Tuesday, 14 June 2022

Project Update

• Tospoviruses, a group of thrips-transmitted viruses, have the potential to greatly harm plant production in Australia
• A levy-funded project is currently exploring ways that growers could identify infestation from these pathogens early, enhancing biosecurity
• The project has found that spider lilies can be used to warn of tospovirus infection and growers should consider using them as sentinel plants

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Grey mould has a distinctive appearance that can potentially be identified with a microscope or even a good hand lens. It can grow on dead and decaying tissue and may cause a variety of symptoms including leaf and flower blights, spots, blotches, wilts, cankers, rots, damping off and storage diseases.

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Broad mite is a pest of a wide range of plant species that can cause severe damage to growing tips and expanding leaves. Plants can become grossly deformed rapidly causing them to become unsalable. Broad mites are extraordinarily small and can not be seen without significant magnification; hand lenses may not be sufficient to detect broad mites. As such, the first indication that the mites are infesting a crop can be the observation of unusual growth.

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The levy funded ‘Resourcing, supporting, and assessing biosecurity in nursery production’ (NY20000) project has just released five new factsheets.

The factsheets aim to provide information to support production nurseries reduce the risk of infestations and crop losses associated with pests and diseases, mitigating financial and productivity losses.

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