Benefits:
- Mail Order Fruit Trees within Australia ( Only excludes Tas and NT)
- Daleys Fruit Tree Nursery have been in business for over 30 years.
- Can be used instore
- Does not need to be used in one purchase.
- Sent By Email Instantly so there is no waiting on the mail man.
- Can be printed out or forwarded onto your recipient.
Terms:
- Delievery by Email Only or you can pay full price and have us print it out and send the Fruit Tree Gift Voucher to you:
- Must be used 1 Year from purchase date. ( We do allow reasonable leniency )
- They are treated like Cash and if lost they are lost for good.
Add Your Comment (0) Published: Correy ,Tuesday, December 13, 2011
For personal use you will need about 4 bushes for the average family of tea drinkers. The bushes need to be planted in a well-drained area. Most soil types will do though they prefer slightly acidic soil. They will tolerate full sun of partial shade, not full shade. Tea likes plenty of water, but will not tolerate standing in water. Fertilize with a hight nitrogen fertiliser, in October and February.
Prune your bushes so that they spread out to form a flattop hedge. Prune in February for the first 3 years then every year in July if in a no frost area, or when the danger of frost has passed if you are in a frost prone area. Prune to about 200mm the first year, 300mm in the second year, 400mm in the third year, when you should be able to get your first crop. Pluck the first two or three leaves and the bud every time they are 5-8cm above the pruning mark at first then use the plucking mark as a guide. You should let your bushes gain height during the plucking season so that they reach a comfortable working height by the end of the season, around early July in the Northern New South Wales and South East Queensland area.
When your bushes reach maturity, in 5-6 years prune out the ‘crows feet’ every year. Then every 5 years give them a deep prune down to 30-40 cm from the ground. Make clean cuts with your pruning.
PLUCKING
You should be able to pluck your 2-3 leaves and bud by about October and then every 2-3 weeks decreasing to about every week in December – January – February – March – April, then extending to 2-3 weeks by June – July. When plucking pull off and discard any old dark green leaf that protrude above your plucking table. You only need the fresh light green new growth to make tea.
PROCESSING
Having plucked your 2-3 leaves and bud, you are now ready to make tea. When your bushes are mature you should get about 1 kilo or more from your four bushes. Thinly spread your leaf out on a withering table which you can make by stretching a piece of Hessian or such over a frame about 1m square or anything similar just so that air can circulate all around the individual leaves. You will need to leave this to wither for about 17 hours in the shade or indoors.
Your tea is withered when you squeeze a hand full and it stays in a ball. Though, this physical wither is not as important as the chemical wither, which must have about 17 hours to take place. Next, feed your tea through a meat mincer, a food processor is not satisfactory for this. Use a fine screen in the end of your mincer, and feed the tea through twice. The tea leaves need to be broken up under pressure in order to rupture the leaf cells. That is why a mincer is best. Alternatively you could chop it with a knife on a chopping board. Then roll it with a heavy wooden roller.
From here spread your tea on a tray up to 25mm thick and leave for about an hour, when it should be turned and left for another hour. This process is called fermentation. After fermentation you are ready for drying. This is the hardest part for the home tea maker to do.
I use an old fan heater mounted so that the hot air comes out upwards. You must be sure not to cover the air intake when you make a mounting frame, over the outlet on the fan heater and about 5 cm away, on the same frame I have a piece of fine .75mm stainless steel mesh which I bought from an engineering supply store. Place your tea on the mesh when it is hot, turning the tea occasionally until it is very dry 3% moisture. Feel some bought tea to get an idea of what to aim for. It should take about 20 minutes to dry 200 grams of tea, which is what you will end up with from 1 kg of green leaf. If you dry it too quickly you will form a crust on the leaf known as case hardening, which will not allow a proper infusion to take place and thus have a very weak brew. If you are too slow with your drying you will stew your tea and it will taste just like that, stewed.
Whatever system you use for drying, you must remove the moisture from the tea with air or you will cook it not dry it.
Store your tea after cooling in airtight containers, if glass store away from light.
GOOD LUCK
The fruit is high in taste, vitamins and iron also they fetch a high price in fruit shops but are low in calories. Choose from thousands of plants in our Online Fruit Tree Shop then enter the code SpringFree to get one free Tamarillo Tree Red.
This very attractive yellow fruit has a flavour like caramel cream. It is definitely a delicacy to those who grow it. It is often very difficult to buy it due to it going off quickly and oxidizing quickly.
Add Your Comment (1) Published: Correy ,Thursday, August 11, 2011
We have just updated our Online Fruit Tree Shop with new categories. We use to have categories like Asian Fruits, South American Fruits but thought it was time to update these new categories more along the lines of their uses rather then which country they originated from.
We hope you enjoy this new way of finding which fruit trees will suit you. Also you can use our Choosing Fruit Trees program to narrow down your search even more.
The staff of Daleys Nursery have visited Tropical Fruit World and we highly recommend it. Here are some of the highlights from the fruit tasting session. We hope you enjoy them and don't forget to visit them for yourself.
Conifers come in all different shapes and sizes and are great for landscaping. One use is wind protection. Fruit trees will often go much better if you set up a wind protection with conifers. Another is just to pick one with a shape and colour that you like to make your backyard look great.
You can get a well established conifer in a 140mm pot from Daleys and choose from over 19 different Types of Conifers.
Buy 2 or More Conifers and get 10% Off with the code Conifer10off you don't have to get 2 of the same variety to get this offer you can choose from any of our 19 different varieties.
Paul Daley was born at Daley's Nursery, he has this nursery in his blood, his early working days were spent here in the poly houses and in the grafting shed as a helper for his Dad. As a young teenager Paul worked his weekends and holidays here and spent his free time exploring the surrounding rainforests, when he left school we had to say farwell as we waved him off to new and exciting adventures.
In the last couple of years Paul has travelled through Sumatra and Borneo looking at the deforestation of these islands and the threat to the Orangutans that call these forests home, what Paul discovered on his travels has motivated him into action to secure a future for these incredible threatened species and the forests that are their lifeblood. Paul entered the DeforestAction: Project Borneo 3D contest to have a chance to spend 100 days in Borneo and to be part of a 3D Action Movie, help save endangered rainforest and Orangutans, create awareness about deforestation, and provide a sustainable livelihood for the local community. We would like to help Paul achieve his fundraising goals and are asking for your help and support. If you make a donation of $15 or more to help Paul we will give you a $15 voucher to spend at Daley's Fruit Tree Nursery. All you have to do is make a donation on Pauls Action Hub and than send us an email to say you have made a donation, we will reply to you with a $15 voucher that you may spend at your leisure. You will find our email details on the contact page http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/contact.html
Here is the link to Pauls site to make a donation.
If you would like to read more about Pauls travels through the wet tropics of Australia and though the Indonesian and Bornean rainforests here is the link to his blog which demonstrates his passion for the environment and his skills as a wildlife and environmental photographer.
Add Your Comment (0)
Add Your Comment (0)
