Mangatoatoa Marae Nursery Expansion and Development

PŪNIU RIVER CARE NURSERY EST. 2015

With organisational growth, comes the need for expansions. Increasing plant capacity within our nursery every year has been a huge goal from the beginning, starting in 2015 where 4,000 trees were produced at the nursery.  The following year, the number of plants produced increased to 40,000 which were all planted in 2017 in a very wet but successful season. As the number of trees being produced is on a continuous steadily increase, the need for the nursery expansion has been a high priority. Thanks to Momentum Waikato who have funded the bulk of this project, we have been able to expand the nursery to facilitate 200,000 trees for planting in 2018. Which, thanks to numerous projects within the catchment, already have homes along the Pūniu!

DEVELOPING INFRASTRUCTURE

Apart of our expansion included a renovation of an old building which resided on the land that was leased for the nursery behind Mangatoatoa Marae. Re-purposing this building was important to us not only on an economical level but also cultural. The story behind this was to successfully restore and re-purpose a building that still held cultural significance and fond memories to local people. The development of the build turned a brick structure into a functional propagating shed. Thanks to Garlin and the team at Lyon Street Holdings, who took on the build and helped us to create a space where we could effectively increase production value for our trees.

Alongside our new re-purposed propagating building sits two large shipping storage containers and a large shelter, which were kindly donated by Waikato-Tainui. In previous years, propagating duties were carried out in an open area where shelter wasn’t always available and would become difficult to operate in unpredictable weather conditions. However, drive and determination from the staff enabled them to “make the most of it”.

Our deeply passionate team understand and appreciate the constraints that come with the initial stages of a growing organisation like Pūniu River Care and are committed to its future. Construction of the shelter included help from our Whanau that volunteered their valued time and skills.

NURSERY HARD STAND EXTENSION

Our new plant capacity prompted an extension for our hard stand areas, enabling us to take the number from 40,000 to 200,000 native trees for 2018. Thanks to our on-going valued volunteer, Uncle Dan, who jumped on the digger to flatten the new area and constructed the trench for irrigation to be laid. Uncle Dan is a cherished uncle of ours who, as well as offering his time and skills is our go-to man in relation to any developments concerning the Marae and our nursery. The irrigation lines were then laid for the 43m by 23m space which is located near the driveway of the Marae, adding to the aesthetics and layout of the beautiful surroundings.  

NURSERY DEVELOPMENT STAGE 1 (2018)

Nursery production and development has increased immensely under the guidance and support of Peter Fraser, Managing Director at Growing Spectrum, Kihikihi. Peter has become an invaluable adviser to the organisation with his involvement helping in nursery production, developing specifications for plants and development of the nursery and hygiene standards. With his industry knowledge, our organisation will look to set goals for continual quality improvement in all areas of both the growing systems and production methods. Our newest staff member, Travis Kruijer has taken the lead on implementing the development goals for our nursery.  He has been involved with Pūniu River Care from early days, often helping when needed and shares the passion of the organisation and his Marae.  He has also worked at Growing Spectrum with Peter and has the experience and knowledge that has enabled Pūniu River Care to effectively grow and develop the nursery for our first expansion.

NURSERY DEVELOPMENT STAGE 2 (2019)

Further development started in 2019 to accomodate the growth of our organisation and to increase the number of plants being produced annually. Our Nursery now has new space with fully irrigated hard stands which has increased our ability to take 700,000 plants per year.

NURSERY DEVELOPMENT STAGE 3 (2020)

With the introduction of PRC’s new machinery team mate; Optimus Prime, the process of propagation has sped up! Optimus Prime has joined the fight to help us pump out the numbers needed in order to replenish the awa and enhance the taonga within the Pūniu Catchment.

The new potting machine, named after the leader of the AutoBots, is helping us to expand our nursery from 700,000 native plants a year to around 1.5 million!

NURSERY DEVELOPMENT STAGE 4 (2021)

A new tunnel house has been built to accommodate the increase of plants with a pretty successful strike rate of the seeds germinated thanks to the help of our Redpath tunnel house and the upmost attention of monitoring plant and soil health from the nursery crew. The tunnel house was put together by our team to accomodate the mass of baby seedlings and while it’s been a good learning curb, it’s also built some positive character among the crew!

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