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We are planning a very long term programme of planting
canopy trees that attract our native wood pigeon back into Hamilton
Gullies. Some say there is food that
they eat already in Hamilton but this is only bread and butter for them. We
want to offer them ice cream and jelly. Their ice cream and jelly is the fruit
of nikau, tawa, miro and pigeon wood. We will be targeting the whole 30 hectare
Mangaiti gully system. Area size matters when planning something like this.
These trees do have some challenges though. Nikau is easy
to grow from seed but is very slow growing. Tawa and pigeon wood are easy to
grow from seed but frost tender when young so shelter is necessary. Miro is
very hard to grow from seed but is frost hard and grows at a reasonable rate
for a canopy tree. For miro collecting seedlings from under a tree where a
pigeon roosts is the best bet. We have 40 plants on hand at varying sizes up to
about a metre.
All four tree varieties will not tolerate wet feet so will have to
be planted on the lower gully slopes.
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