April Pest of the Month: Xylella fastidiosa
Xylella fastidiosa is Australia’s number one national priority plant pest. It is a bacterial pathogen that can cause disease on many host plants, most notably Pierce’s disease on grapevine. It is known to infect hundreds of host plant species across nearly 100 families and is recognised as priority pests for a number of industries in Australia including production nurseries, cherries, citrus, tree nuts, summerfruit, viticulture and others. More
New biosecurity project building on success of NY15002
The ‘Building the resilience and on-farm biosecurity capacity of the Australian production nursery industry’ (NY15002) project concluded at the end of 2020.
Led by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF), this project worked to enhance biosecurity preparedness for Australia’s production nursery industry, by facilitating the development of online resources to assist growers in the management of common pests and diseases, and the delivery of face-to-face workshops and diagnostic capacity.
NEW PROJECT: Identifying fall armyworm parasitoids
First detected infesting Far North Queensland in February 2020 fall armyworm has now been found across several Australian states and territories including, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory, cementing itself as a non-eradicable pest.
Affecting the leaves, stems, and fruits of plants, the fall armyworm reduces production outputs and Australian production nurseries overall financial return. Since 2020, the rapid rise in numbers has signified a major threat to existing Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices adopted across the horticultural sector.
PROJECT UPDATE: Nursery Consumer Usage & Attitudes
Tuesday, 23 March 2021
The Nursery Strategic Investment Plan outlines a 4% per year growth ambition but this goal will only be achievable by truly understanding the customer attitudes and behaviour to allocate marketing resources effectively.
That’s where a new levy funded project ‘Nursery Consumer Usage & Attitudes’ (NY20002), comes in. More
NEW natural disaster checklists available for industry
Friday, 12 March 2021
Facing floods, bushfires, and prolonged drought in recent years, it’s evident that Australia’s nursery industry needs to be prepared and well equipped to readily respond and implement natural disaster risk mitigation plans.
The levy-funded project, ‘Nursery industry natural disaster risk mitigation and recovery plan’ (NY18008), provides production nurseries with support resources and a business impact analysis to improve management of natural disasters. More