Kyabram orchardists Anthony and Alex Rullo see embracing innovative water saving technology as the key to their future after establishing a five-hectare cherry orchard on a property just outside of Kyabram in July 2022.
The family business, The Happy Orchard, which includes children Xeven, Vlad and Lazar and Alex’s mum Jovanka, are the first cherry orchard in the country to implement a combination of new irrigation technology and regenerative farming practices for improved water management and drought mitigation.
They are confident this will cut water use by up to 75 per cent.
The family has started with a 1000-tree trial plot to pioneer the technology based on an underground networked Hydrorock irrigation system recently trialled in the UAE.
The Hydrorock water retention block is made up of spun stone wool and is buried underground to store water and deliver an optimum and constant supply of water to the tree.
The addition of soil moisture probes and a Smart Farm Sensing remote sensing platform will monitor moisture levels in the blocks and tell the Rullos when it is time to irrigate.
The second part of the system includes application of a controlled release bio-mineral fertiliser based on natural mineral ores placed underneath the root stock and hydroseeding ground cover onto the soil’s surface.
The beneficial microbiology eats the fertiliser and passes it onto the plant, promoting plant growth while reducing the need for synthetic water-soluble fertilisers.
The bio-mineral technology is the brainchild of consultant soil microbiologist and carbon farming specialist Paul Storer from Field Capacity Pty Ltd.
“This regenerative agriculture approach using bio-mineral fertilisers can be used across any form of agriculture and has already been successful growing broad acres crops including cereals and canola, in pastures, in horticulture, in vineyards and in stone fruit orchards — this is the first time we are using it for cherries, but we are not expecting any issues,” Paul said.
Paul said the combination of these unique environmentally sustainable innovations was designed to reduce water usage under a drying climatic scenario and had been successfully used in Dubai.
“The beauty of this system is it is water efficient and the plants are more resilient and nourished by beneficial microbes who move the nutrients into the plants.
For the Rullos, the technology couldn’t have come at a better time and they are already embracing the results from the use of microbiology.
“The trees are already thriving, and in fact, they are growing so well they will probably hit our target height of two metres earlier than we thought,” Anthony said.
“We are actually looking into ways of slowing the system down or our trees will be enormous.”
The cherry trees are an early fruiting, self-pollinating variety known for their excellent eating quality.
By the third year the family is hoping to get between 5kg to 10kg of fruit per tree and at maturity around 20kg to 25kg of fruit.
The harvesting season is short and will be over and done with in three days.
Despite never growing cherry trees before, Anthony has embraced the challenge.
“I did work on a cherry farm where I found growing cherries interesting and fascinating and it has been a really rewarding venture so far.”
The family is looking to grow cherries without chemicals and conventional fertiliser to ensure it produces a high quality, nutrient rich product because the market is moving toward healthy and sustainable products.
The Happy Orchard also grows 2ha of vegetables including snow peas, chillies, beans and watermelon.
They also have plans of increasing their cherry acreage in the future.