Tēnā koutou,
I hope your winter season is progressing well. It has been a challenging time for us with ongoing issues with student attendance due to sickness. For year 2 and 3 we only teach each class once, and have very few opportunities to catch students up – that’s what our tutorials are most useful for.
Our first year class has continued to grow, and we have another cohort starting early September – if you have any students you would like to get started, get in touch with Clare. Next year quad bikes will be another vehicle option. Please give your students any opportunities to improve their chainsaw/fencing and tractor driving.
Second years have completed propagation, and have their weather assessments to work through. This subject takes a bit of learning, and your student may be after a bit more support to grasp the basics of reading a weather map.
Third years have started their bean PGR experiments, in fruit crop management. They will be reporting on this to you as a part of the assessment.
L5 post harvest classes have re-commenced, and L5 fruit production will be starting at the end of August with Labour Management.
If you have not received our monthly trainers email please inform cbuckner@eit.ac.nz .
Work continues on trying to unify a program of study for production horticulture as a part of a Te Pukenga working group. This is unlikely to affect our courses in 2023.
Best regards,
Clare Buckner – EIT