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Pre-Season Berry Field Day
Fruit Growers Tasmania | Tuesday, 13 September 2022, 12.00pm
Fruit Growers Tasmania and Berries Australia held a pre-season berry field day at Berried In Tas at Carrick on Friday 2 September.
Mark Salter welcomed around 40 attendees to the field day and outlined some of the recent activities undertaken by Fruit Growers Tasmania, including the current situation with the Varroa mite outbreak in New South Wales, activities in coir and plastic recycling and ongoing access to bumble bees.
Pest and disease management was the theme for the day, with presentations including pest and disease control in berries, crop protection chemicals, IPM and pollination.
Stuart Doyle gave an interesting presentation on the major diseases in berries, including grey mould/ botrytis and powdery mildew. He outlined how to manage the environment, particularly in tunnels, to avoid these diseases. Stuart also outlined various spray programs and chemicals for disease control, emphasising rotating and not overusing chemical groups to avoid resistant issues.
Brenden Green from Nufarm, who was the major sponsor for this event, then gave a presentation on the latest chemicals for berries, such as Intervene, a group 9 fungicide registered for grey mould and powdery mildew in strawberries and rubus with the benefit of a nil withholding period and is IPM compatible. Brenden also covered some of the other products Nufarm have for berries, also giving great emphasis on not overusing chemicals, particularly within the same chemical group.
Stephen Quarrell from TIA gave an informative talk on some of the work TIA are carrying out, looking at the benefits of having a diverse group of flowering plants in and around berry production sites to help provide a better environment for pollinators and beneficial insects.
Jonathan Finch from TIA continued the pollination theme with an interesting talk on alternative pollinators, including Hover flies, Blow flies, and many Native bee species.
Michele Buntain from TIA presented a very enlightening and entertaining PowerPoint presentation on identifying some of the good and bad insects that appear in berries. The audience was asked to identify each of the bugs and prizes were handed out for correct answers; it was interesting to note a few of the insects were not correctly identified. All in all, a very entertaining presentation. Michele also provided a great display of the bad bugs, which could be viewed through a microscope for closer inspection and identification after the presentations.
The group then moved outside to listen to Fraser Harris from Bugs for Bugs give a presentation on IPM and view the various beneficial insects they supply to growers. Fraser also talked about timing and how to establish beneficials in your crop.
Feedback from all in attendance suggested the day was a great success.
Finally, many thanks to Nufarm for sponsoring the event.
