Avocado tree flowers

I am learning so much!

This is how small the flowers of an avo tree is: 

So just smaller than a bee.







And inside the flower is the ovary and inside the ovary is the ovule (or the egg). 

Did you know that this ovule becomes the hard pip inside an avo and that the ovary becomes the avo flesh that we eat?

And did you know that here in the Bay of Plenty it takes the avocado 12-15 months to grow big enough for us to eat? 

I am busy cutting through one side of the ovary to expose the ovule. I do this very carefully with a scalpel so that I do not harm the ovule. I do this all under the microscope because the ovule is the size as this full stop. How cool is that! I need very steady hands to do this and lots of patience. 

Watch this short video by Daleys Fruit Tree Nursery in Australia on how the flowers open and close for pollination:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aahzspd1Yzk  

A Zombie Movie - Especially Scary For Bees

This 5 minute video is a great watch. I really do feel for the bees. Just as well we do not have these flies in New Zealand but we do have the Varroa mite.

 

This little parasite catches a ride on the bee, because it wants get right into the beehive. Here they jump off and start eating the baby bees that are still in the pupae stage. The bees really suffer, don't they?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prtOM9LOz7U  

In the Kiwifruit Orchard

Orchards are busy places. People have to prune the vines, get rid of bugs who eat the leaves and rabbits who love to dig holes under the roots of the trees.

Then there are very high wind breaking hedges around that need trimming. These hedges are very important to stop the fruit from having fun in the wind and swinging too much so that they break off or rub against their kiwifruit friends which make marks on them so they do not look so lovely any more.

Here a specially designed machine has to trim the hedges because the giants are still sleeping and nobody can wake them to do this job. 

Have You Heard of the Green Headed Leafroller? 

Well, these little caterpillars really are a menace - especially for those orchardists who are trying to sell avocados. 

This is what it looks like.

And if you know the life cycle of caterpillars, you will know what they change into next. And look what they do to the leaves then.

I have been helping to place the leafroller moths in some avo orchards. We had to tether the moths to a staple on a piece of paper. The moth could not go anywhere. These moths were all females. 

Not long after the female moths emerge from their cocoons they lay eggs. So we place the moths in the trees to attract the male moths that may be there already. The females give off pheromones which is a lovely smell to the male moths.

When we collect the plastic containers with the moths again, we can put the eggs under a microscope and see whether the eggs have been fertilised and then we will know whether there were any male moths in the orchard.

So how are the moths tied up? First I had to catch them and put them in a small plastic container with a lid. Then I had to put them to sleep so that they would not fly away by giving them CO2. This is the gas we breath out. 

Catching the tiny moths.

Giving them 20 seconds of gas. If they are gassed for too long, they die and not gassed enough, they wake up while someone is trying to tie a cotton strand to a wing.

Equipment needed to do the job. Scientists are very inventive and use everyday things to do their experiments.

 Tying a strand of cotton to the moth's wing.

Tethered moths waiting to be stuck inside plastic triangular prisms and hung on branches. 

Packing containers in the 4x4 utes to take to the orchards. 

A Visit to Tauranga's Marine Research Centre

I was very happy to visit the Marine and Coastal Research Centre at Sulphur Point. Here scientists study the critters and plants that live in our ocean and harbour. They also study the impact the Rena wreck has on these environments.

The sea horses were all caught in the Tauranga harbour and many of them are pregnant. And guess what? The daddies are pregnant! Weird! But they have the round tummies.

And the sea anemones are so beautiful. Can you see how it looks as if they blow up their tentacles? These are bubble-tip anemones and they are actually animals that look like plants! And can you believe that they are related to jellyfish? 

What do they eat?  They wait for small fish and other prey to swim close enough to get caught in their stinging tentacles. They paralyse the fish and then sweep it to their mouths.

Sea anemones don’t always stay in one place, though. They can slide slowly along the ocean floor or swim by moving their tentacles. 

Exploring kiwifruit

I have learned that there is so much more to kiwifruit than just eating them.

Finding out how fast they grow and when they grow the fastest is very important too. How much sugar they have in them and when the plant adds the sugar to the fruit, is important too.

Did you know that we as people can manipulate the plant to put more sugar into the fruit? This sugar is good for you as it is fructose and glucose sugar.

People also get together to discuss how healthy the plants are, how much fruit is on the plant, whether they drop their fruit before being ready for picking, whether they have enough leaves to cover and feed the plants, etc. Did you know that each fruit needs at least 5 leaves to feed it?


We have to weigh the fruit in the orchard as well as in the laboratory. We have to be very accurate and label everything very accurately too. Scientists cannot make mistakes with their data.