Young Grower national final this week!

The Young Grower of the Year national final is on this week. Both the competition day on Wednesday 20 October and gala dinner on Thursday 21 October will be held at the Lower Hutt Events Centre.

All are welcome to attend the competition day, which runs from 9.30am to 2.00pm. Spectators are required to scan in, wear a mask and observe social distancing measures.

The finalists will navigate their way through seven modules:

• Using Excel to Help Compliance, sponsored by Radfords

• Innovation, sponsored by South Pacific Seeds

• Nutrition and Fertigation, sponsored by Horticentre

• Tetris Packaging Challenge, sponsored by Jenkins Freshpac

• Pests & Diseases, sponsored by Fruitfed

• Moving Safely, sponsored by WorkSafe

• Trouble Shooting Common Equipment, sponsored by Farmlands

Heather Feetham, who won the 2021 Pukekohe Young Grower competition, will not be able to compete in person due to Auckland being at Alert Level 3. Heather will be participating in the speech competition and innovation challenge via Zoom.

The six competing finalists are: Jonathan Bates from Nelson, Jordan Carrol from Central Otago, Melissa van den Heuvel from Bay of Plenty (won in 2020 but the rest of the competition could not go ahead due to lockdown), Regan Judd from Hawkes Bay, Jamie McIntyre from Gisborne and Bryce Morrison from Bay of Plenty (2021).

Gala dinner

Due to continued social distancing requirements, we need to restrict numbers at the gala dinner on the evening of Thursday 21 October. As a result, we have stopped ticket sales and have been in touch with ticket holders about numbers.

If you have not been contacted, your tickets remain, however, if you can no longer attend, please let Amy Miller know immediately. If you have any questions, please also contact Amy.