.5m, then snip the top out of it, and hopefully this will encourage branching. When the branches get to around 50cm long, take the tips out to make sure they fruit close to the centre as to avoid getting overweight with fruit and breaking branches. Tamarillo varieties When it comes to varieties, you may need to try some of the different varieties of fruit to decide what you prefer. There are basically red-skin or yellow-skin varieties. Red is more tart and yellow sweeter. Ted's Red, Oratia Red and Ruby Red are popular red varieties, while Bold Gold and Goldmine are the popular sweeter yellow varieties. Pest and disease control You need to watch out for whitefly that can reduce yields if in large enough numbers; the honeydew they excrete gives rise to deposits of sooty mould on the fruit. Any sap-sucking insect needs to be eradicated, as they can be the instigators of several viruses to which tamarillos are susceptible. Some of the fungal diseases that can affect tamarillos, such as Phytophthora and other root rots, manifest themselves where the drainage is poor, the soil is heavy, and there is high humidity. If you find the right spot in your garden to grow a tamarillo, you will be greatly rewarded with the most delicious fruit that can be eaten fresh, stewed, as a delicious jam, relish or even peeled and sliced on toast.
Otago Daily Times
03-06-2025
- Otago Daily Times
New star in country music wins big
The 50th MLT Gold Guitar Awards crowned Keily Smith after a highly contested show Sunday night, with her performance in the new country category winning her the grand prize. Pictured left to right: Phillip Geary, Keily Smith, Horace McAuley, Craig Sinclair. Runner up Simon Thompson (top left) said his second place finish alongside his win for male vocal solo was a sign to himself he belonged and was making the right moves in his music career. The Mitchell Twins (bottom left) Nicola (left) and Maegan came away with a win in the duet section, with Nicola winning an award for songwriting as well. Photos: Gerrit Doppenberg The MLT Gold Guitar Awards were a major success with a sold-out crowd, hometown heroes bringing home awards, and a new star in country music crowned. Gore Town & Country Club was packed to the rafters as 1100 people watched the best country musicians from near and far competing at the MLT Gold Guitar Awards Senior Finals. The judges had their work cut out for them, with the very high quality of entrants bringing their A-game through the night. Nicola and Maegan Mitchell, otherwise known as the Mitchell Twins, did Gore proud by winning the duet section, with Nicola winning the singer-songwriter section as well. The sisters competed against father Ron Mitchell in the songwriting section, and notably their sister Jenny Mitchell won the overall award back in 2017. Lawrence musician Keily Smith, after resounding performances in the country rock and NZ song sections, won the Gold Guitar for her song in the new country category. Following her big win, Smith said she felt a mix of joy at the achievement, and the exhaustion after such a big night with a late finish. "I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. "There was such a plethora of talent here this evening, it was anyone's game. "I'm just so thrilled to have shared the experience with the other artists, and I'm ready for a nap," she laughed. Runner-up Simon Thompson of Invercargill was overcome with emotions as he accepted awards for his performances —he also won the male vocal solo award. Mr Thompson said to win these categories, for him, was the recognition his hard work had been paying off. "I was just stunned. Even now I'm completely speechless. "Everyone in this room is a winner and to be called up, to be given that, it feels like I do belong and I am good enough," he said. MLT Gold Guitar Awards convener Phillip Geary said the night was one to be remembered and the winner was a fantastic ambassador for the awards and country music. "It's just another great milestone, it's a continuation of the journey. "The quality is as high as it's ever been. [Keily Smith] represents very well, she's a very worthy winner. The Mitchell twins perform in the duet section. "If she goes on from here, takes advantage of the prize package, we'll be really proud of her," he said. Results NZ Gold guitar overall winner: Keily Smith, Lawrence. Runner-up: Simon Thompson, Invercargill. Highest scoring Gore Country Music Club member: Lana Stevens, Riversdale. Gospel: Ngarangi Sadlier, Lower Hutt. Country rock: Keily Smith, Lawrence. NZ song: Keily Smith, Lawrence. Traditional: Jeremy Hantler: Tauranga New country: Keily Smith, Lawrence. Duet: The Mitchell Twins, Gore Open instrumental: William Harvey, Nelson. Vocal group: The Dollys, Winton. Band: Aroha & The CFB, Nelson. Singer-songwriter: Nicola Mitchell, Gore. Male vocal solo: Simon Thompson, Invercargill. Female vocal solo: Ngarangi Sadlier, Lower Hutt.
RNZ News
01-06-2025
- RNZ News
A reservoir of gold lies hidden in Earth's core. Scientists say it's leaking
By Jacopo Prisco , CNN Gold and other precious metals deep beneath the Earth eventually make their way up to the surface during the formation of volcanic islands, a study suggests. Photo: 123rf Gold and other precious metals are leaking from Earth's core into the layers above, eventually making their way up to the surface during the formation of volcanic islands like Hawaii, a new study suggests. The theory results from a three-year analysis of Hawaii's basaltic rocks, which originally formed from plumes of magma, or molten rock, rising from the ocean floor. Clues in the form of heavy metals found in the volcanic rocks could confirm a suspicion long held by geologists - that Earth's molten core is not isolated but likely bleeds into the rocky mantle, the layer between the planet's thin crust and the core. "About 40 years ago, people first came up with the theory that maybe the core is losing some material into the mantle, but the signals we got so far were really ambiguous," said Nils Messling, a geochemist at the University of Göttingen in Germany and lead author of the report, published 21 May in the journal Nature . "Now, in my opinion, we have the first very strong evidence that some of the core is actually ending up in the mantle." Scientists already knew that most of the gold on the planet - more than 99.95 percent, according to Messling - lies hidden in the molten core, along with other heavy elements such as platinum. Basalt sampled from a drill core section from the Kilauea Iki lava lake, which erupted in 1959, is shown. The Hawaiian lava rock contains a small trace of Earth's core, the analysis found. Photo: Supplied / CNN / Nils Messling As meteorites bombarded one another in Earth's early history, a reservoir of these precious metals developed when the core formed about 4.5 billion years ago. But this study suggests that at least a tiny amount of that gold has escaped to the surface, raising the fascinating prospect that, if the leaking continues, more and more of this precious metal could travel from the centre of Earth to the crust in the future. "Our findings not only show that the Earth's core is not as isolated as previously assumed. We can now also prove that huge volumes of super-heated mantle material - several hundreds of quadrillion metric tonnes of rock - originate at the core-mantle boundary and rise to the Earth's surface to form ocean islands like Hawaii," said study coauthor Matthias Willbold, a professor at the University of Göttingen, in a statement. To find evidence of this core-mantle interaction, Messling and his coauthors obtained some samples of Hawaiian volcanic rocks from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. The research team extracts precious metals from samples of Hawaii's volcanic rock. Photo: Supplied / CNN / Nils Messling "Some were taken by a submarine, from a deep sea volcano, but [otherwise] it's basically just very ordinary-looking basaltic rock, very unassuming, that you would find anywhere on Hawaii," he said. "We started with half a kilogram of rock, we crushed it into a powder, and then we melted it in the oven with some different chemicals, to end up with a sample in liquid form." From that sample, the team extracted all the elements in the platinum group , which includes platinum itself as well as the lesser-known rhodium, palladium, iridium, osmium and ruthenium. The scientists then focused on ruthenium, a silver-grey metal about as rare in Earth's crust as gold. "The mantle has almost no ruthenium in it," Messling said. "It's one of the rarest elements on Earth. But Earth is basically made of meteorites that crashed together, and meteorites [contain] ruthenium, which went into the core when the core formed. So the mantle has next to no ruthenium, and the core has all of the ruthenium. The same with gold and platinum." Earth's core has two layers. A hot, solid metal sphere of iron and nickel is roughly 70 percent the size of the moon, with a radius of about 1221km. A liquid metal outer core is about 2253km thick and extends to about 2897km below the surface, or right up to the mantle. Photo: 123rf In contrast, the mantle, which lies between the planet's outer crust and the molten core, is 2897km of mostly solid rock. To determine whether the extracted ruthenium was originally from the core and not the mantle, the team looked at a specific isotope, or type, of ruthenium that was likely more abundant in Earth's early building materials during the time the core formed billions of years ago. "The vast majority of gold and other precious metals like platinum were likely delivered by massive meteorite impacts during the final stages of Earth's formation - a process known as late accretion," said Pedro Waterton, an assistant professor of geochemistry at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark who was not involved in the study. The presence of the ruthenium isotope in the basalt samples indicates that at least some of the rock was formed from material coming from the molten metallic core. That's because there is consensus, Messling said, that the material that coalesced during the early stages of Earth's formation does not exist in the meteorite record anymore. He added that the isotope signature in rocks from hotspot volcanoes like the ones in Hawaii is entirely different from any other known rock or meteorite. In other words, the ruthenium isotope Messling found was locked away in the core billions of years ago, so detecting the isotope in volcanic rocks today suggests it comes from the core. "It's quite a novel and difficult method," Messling said. "We managed to measure ruthenium in rocks that have next to no ruthenium in them. In half a kilo of rock, it was less than milligrams - a needle in a planet-sized haystack! That's quite exciting - for a geochemist, at least. It was a long but very exciting process." So what's the connection with gold? It's chemically similar to ruthenium, Messling said, so if the core is leaking ruthenium, it is also leaking gold in similar quantities. This would be a "minuscule" amount, however. And even if scientists wanted to extract gold directly from the source, the core-mantle boundary, that's much farther down than current technology could drill. In fact, it's about 236 times deeper than the deepest bore ever drilled - the Kola Superdeep Borehole in Russia, which reaches a depth of 12.3km. The ruthenium isotope signature in rocks from hotspot volcanoes like the ones in Hawaii is entirely different from any other rock or meteorite on record, according to lead study author Nils Messling. geochemist at the University of Göttingen. Photo: Supplied / CNN / Nils Messling Proof that the core isn't isolated is particularly thrilling because the core and the mantle shouldn't interact at all, Messling said. "Their density is too different, like oil and water, so technically they shouldn't mix. And we still don't have a good mechanism to explain why they do. We don't really know much about the core at all," he said. The Hawaiian rock samples suggest that the leaking process takes between 500 million and 1 billion years to complete, Messling said. "It's something that has occurred a while ago, and we suspect that it probably has been going on forever, and it's probably still occurring now," he explained. According to Messling, if the leaking of precious metals is an ongoing process, it could be that at least some of the gold humans have mined may have come from the core even if the quantity of core material in a single rock is negligible and that the world's supply of gold seems to be replenishing. "It's a very interesting idea that, although this process is tiny and has zero effect if you look at just one island, if you scale it up to 4.5 billion years it could be that it changes the composition of the Earth," he said. Researchers who were not involved in the study expressed positive views on the findings. "We know that the Earth was built from different generations of meteoritic material that were added progressively to the growing planet, and that precious metals from the earliest generations of meteorite material became concentrated into our planet's core while metals from meteorites added in the final stages of the Earth's growth became stranded in our planet's mantle," said Helen Williams, a professor of geochemistry and planetary science at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. The study, she added, confirms that the mantle plumes - rising jets of molten rock coming from the core-mantle boundary that create hot spots like Hawaii - do indeed contain material somehow derived from Earth's metallic core, said Williams, adding that the result was "exciting." Jesse Reimink, an associate professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, agrees. "This is a very old debate, and new data over the past 10 or so years has reinvigorated the possibility that the core was chemically 'leaking' into the mantle over time," he said. "This study really does seem to nail the conclusion - the core does contribute some material to the mantle." The latest research also strengthens the case made in previous work that some mantle plumes incorporate material from Earth's core, said the University of Copenhagen's Waterton. Does that also mean some of the gold in Earth's crust is originally from the core? "Yes, but probably only a very small amount," he said. - CNN
