NSW IPDM Workshops

Don’t miss them! A wealth of information and not to be missed!

The first of several integrated pest and disease management (IPDM) workshops organized by consultancy firm RMCG was held on May 16 at Brimstone Waratah Farm near Sydney. The aim of the workshops is to support growers interested in maintaining and managing healthy flower crops while minimizing negative impacts on the environment. 

The workshops are part of a larger project funded by AgriFutures Australia, with support from the Australian and NSW Governments, aimed at reducing chemical and plastic waste in the NSW cut flower industry. The project will also be delivering: 

* Subsidized ChemCert training and refresher courses 

* Support for identifying and dealing with pests and diseases, and plastic waste. 

* Factsheets on pest and disease management  

* Webinars on plastic and chemical waste

The inaugural workshop featured three specialists with expertise in in crop entomology, plant pathology, and chemical usage, Dr. Robert Spooner-Hart, Dr. Len Tesoriero, and Tony Bundock. 

PESTS

Robert outlined the principles and practices of integrated pest and disease management in flower crops using the ‘plant health wheel’ to illustrate the 8 different factors that influence crop health and emphasizing that a pest problem is a broad issue involving all of these.  

IPDM is based on ecological principles, requiring correct identification of crop damage and the causal agents (i.e. diagnosis). Continuous monitoring of crop health and the weather is the key. It includes setting thresholds of pest or disease incidence and/or damage caused at which point management action is required. Crop monitoring also includes going back into the crop AFTER you have applied a treatment to determine if it worked.

Key strategies are:

Crop monitoring, ‘prevention is better than cure’, cultural management, biological control including fostering more beneficials in the crop by reducing use of broad-spectrum pesticides, and physical and mechanical methods to keep out problems

Robert recommended consulting the APVMA website for correct information about pesticides, their labels and minor use permits.

He recommended introducing IPDM as a staged process, starting with improving cultural and hygiene practices. Further along can be modifying the growing environment to encourage beneficial organisms and discouraging pests.

DISEASES

Plant diseases and their effective management were addressed by Len. He talked about disease suppression which can result from competition between plant pathogens and various microorganisms in the soil or growing media. While this can occur generally and naturally in ecosystems, there is also specific suppression which is direct biological control by specific microbes. Len gave examples of different ways microbial biocontrols can work and gave examples of common biocontrols available and their registration process, in addition to limitations to their efficacy.

Len addressed integrated disease management in flower crops running through photos of symptoms of common diseases.  Of interest were his insights into Phytophthora root rot and how to manage it.

USING PESTICIDES SAFELY

Tony Bundock drew on his extensive experience to outline safe use of pesticides in flower crops. He strongly recommended reading product labels and Safety Data Sheets – these can be found on the APVMA website. He also outlined the basic personal protective equipment growers should have on hand. 

He gave an excellent run down of the basics of using pesticides including keeping chemical spray records (you can download a template from the web and need to keep your records for 2 years). 

Other benefits of attending the workshop were:

* a chance to ask questions!

* a farm walk at the Brimstone Waratahs plantation to see and discuss pests and disease in the crop 

* a set of very useful factsheets on a range of pests and diseases and another covering pesticide application. 

* a sausage sizzle at the end which gave participants time to talk with each other and the guest speakers.

More such workshops are planned – tentatively

• 8th August at 10am in Knockrow

• 9th August at 10am in South Kempsey

Keep an eye on the WildFlowers Australia Events for details on future IPDM events.