Growers and production staff are invited to attend a series of pest and disease webinars run by the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (QDAF).
These online events aim to enhance the Australian nursery industry’s biosecurity measures by showcasing new pest and disease contingency plans and relaying new and updated information to growers.
QDAF pathologists will run a total of four webinars, two of which are in lieu of the annual face-to-face disease workshops and will look through the lens of Integrated Crop Management (ICM).
They will cover a range of topics on preventing diseases in nurseries, alternatives to neonic pesticides and a practical way to mitigate pest pressure associated with increasing climate variability.
Details for these events are as follows:
WEBINAR 1: Preventing disease in production nurseries using ICM
Attendees can expect to be guided through the following key topics:
- What is ICM and how is it different from IPM?
- How to prevent diseases entering the nursery.
- How to modify crop production to reduce disease pressure.
- Managing pathogens that can be present in plants that appear healthy.
Date: Wednesday 22 July 2020
Time: 10am – 11am AEST
WEBINAR 2: How to use fungicides sustainably in production nurseries
This webinar will look at the following topics:
- How fungicides kill fungal pathogens.
- How fungicides protect plants from fungal pathogens.
- Fungicide resistance and resistance management.
- Biological control of pathogens for production nurseries.
- Recommendations for using fungicides in production nurseries.
Date: Wednesday, 5 August 2020
Time: 10am – 11am AEST
Additional upcoming webinars that form part of the annual NY15002 calendar of events will present alternatives to neonicotinoid insecticides, with the second looking at a practical approach to pest management in the face of climate variability.
WEBINAR 3: Effective alternatives to neonicotinoid insecticides for Australian production nurseries
Topics covered will include:
- The impact of broad-spectrum insecticides on non-target beneficial populations.
- Alternative pesticides that can be used against a range of common pests that appear on neonicotinoid labels – split into those that are broad-spectrum and those that are relatively soft on pollinators, predators and parasites.
- Methods to manage pest populations that do not require the use of pesticides.
Date: Wednesday, 26 August 2020
Time: 10am – 11am AEST
WEBINAR 4: The effect of climate change on pest populations; a practical approach to pest management for production nurseries in the face of climate variability
Attendees will be presented with the following:
- What is climate variability? (please note that the causes of climate change will only be briefly discussed broadly)
- How pest populations can change with climate.
- Practical methods that all production nursery managers can employ to mitigate the risk of sudden and unexpected pest populations.
Date: Wednesday, 16 September 2020
Time: 10am – 11am AEST
The ‘Building the resilience and on-farm biosecurity capacity of the Australian production nursery industry’ (NY15002) project is funded by Hort Innovation using the nursery industry levy and funds from the Australian Government.
Source: Your Levy at Work