Calls are underway for a first of its kind survey of Australian nurseries, with growers being encouraged to participate to help benchmark the performance of nursery businesses and effectively position the industry for the future.

The survey is being managed by independent research agency, Down to Earth Research, in partnership with ACIL Allen Consulting, Nursery & Garden Industry Australia (NGIA) and Hort Innovation.

Strategic oversight of the project is provided by a steering committee made up of key project partners and nursery industry levy payers.

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Eighteen nursery representatives are on a journey to gain a deeper understanding of the mind and develop skills to better manage their teams, as part of the Green Industry Growing Leaders Program.

Participant Andrew CreightonParticipant Andrew Creighton, Tree Supervisor for Alpine Nurseries NSW says he has seen immediate benefits within the workplace, with the program bringing a new level of understanding to his role as manager.

Mr Creighton has been working at Alpine Nurseries for the past nine years and manages a team of eight people to provide 45litre to 400litres trees and shrubs to the wholesale and commercial market. More

Over the next five weeks, Your Levy @ Work will be deciphering the detail of the SIP and explaining what the top priorities of the plan mean for your business and, more broadly, the nursery industry.

How will the nursery industry increase sales of green life products by four per cent per annum over the next five years?

That’s one of five key areas addressed in the recently released 2017-21 Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) for the nursery industry, which seeks to ensure a stronger, more sustainable future for growers. More

Month: July

Pest of the month: Brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) (Halyomorpha halys)

Category name: Bugs

Importance: Native to China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Accidentally introduced into the USA in the mid-1990s, only to be established as a long term orchard pest 10 years later. Not currently present in Australia, but has been intercepted at the border by quarantine service agencies.

If BMSB was to become established in Australia, it would pose a significant threat to agricultural crops, plantation and native forests, and amenity plant species. BMSB feed on a wide range of fruit crops, vegetables, legumes and ornamental species. More

Overview

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New data demonstrates that for every $1 invested in pest prevention, $100 is returned to the community.*

That’s the key take-home from NGIA’s National Biosecurity Manager John McDonald, who spoke about ‘Reducing the biosecurity risk in plant production’ at this year’s Hort Connections conference in Adelaide.

The presentation focussed on three key areas:

• The national exposure – off-farm and on-farm factors that are placing pressure on horticultural supply chains
• Prevention – as a means of providing the greatest return to industry
• BioSecure HACCP – an on-farm biosecurity program for production nurseries. More

The recent Virus Identification and Management for Production Nurseries webinar is now available online, to give growers greater assurance about identifying and managing viruses.

Hosted by Dr Andrew Manners and John Duff from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, the content covers how viruses spread in production nurseries, common virus and virus-like symptoms, vectors, identification methodologies and management options available to growers.

Dr Manners believes the key is to keep an open mind and check factors that cause virus-like symptoms; don’t assume a virus is present. Virus-like symptoms can be caused by many factors including mites (that may only be visible with a microscope), inappropriate growing media and water conditions, environmental conditions, nutritional regime and phytotoxicity (particularly herbicides that reside in the growing area for long periods). More