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Macadamias thrive in the following conditions:

• High rainfall
• Well drained soil
• Warm and frost free climate
• Some wind shelter

Macadamia trees are extremely tough - in fact they're quite hard to kill. They produce economic quantities of fruit after 8 years, although fruit will be borne in small quantities as early as two years. Trees live for 70 years or more, reaching a height of 20 metres. At MacNut Farms we have the ingredients for a successful orchard, although a little more warm weather wouldn’t go astray.

The growing year at South Head is broken into the following phases:

The trees flower during October with long white and pink racemes making this the best time of year to visit the orchard. At this time of the year the orchard is home to beehives to assist in pollination and ceases picking operations to minimise disturbance to the flowers. The Beaumont hybrid that dominates at MacNut Farms has been planted with other varieties to improve its poor self-pollination.

Over the warm summer months the picking is finalised and the trees are sprayed with liquid fertilisers and veggie bug control agents. At the same time the prolific growth of weeds is controlled by sheep and maintenance around the trees. Further fertilising with mulch from the husks, chicken litter and some chemical fertilisers is completed at this critical stage of growth as the new nuts set and grow on the trees. Macadamia trees are biennial, alternating heavy and light cropping years.

At the start of June the picking season begins. Picking in NZ is done by hand as the Beaumont hybrid does not drop it’s nuts.  In Australia mechanical harvesting from the ground is the norm. The racemes of nuts are clipped from the trees and are collected in nets placed on the ground.

From 1997 to 1999 MacNut Farm production has increased from 20 tons to over 40 tons of nut in shell.