Australian Berry Journal - SPRING 2023 - Edition 16

EDITOR

Jane Richter TERES Communication 0431 700 258 jane@teres.com.au

CONTRIBUTORS

Jane Richter

Rachel Mackenzie

Anthony Poiner

Simon Dornauf

Andrew Bell

Richard McGruddy

Dr Angela Atkinson

Mark Salter

Helen Newman

Aileen Reid

Jen Rowling

Wendy Morris

Gaius Leong

Eliza Wilding

Sophie Parks

John Hay

Emily Remnant

Joel Mackay

Jessica Carter

Steve Burdette

Craig Shephard

Dr Robin Adair

Dr Rae Kwong

Dr Dylan McFarlane

Dr Scott Mattner

Geoff Kelly

Brendan Rodoni

Fiona Constable

Michelle Paynter

Joanna Gillespie

Ky Mathews

ADVERTISING

For all Advertising & Partnership Enquiries

Kylie Thompson 0 491 751 123 | admin@berries.net.au

All advertising and advertorial material is subject to review and approval prior to publication.

DESIGN

Sama Creative | samacreative.com.au

DISCLAIMER: Whilst every care has been taken in the preparation of this journal, the information contained is necessarily of a general nature and should not be relied upon as a substitute for specific advice. The advice and opinions in the articles published in Australian Berry Journal are essentially those of contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Berries Australia or the Editor. The advice is at the reader’s own risk, and no responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of the material presented. Inclusion of an advertisement in this publication does not necessarily imply endorsement of the product, company or service by Berries Australia or the Editor. Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited (Hort Innovation) makes no representations and expressly disclaims all warranties (to the extent permitted by law) about the accuracy, completeness, or currency of information in Australian Berry Journal. Reliance on any information provided by Hort Innovation is entirely at your own risk. Hort Innovation is not responsible for, and will not be liable for, any loss, damage, claim, expense, cost (including legal costs) or other liability arising in any way, including from any Hort Innovation or other person’s negligence or otherwise from your use or non-use of Australian Berry Journal or from reliance on information contained in the material or that Hort Innovation provides to you by any other means. Copyright © Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited 2023 Copyright subsists in Australian Berry Journal. Horticulture Innovation Australia Limited (Hort Innovation) owns the copyright, other than as permitted under the Copyright ACT 1968 (Cth). Australian Berry Journal (in part or as a whole) cannot be reproduced, published, communicated or adapted without the prior written consent of Hort Innovation. Any request or enquiry to use the Australian Berry Journal should be addressed to: Communications Manager, Hort Innovation, Level 7 | 141 Walker Street, North Sydney 2060, Australia | E: communications@horticulture.com.au | P: 02 8295 2300

Executive Director's Report

Rachel Mackenzie | 0408 796 199 | rachelmackenzie@berries.net.au

Welcome to the Spring 2023 edition of the Australian Berry Journal. This is the first journal funded through the new Communications and Industry Development Officer (IDO) project and following the old saying that ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’, you probably won’t notice any changes from previous editions.

What has changed is the new project has been contracted for five years and was developed collaboratively between Berries Australia and Hort Innovation. This enables us to give better job security to our hard-working IDOs, and spend more time delivering to berry growers and less time reporting and contracting. We actively welcome feedback and suggestions from growers so don’t hesitate to call your local IDO or any of the Berries Australia team. Whilst on a family holiday in Europe in July I was able to pop over to Poland to attend the International Blueberry Organisation (IBO) Summit. The focus was obviously on blueberries but there were a lot of learnings across the whole berry category. I was very impressed by the Polish berry industry who are incredibly cohesive and have worked hard to build social license by promoting the industry as a whole, not just the fruit. This is something I think we can do better across berries and the whole of horticulture.

The Berries Australia team was able to put learning into practice at the Brisbane Royal Exhibition (the Ekka) where we were able to host a ‘berry day’ at the Queensland Fruit and Vegetable Growers’ (QFVG) Stand in the Agricultural Hall. The team handed out nearly 2000 mini-trays of the most delicious berries and chatted to about as many members of the general public. The horticulture industry has been conspicuously absent from the Ekka in recent

years and credit must go to the QFVG team for enabling us to showcase our wonderful industry. You can see more on PAGE 60.

Interestingly, the IBO Summit also highlighted that workforce challenges are not unique to Australia and labour cost and supply continues to be one of the biggest issues facing the berry sector globally. Disappointingly, the new PALM guidelines for the Pacific Worker Scheme are even more unwieldy than the previous versions and we seem to be moving further away from a sustainable workforce.

Many growers have raised concerns that the new requirements are too inflexible for many businesses and they are returning to backpackers even though they are a less reliable workforce. Concerns have been raised that the 88-day requirement for a second year visa may be removed but at this stage there have been unofficial assurances from government that this will not be the case. As these issues are not unique to berries, we are working with our industry colleagues such as the NFF Horticulture Council, the Australian Fresh Produce Alliance and the Approved Employers of Australia to address these issues. We are also intending to form a workforce sub-committee across the berry category to ensure that we have a consistent message.

I am very hopeful that by the time the next edition of the Journal swings around, we will have instigated our berry basket marketing campaign. This campaign will build on the successful blueberry marketing campaign to market across the whole berry category. The benefit of berry basket marketing was also mentioned at the IBO summit and, as it seems like we are heading toward a bumper season across all berry types, the timing is perfect. There are still some bridges to cross in terms of getting this model up but it would seem a logical way forward for the sector.

Chairman's Report

Anthony Poiner | 0412 010 843 | anthony@smartberries.com.au

Welcome to the Spring edition of the Australian Berry Journal. In the Eastern parts of Australia spring has well and truly sprung after a warm winter, whereas the West coast has been experiencing cool, damp conditions. The huge geographic and climatic diversity in Australia is certainly a benefit in an era where consumers expect year-round supply, but it also means we have a diversity of pest and disease issues across the country.

Access to modern crop protection products to deal with the full range of pests and diseases impacting berry producers is fundamental to the ongoing success of the industry. The chemical regulatory system has a very low risk appetite (as it should) so some traditional chemicals are being phased out long before any negative consequences can be realised. This is frustrating on one level, but ultimately protecting the consumer and the environment has to be the number one priority.

Ensuring that growers have a range of options to deal with pest and diseases over the next decades is a key priority for the Berries Australia committee. To that end, Rachel and the team are working with Hort Innovation to undertake a review of the current pest and disease issues facing growers across the nation as well as identifying potential future threats. This process is facilitated through the Strategic Agrichemical Review Process (SARP) with Hort Innovation and is updated every few years. An analysis will then be undertaken as to what chemistry is currently available, what has the potential to be withdrawn in the near future and what other options might be coming through the pipeline.

We are undertaking this process at a whole of berries level as we are aware that there is a degree of mismatch between the berry categories.

It is much better to be ahead of the curve in terms of chemical access as alternative options, particularly for export, can take a long time to develop and implement. Whilst recent developments in Europe seem to be more driven by politics than science, they do foreshadow a scenario where many of the products we rely on may no longer be available. By global standards Australia is a very small market for the chemical companies and, as such, if actives are banned overseas, there may be no commercial value in producing them for the Australian market alone. On a more optimistic note, new softer chemistry is continuously being developed overseas and we need to push to ensure those chemicals become available here. I should also note that integrated pest and disease management approaches (IPDM) and new varietals are also important tools in our toolbox.

The SARP workshop is only the first step in this process, but it is an important one to ensure we are all pulling the same direction. We have invited leading agronomists and technical experts in this area to attend but it is open to any of our members as well. Please contact your local IDO if you would like an invite.

Based on the information provided at the recent Berries Australia meeting we are expecting a bumper crop across the category with Queensland strawberries being predicted to peak in September potentially crossing over with the blueberry season. We are also aware that there are significant plantings of Rubus coming on. Whilst at the time of writing it is not over the line, we are hopeful that for the first time ever we may be able to launch a “berry basket” marketing campaign to lift sales across the category. Stay tuned!

President's Report

Andrew Bell | 0422 234 124 | andrew@mountainblue.com.au

As we head into our peak blueberry growing season, I do hope you received the letter from me outlining the change to the voluntary blueberry levy from 7 cents to 3 cents per kg. The change took place on 1 August 2023 and will be in place for the next two financial years.

The Australian Blueberry Growers' Association (ABGA) committee recognises the past few years have been tough and as such we wanted to put more money back into your pockets whilst still being able to fund industry priorities. The committee has elected to maintain a voluntary rather than compulsory levy to ensure levy payers have full control over how their funds are spent, which means we can continue to manipulate the levy rate according to the needs of the industry. Obviously, the issue with a voluntary levy is that some growers don’t pay, whilst continuing to reap the benefits of the levy investment.

I am still really disappointed that there are major growers who read this journal (funded by the levy), access minor use permits (funded by the levy), engage with the IDO (funded by the levy) or benefit from having a professional body to actively advocate in times of crisis such as Varroa mite, and continue to not to pay the levy consistently or at all.

The ABGA has again committed to an industry-wide marketing program in light of what looks like a bumper season. In exciting news, it looks like the funds will be supplemented by Rubus and possibly strawberry levy funds to enable a ‘berry basket’ campaign. The berry basket approach has been proven overseas to lift sales across the category and we are hopeful it will do the same here. Again, this can only happen if growers pay the levy!

In terms of research and development, we are working with Hort Innovation to develop a project to understand the causes of blueberry root wrapping and associated crown disorders. Symptoms are normally visible several months (or years) after planting and it translates into abnormal growth of tissue. This growth may resemble the crown gall symptoms although no pathogen has been associated with this disorder; other times the problem translates into a non-standard growth pattern (e.g. root wrapping, tissue proliferation, crown restriction & stem occlusion).

The range of crown and root disorders affecting blueberry plants is growing in incidence and severity globally. To date, the Australian industry has not been as affected as some international locations and propagators, but there is a growing concern that these crown and root disorders are increasing in the domestic industry. This is the kind of proactive research we can fund if we have a functioning levy.

Having observed the other berry categories jump through hoops to get their priorities funded, I really believe that the voluntary levy approach remains the best model, but this model can only work if all growers play their part.

All of the ABGA committee members are volunteers, and we are very open to new committee members. If you genuinely believe the levy and the ABGA delivers nothing to you then we would welcome your contribution at the committee level to ensure you get the best value from the levy. I am always very happy to take calls from ABGA members on how we can best serve the interests of the industry.

President's Report

Richard McGruddy | 0408 763 804 | richard@berryq.com.au

It feels like we have been talking about the raspberry and blackberry levy amendment for years, but it is finally here. From 1 October 2023 your levy payment will decrease from 12c/kg to 4c/kg. The timing is quite good as we are heading into one of our biggest seasons ever and hopefully the levy reduction will give some financial relief to growers.

The warm winter weather in the Eastern states means there is a likelihood of higher yields over an extended period with the season looking to be about a fortnight ahead of where it was in 2022. Whilst the yields will be up the timing looks to be more favourable in terms of coinciding with Christmas.

With increasing yields, we need to look at increasing consumption. As part of the winding down of the Rubus marketing fund we are currently in negotiations with Hort Innovation about combining the remaining Rubus marketing funds with the blueberry marketing funds and potentially some strawberry royalty funds to deliver a “berry basket’ campaign. Research from overseas suggests that a berry basket approach lifts sales across the whole category and we are excited to trial this approach over the next year or so.

A recent consumer demand report commissioned by Hort Innovation looked into the future potential of certain markets across the horticulture category. The report was based on extensive consumer interviews and interestingly uncovered some opportunities, particularly for blackberries, in some Asian countries.

We will be examining the data in depth, but it certainly shows that an increased focus on export is warranted for the Rubus category. This report is available from the Hort Innovation website at www.horticulture.com.au/ growers/help-your-business-grow/research-reportspublications-fact-sheets-and-more/st21007

In other positive news, we have been told that all but one grower in the Varroa red zone in the Coffs Harbour region had a successful pollination event. Considering that at one point it was looking like there would be no pollination services in the red zone at all this is a great outcome and a great relief to the growers in the region. Again, we would like to thank the NSW DPI for their efforts in working with industry to enable this to happen as well as the bee keeping industry, Rachel Mackenzie from Berries Australia and Tyler Scofield from Driscoll's.

We are aware that access to minor use permits is an ongoing issue, and you will be pleased to know that we are addressing it at a Berries Australia level. Please raise any pest and disease issues you are seeing on the ground with your local IDO so we can ensure they are being picked up in our discussions. You will also find an updated copy of the Minor Use Permit booklet covering the existing permits with this edition of the Journal. Finally, I am aware that the last 12 months have been tough for many growers with reduced prices and significantly increased input costs. We understand that the changes to the PALM scheme have made it more costly and bureaucratic than in the past and we will continue to work through Berries Australia to push for a more pragmatic approach from government.

Chairman's Report

Simon Dornauf | 0408 681 206 | simon@hillwoodberries.com.au

The recent winter season has seen above average temperatures which reflects the shift from a La Niña to an El Niño weather pattern. This transition typically leads to an earlier peak in winter production, however, delays in Queensland plantings means supply will likely peak in September, aligning the strawberry supply peak closer to the height of the blueberry season. Despite our aspiration to have a well distributed berry category to optimise consumer demand, the interplay of natural factors and external forces can complicate these efforts.

In our commitment to focus on variables within our control, we are exploring the concept of a marketing program that encompasses the entire berry category. Currently the blueberry industry funds its own marketing program which is run by Berries Australia. Encouragingly, the Rubus industry is also set to participate in this initiative. International research consistently indicates that the ‘berry basket’ approach boosts sales across the entire category, reducing the risk of different berry types eroding each other's market share. To this end, Strawberries Australia has endorsed the berry basket campaign, for the first time potentially leveraging royalty funds overseen by Hort Innovation. While consultations with Hort Innovation are yet to occur due to the fund's management, we are optimistic this concept can become a reality.

The success of the Australian strawberry industry hinges upon access to high-quality runners. Nonetheless, growers continue to confront obstacles in securing varietals and timely runner supply. While acknowledging the gravity of this issue for the industry, Strawberries Australia recognises its complicated nature. The economics of runner cultivation are intricate, demonstrated by Sweets Runners shifting away from bare-root production.

It is important that all of us as an industry work together and remain open minded to new concepts ensuring a sustainable runner industry for the future. One option is to facilitate the entry of more plug-plant propagators into the sector, although this must be executed without compromising biosecurity and product quality. Adopting a constructive and sustainable approach, Strawberries Australia aspires to engage with all segments of the supply chain to navigate this challenge.

Over the last decade, the berry industry has strongly supported the government’s Pacific worker schemes. We have forged invaluable relationships with our Pacific Island workers who have become the backbone of many of our businesses. Essential to the scheme's continued viability is its practicality and cost-effectiveness for growers. We take pride in supporting many workers to establish homes and provide education for their children back home. In a win for common sense, the government has amended its deed regarding the minimum wage vs award pay issue. Frustratingly there are still many issues that need to be addressed in the new deed and guidelines and growers would ask for far more consultation regarding these matters. Read more on PAGE 28.

The current administration has made no effort to get on the ground and talk to growers and workers who have been successfully operating the program for many years. They need to see how the program works in reality, rather than punishing good growers and workers for the misdeeds of a small number of employers. I extend an open invitation to Minister Burke and any of his team to visit my farm, tour our worker accommodation, get to know some of our workers and see the conditions they work under.

CEO Report

Brett Fifield, Hort Innovation, Chief Executive Officer

Australian horticulture has had an impressive run over the past decade. The annual production value of the industry increased by $6.4 billion between 2012 and 2022 to $15.9 billion, and Aussie growers are producing 850,000 tonnes more than they were a decade ago. Our growers are adding more than $700 million to the value of horticulture each year on average – not a bad result.

At Hort Innovation, we have released new research that shows the industry will reach a production value of $21.8 billion by 2030 – around $2 billion higher than previously expected. This growth is based on a number of assumptions and trends and our modelling is based on a moderate growth scenario.

Our Contribution of Australian horticulture industry report also shows strong growth in Australia’s key horticulture regions. The Coffs Harbour/Grafton region’s production value will grow to $522 million by 2030, an increase of 18 per cent compared to 2020/21. The report also showed for this region, berries account for 81 per cent of total horticulture (including processing). You can view the full report at bit.ly/MT21010

On paper, things look pretty good even with moderate growth – a higher growth scenario puts the industry at $25.6 billion. As any farmer will tell you though, you keep an eye on what is around the corner and invest in the good years to prepare for what is ahead.

Like the berry growers who invest in Hort Innovation through levies, as a rural research and development corporation (RDC), we need to look to the future and stay ahead of the game. We need to ensure our priorities are growers’ priorities. To do just that, we have launched the Hort Innovation Strategy 2024-2026, which will take our company through the next three years. This plan was developed in consultation with both growers and peak industry bodies. You can review the strategy online at bit.ly/Strat-24-26

We are preparing for the challenges ahead by enhancing and safeguarding the supply of Aussie produce, accelerating local and global demand for these products, and maximising and diversifying the investments we make in our research and development (R&D) work and marketing campaigns.

We know that growers want us to take bigger swings on our investments. You want us to focus on big-picture programs of work rather than tactical, individual research projects.

Just this month, Hort Innovation announced the largest and most ambitious trade initiative in Australian horticulture industry. The breakthrough $136 million program, the Fresh and Secure Trade Alliance (FASTA) will see key Aussie industry stakeholders and authorities joining forces to help protect and grow Australia’s horticultural exports.

Last year Hort Innovation invested $160 million in levy funds and this investment is important because of the return it generates for the horticulture industry. Aussie growers entrust Hort Innovation with their levy funds to make investments for the future.

When you think of the entire economic impact of Australian horticulture — production value of $15.9 billion, $12.96 billion in additional economic impact, and being one of the largest employers in the country — there is a lot at stake in getting your levy investment right to meet the challenges ahead of us.

That is why Hort Innovation is working with Berries Australia to ‘reset and refresh’ the whole-of-berries advisory mechanism including appointing refreshed ideation and project advisory panels across the blueberry, Rubus and strawberry industries. The advisory mechanism will be led by industry through Berries Australia and will support grower ideas and create industry impact where most needed. Please keep an eye out for updates through Berries Australia and Hort Innovation.

Victoria & South Australia

Dr Angela Atkinson, Berry Industry Development Officer 0408 416 538 | ido@vicstrawberry.com.au

After a cold and still fairly wet winter in the southern states, hopefully everyone is looking forward to spring and the season ahead.

The predicted El Niño weather pattern that we may be moving into later this year will likely bring a hotter and drier season, probably more like those we were used to before the last three or so cooler and wetter summers. The possibility of hotter drier weather means those growing in the ground may see increased levels of stress related issues, such as charcoal rot.

A best management guide for charcoal rot, based on years of working with growers to find solutions, is being produced by VSICA Research and funded through the Victorian Strawberry levy, and will be available later this year. Management of charcoal rot and other pest and disease issues, as well as other topics of concern for growers for the coming season, will be the focus of a field day in September, before the season really kicks off.

VSICA research (again funded by the VSIDC levy) has also worked with Victorian strawberry growers to develop technology to measure the levels of fumigant in soils, prior to planting, which has become an important issue with the adoption of totally impermeable films (TIF). To learn more about this research SEE PAGE 94 in this edition.

Recently growers in Victoria hosted a number of researchers working in strawberries, to demonstrate the production systems and challenges in the region. One of these, a team from Singaporean company Polybee, working on using miniature drones to aid pollination in protected cropping systems visited a Victorian farm to see how berries are grown under tunnels here. Polybee has worked with greenhouse strawberry growers in other countries and have run trials at Western Sydney University and also in glasshouse tomato production in South Australia as part of a Hort Frontiers pollination project. For more information about this project SEE PAGE 83 in this edition of the journal.

At the end of July, I attended the National Fruit Fly Council Symposium in Adelaide, which had a focus on how growers will manage fruit flies, particularly in regard to both domestic and international market access, in a chemically limited future. Instead of the usual technical presentations the symposium was a series of panel discussions and round table working groups, to capture input from growers, industry, supply chain participants and other stakeholders, including government and researchers. It was interesting to hear how markets are changing internationally, where the carbon footprint of food production is becoming as important as phytosanitary concerns and MRLs, with the most extreme example given being a supermarket chain in Europe choosing not to stock fresh produce delivered by airfreight.

The ‘toolbox’ for managing pests such as fruit flies was an important topic of discussion, and going forward it needs to become less reliant on chemical options, as more and more chemistry becomes unavailable. Focus needs to shift to other ways of ensuring clean fruit, such as maintaining areas of low pest prevalence by area wide management (AWM), leveraging off traceability systems already in place, using systems approach options and new technologies such as SIT (Sterile Insect Technology) and irradiation as an end point treatment. Many of these options are not yet accepted by importing jurisdictions, and work needs to be done to educate markets both here and overseas.

There is also a need for a stable mechanism for funding initiatives such as SIT and AWM, that doesn’t put the responsibility back on producers. While the problems of the world were not solved, it was a good opportunity for governments in particular to get some targeted and specific feedback from industry and start a productive discussion.

I’d just like to wish everyone the best for the start of the season, hopefully it will be a good one, and remind you to get in touch by phone or email if there is anything I can help you with.

Victorian Strawberry Industry Development Committee

Mark Salter, Berry Industry Development Officer 0400 100 593 |

After a challenging year Tasmanian berry growers are in the process of preparing for the new season. Strawberry planting is complete, preparations for the next Rubus crop are well underway and blueberry growers are in the final stages of pruning their bushes.

Indications so far are pointing to an early season, with most Tasmanian growing regions experiencing slightly above average winter temperatures which may have an impact on chill hour accumulation for some varieties. The very windy weather in late July has also played havoc in certain areas, with some growers reporting damage to tunnels and other infrastructure.

Fruit Growers Tasmania held its annual conference from 15-16 June at the Launceston Country Club. The event was well attended with over 220 registrations over the two days. Sessions included Pest and Disease Management, Crop Management, Labour Management and Agritourism. The conference wrapped up with a Gala dinner on the Thursday night, and during the evening several awards were presented. Kate Sutherland from Burlington Berries received this year’s Award for Excellence, and Tamara Clark from Murrakei Farm received the Outstanding Young Berry Grower Award. Congratulations to both award recipients. You can read more about the conference on PAGE 21.

A series of workshops were recently delivered by Donna Mogg, Grower Engagement Officer with Fair Farms. The workshops covered a range of information relating to the changes to the Fair Work Act that have come into place in 2022 and 2023. They also looked at how growers can get the most out of flexible hours of work under the Horticulture Award, wage increases from 1 July 2023 and the Fair Farms program.

Around 30 growers and industry members attended a workshop to hear the current situation with Bass Strait freight movements focusing on the changes in infrastructure, freight capacity, and cost. Growers heard from speakers including representatives from TT-Line, SRT Logistics, StraitLink (previously known as Toll Shipping)

and Tasmanian Freight Equalisation Scheme (TFES) expert Lee Panton who outlined the structure of the TFES scheme.

Lastly, I recently attended the Protected Cropping Australia (PCA) Conference in Brisbane from 18-19 July with many of the Berries Australia team. The theme for this year’s conference was “Growing Our Future”. Sessions included Sustainability and Waste, Vertical Farming, IPDM and Biosecurity as well as New Opportunities in Protected Cropping.

The new opportunities session offered some interesting insights and opportunities for protected cropping including medicinal cannabis cultivation. Another highlight of the conference was listening to a group of PhD students give presentations on their R&D projects. The six students were given 3 minutes to deliver an outline of their project with prizes awarded to the best speaker. It is inspiring to see the next generation of researchers starting their careers.

The technical sessions wrapped up on Wednesday followed by a Gala Dinner that evening. The following day growers took the opportunity to participate on the various field trips. The conference was well attended and provided an opportunity for me to spend time with some of the newer Berries Australia team members in person. The new 5-year ‘Facilitating the development of the Australian berry industries (MT22010)’ project is a strategic levy investment under the Hort Innovation Blueberry, Strawberry and Raspberry and Blackberry funds and I’m delighted to say this is now formally underway. I look forward to visiting and meet with growers to identify R&D gaps and provide technical support across the life of this project. At this stage, planned events in the coming months include a Pre-Season Berry Field Day in late September/early October, as well as a Crop Sprayer information webinar later in October.

As always, details of these events will be shared widely through The Burst, this journal and our Fruit Growers Tasmania communication channels.

Queensland

July has been such a busy month, and I can’t thank the growers, industry stakeholders and Berries Australia team enough for my warm welcome into the Industry Development Officer role.

For those of you who do not know me, I’ve spent the past three years as the Berries Australia Membership and Administration Officer, whilst also working at Passionfruit Australia as their Industry Services Manager, and in the family greenkeeping business which has now been wound up. It’s been fabulous to take a more hands-on role and start meeting growers.

In the labour arena, the recent changes to the PALM Deed of Agreement have caused a significant amount of angst in the industry. Brendon Hoyle from Ashbern Farms shared grower concerns over the lack of clarity and excessive burdens placed on growers. Ashbern Farms have utilised PALM workers for a number of years, noting that they have had a pretty fantastic experience up to this point. “It’s great to be able to train staff and have them return for successive seasons,” explained Brendon echoing the sentiment shared by many employers in Horticulture. He also estimates that a trained, experienced worker is twice as productive as an untrained worker.

With the increasingly heavy burden being placed on employers under the scheme, Brendon admitted they may need to revisit using backpacker labour, an option that would disadvantage Pacific workers who come to Australia to earn much-needed money to improve the lives of their families back home as well as remove the ‘returning-skilled-worker’ benefit.

Many growers I’ve spoken to feel the same. Despite the efforts of Steve Burdette and the Approved Employers’ of Australia, the government seems resistant to understanding the needs of industry and the overall positive experience workers have in Australia, instead focusing on the small number of rogue employers. You can find out more about the recent changes to the PALM scheme on PAGE 28.

On a more positive note, while the start of the winter strawberry season was late this year, the quality has been excellent. Variety-wise, there is a lot on the market with old favourites selling well alongside new varieties. Growing-wise, the flavour, shape and ripening habits of some varieties have differed markedly from farm to farm. I’m currently identifying topics for future journal articles and field days, and drawing growers together to discuss the best growing methods – particularly for newer varieties – has made its way to the list. If this is a topic you feel would be of interest to your farm business please get in touch.

As part of the recent Protected Cropping Association conference held in Brisbane, I attended a full day of plenary sessions and a Berry Farm Tour. The tour sites included the Steritech facility at Narangba, Basset Barks potting mix and mulch production facility in the Glass House Mountains, plus berry farms Pinata and Queensland Berries near Wamuran. Rubus production was well underway at both Pinata and Queensland Berries, with fruit being of excellent quality.

The month was rounded off with a field day at Maroochy Research Station. Full details are in the separate article, however special thanks to all growers who allowed their photos to be taken for promotional purposes. It was great to see a number of young growers in attendance.

I’m starting to get out and about with a day at the Ekka in mid-August helping to promote our winter strawberries and educate consumers about the berry industry. In late August, I will be visiting the Stanthorpe region and visiting growers with Narissa Corfe from the Granite Belt Growers Association and in late September, I will be in the Bundaberg/Wide Bay region to attend the Hillwood Berries Open Day to meet with growers and tour the new Haygrove tunnel systems installed at the farm. You can find out more about this Open Day on PAGE 16. In the interim, I look forward to further immersing myself in the wonderful world of Berries. Please don’t hesitate to give me a call if I can assist in any way.

New South Wales

Gaius Leong, Berry Industry Development Officer

0484 055 748 | gaius.leong@dpi.nsw.gov.au

It is great to be back in the berry industry and I’m enjoying the ability to indulge in unreserved berry foraging while visiting farms. The short time I have spent away from the industry has provided new focus and perspective for me.

In this role, I look forward to rekindling working relationships with those I have met along the way and forging new relations with those I have yet to meet. I feel a reinvigorated need to help to improve the industry and ensure the increased sustainability of the industry for years to come.

The past two seasons have been nothing short of catastrophic for berry production in NSW. There have been heavy rain periods which brought severe floods, quality issues and a host of pest and disease challenges.

In addition, a shortage of labour from the impact of Covid-19 has created ripples that were felt throughout the whole industry. Growers directly affected by flooding and producing in open field systems copped the brunt with many businesses still in recovery. Throw in the Varroa mite issue and we really have had the perfect storm.

Spring is in the air, bringing with it a new harvest season that has been comparatively uneventful. Growers are getting used to seeing foliage and berries on their plants again in winter.

As the industry prepares for a bumper crop over a compact time period, the importance of production forecasting, arranging sufficient labour and adequate pollination cannot be overemphasised in ensuring the industry bounces back to its previous heights. Maintaining consistently high quality standards and ensuring consumer satisfaction has also never been more important.

However, as we embark on this road to recovery and expansion, we must keep in mind the detrimental situation we found ourselves in at the end of the previous El-Niño cycle.

With the last few years of exceptionally wet weather, water scarcity, dry dams and raging bushfires seem like a distant memory, but drought resilience is definitely an area for your attention now.

Improving crop water use efficiency and reducing fertiliser run-off are aspects which we know we should focus on as an industry. It provides positive stewardship of our waterways and increases cost-effectiveness for the grower. The ongoing Clean Coastal Catchments (CCC) project provides research input that assists industry in achieving these goals, by increasing fertiliser use efficiency and improving production cost ratios.

Clearer weather and more production moving to protected cropping has reduced Blueberry rust incidence this season, but if left unchecked and poorly managed this disease can grow to become a significant problem.

Flood recovery funding has enabled the DPI’s entomology team to conduct scouting on farms. We have noticed girdling moth larvae damage to the crown region in some production areas. This pest has not been prevalent in the recent wet seasons, but will flourish in the forecast drier weather so stay vigilant. The updated Plant Protection Guide in 2024 will include more information on this pest and Blueberry Rust management.

In addition, we have a new Rubus IPM project being led by the University of Tasmania which will be conducting research into the pests and diseases of critical importance to the Rubus industry.

In the coming weeks, I will be asking growers, farm managers and agronomists to participate in a short survey which will be essential in bringing an industry perspective to the research. A workshop will then be organised for industry and researchers to interact over potential pest and disease IPM strategies.

I look forward to working with one and all –please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Western Australia

Helen Newman & Aileen Reid, Industry Development Team, Agricultural Produce Commission

Climate and crop

Autumn finished with well below average rainfall recorded throughout growing areas. With more sun around, daytime temperatures were slightly warmer than average and night-time temperatures were cooler in May. Cooler than average daytime and night-time temperatures were recorded in June along with record breaking daily and monthly rainfall in parts. Most areas received above average rainfall in June and there were more rainy days and longer periods without sun than normal.

July was drier and warmer than average in most growing areas, but also had more cloudy and rainy days than normal. An increased incidence of frosty mornings (compared to last year) was also reported from some areas in late June and parts of July.

Harvest of new season strawberries in the Perth region started in early August for most growers, five to six weeks later than normal for the bulk of producers. Delays in planting and cooler soil temperatures resulted in slower root development and delayed flushes.

Planting of new season strawberry runners in the southern growing region finished in late July-early August, about six weeks later than usual.

Blueberry and Rubus crops are generally following their normal schedule in northern and southern growing regions despite some setbacks caused by Chilli thrip.

Industry news

DPIRD hosted a cross industry workshop in late July to discuss Chilli thrip and identify what is needed to improve understanding and management of the pest. The berry industry was well represented in the workshop.

DPIRD Entomologist Elliot Howse gave an overview of the biology of the thrip, its distribution and the damage it causes.

Cezar Moraes from Biological Services gave a detailed overview of how to monitor for Chilli thrip and what the symptoms look like on the different crops, the different chemicals and insect predators they have been using to control the thrip, and the potential of using coloured lures to attract the thrip away from the crop.

Top research priorities identified by participants were focused on understanding the life cycle of the pest including where it overwinters and how it behaves in different hosts, testing chemical efficacy and resistance, and identifying and developing additional biological controls/predators. You can read more about Chilli thrip on PAGE 48.

No new detections of Qfly have been made in the Bayswater Qfly response (early August). Should no more Qfly be found, DPRID anticipates being able to claim ‘area freedom’ by early to mid-October.

In preparation for future incursions, the feasibility of irradiation is being reviewed and DPIRD is in the early stages of developing an on-farm systems approach to support the movement of fruit from an Export Assurance Zone (the 15km zone around the Qfly detection) without the requirement for an end-point treatment. The systems approach will need to be accepted by the other states and Federal Government to come into effect.

Strawberry growers took a trip south of Perth in June to visit two nurseries using innovative production systems. The first visit was to Touchwood Nursery where owner Ben Archibald discussed the function, management, longevity and return on investment from his Cravo retractable roof production system. The full automation of the system, low maintenance inputs and the ability to have the roof fully open when it’s sunny was very attractive. The structure has also withstood some very significant storm events without any damage.

Figure 2. Ben Funnekotter showing growers his plug production system at The Seedling Factory.

Photo credit: Helen Newman

Figure 1. Ben Archibald of Touchwood Nursery explaining how he uses his Cravo retractable roof production system.

Photo credit: Helen Newman

While on site, Ben showed us a water treatment system he built that enables him to remove ferrous iron from the bore water without the need for large aeration tanks. The system uses in-line venturi air injection to precipitate the iron from the water before it is cleaned by a series of sand filters.

The second visit was to The Seedling Factory where the Australian Strawberry Breeding Program (ASBP) varieties are now being propagated as plug plants and trials are under way on new F1 Hybrid seedling strawberries from Holland.

Ben Funnekotter, his business partner Barry Winterbourn, and staff members involved in managing the strawberry seed and plug production took us on a full tour of the nursery. Alek Moreno, the WA rep for Lefroy Valley seeds gave an overview of the genetics they have access to for strawberries.

While on site, Ben showed us a water treatment system he built to deal with the iron bacteria (iron sludge) he has in his bore water, and you can see the details of this on PAGE 44 of this journal.

Figure 3. F1 Hybrid seedlings from Holland might be a game changer for WA strawberry producers if they are successful in the field. Photo credit: Helen Newman

BerryQuest International 2025

BQI25 IS HEADING TO TASMANIA

Following the hugely successful BerryQuest International conference held on the Gold Coast in July 2022, plans are underway for the next event planned for 2025 which will be held in Hobart.

You can expect a stunning line up of speakers both from Australia and overseas, as well as a full schedule of farm tours in and around Hobart.

BQI25 is delighted to confirm our conference venue as the Wrest Point Hotel & Casino at Sandy Point just south of Hobart CBD.

The complex is in the final stages of a $64m redevelopment which delivers first class facilities including three styles of accommodation, excellent dining options and a newly renovated casino space with gaming floor.

Total Vent — A Game Changer!

Haygrove

Horticulture is at the forefront of today’s volatile world, directly affected by both global inflation and the increasingly unpredictable climate. The economics of horticulture are changing. Labour costs are rising rapidly, and labour availability is decreasing. Investment in technology is needed to replace manual labour and those investments need to be maximised. The expense of compromising crop yield, quality and timing through not venting polytunnels is becoming less justifiable.

Berries Australia Silver Partner Haygrove's versatile product range has been specifically engineered with tomorrow in mind. With a focus on strength, ease of management and a superior agronomic environment to allow growers to reduce labour requirements, extend cropping seasons and optimise yield and quality, Haygrove have developed their Advantage series polytunnels which offer a range of mechanised venting solutions that are practical on a field-scale.

The latest addition to Haygrove’s Advantage range is Total Vent, a patent-pending polytunnel design that mechanically rolls the polythene to the apex of the tunnel. Simply put it offers the ultimate in venting flexibility. An early adopter of Total Vent with 15 hectares already in production, Marcus Dornauf from Hillwood Berries described it as ‘A game changer’.

The fully retractable Total Vent combats a range of challenges, including some that are widely accepted as a downside to protected cropping. Management of the climate through frequent, timely and complete venting gives the agility to manipulate the growing conditions to maximum effect achieving improved plant health and peak yield potential in both hot, dry and hot, humid environments.

By managing Vapour Pressure Deficit or VPD (relationship between temperature and humidity) through precision

venting and use of Haygrove’s retractable shade net, the fruit quality has the potential to be maintained throughout the variations and spikes of the season, mitigating the risks to the crop but without accumulating labour or spray costs.

Mechanised venting means tunnel vent height is no longer determined by human working height. Vents positioned above the crop are more effective providing direct escape for hot air rising vertically. The larger Total Vent structure increases air volume to buffer climate fluctuations creating a more consistent growing environment.

Total Vent has a standard specification of 10-metre-wide bay width and support leg height of 3 metres. The wider bay width has agronomic, construction and economic advantages. Less leg rows means a reduction in leg row crop which is the most susceptible to quality issues. Less legs and hoops reduce construction time and cost.

With rain becoming less predictable, the benefits of mechanised venting go beyond improving yield and quality, and season extension. The combination of roller vents fitted with Haygrove’s rainwater gutters maximises the rainwater collection and mitigates the risk of irrigation failure through drought. By closing the vents during rainfall, the water catchment area increases to be the entire covered area.

OPEN DAY

Haygrove & Hillwood Berries

Open Day

Haygrove are delighted to be hosting an Open Day at Hillwood Berries, featuring the launch of Total Vent polytunnels.

The Open Day will be at 10am on Wednesday 20 September 2023 at Hillwood Berries near Bundaberg, by kind invitation of the Dornauf family.

After a long-standing relationship with Haygrove, Hillwood Berries have an impressive 15 hectares of Total Vent and 4 hectares of EZvent on their Bundaberg site growing tabletop strawberries, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries. And a Fixed Top Vent tunnel will be constructed for demonstration.

It will be a unique opportunity to see Haygrove’s Advantage range products in commercial use during the growing season. The day will showcase Total Vent tunnels, for the ultimate in venting flexibility; EZvent tunnels, for mechanised venting on a field scale; and the Fixed Top Vent tunnels, for continual air exchange.

REGISTER TODAY

To register for the Open Day on Wednesday 20 September or for more information please contact:

Mark Woodhead mark.woodhead@haygrove.co.uk

New Industry development and communications project underway

Jen Rowling, Project Manager, Berries Australia

A five-year continuation of the Industry Development and Communications project, delivered by Berries Australia in collaboration with regional delivery partners, has been contracted by Hort Innovation and is now underway.

The new project ‘Facilitating the development of the Australian Berry Industries (MT22010)’ has been funded by Hort Innovation using the Blueberry, Strawberry, and Raspberry and Blackberry research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government. This new project follows on from the previous 3-year project (MT18020) and aims to further hone in on the specific needs of the industry going forward.

The overarching objective of the project for the Australian Berry industry is to enhance the adoption of innovation and technology through the communication of research and development (R&D) information and the facilitation of capacity building.

The project focuses on communicating best practice to berry growers and assisting with the improvement of knowledge and skills required to adopt the R&D outcomes of projects funded through the grower levy and the Australian Government.

The ‘whole of berries’ approach, which was pioneered by Berries Australia in 2019, helps to improve efficiencies and allow for a coordinated approach for communication of the many cross-berry R&D projects as well as a platform for commodity specific project extension.

The project is delivered as a nationally coordinated, locally implemented program. All berry growers in Australia will continue to have access to a local Industry Development Officer (IDO), with specialist skills and knowledge to support the range of extension

and communication needs of the different industries within berries. Each IDO is supported by a statebased organisation (regional delivery partner) for additional support and to ensure regional relevance and effective program delivery. This is underpinned by a highly regarded communications program including the quarterly Australian Berry Journal, The Burst e-Newsletter and the Berries Australia website which will be extended significantly under the new project.

A Project Reference Group (PRG), consisting of a berry grower from each of the major berry growing regions and commodities, other key industry stakeholders and Hort Innovation will also meet on a half yearly basis to provide direction for the project and important input into extension activities and workplans.

Industry consultation

A survey was distributed to growers and industry stakeholders in January 2023 to identify any gaps in information delivery and variances in priorities and knowledge transfer preferences across commodities, regions and industry segments.

The survey was part of an extension strategy and co-design process with Hort Innovation for the development of this new project (MT22010), providing valuable information about how the previous project was received by industry and potential gaps in information delivery which will become the focus going forward.

The breakdown of the commodities, regions and segmentation for the purpose of the survey:

Commodities

Blueberry

Strawberry

Raspberry and Blackberry

Combination of berries

Regions

Queensland

New South Wales

Victoria

South Australia

Tasmania

Western Australia

Segmentation

Business type:

• Operate as part of a marketing group

• Operate as an independent family business

• Have an agritourism component

• Grow certified organic berries

Production method:

• Substrate production

• In-ground production

• Combination of substrate and in-ground

The four key areas of priority identified across all commodities, regions and segmentation are:

The results of this survey combined with feedback gained through direct consultation with growers highlighted the value of the current communication and extension methods. This includes a mix of written products (Australian Berry Journal, fact sheets, website and e-news), online workshops and in-person learning events (workshops, field days, conferences). One-on-one communication with growers and industry stakeholders was not included in the industry survey, but will continue to be an integral part of the day to day activities of the IDOs.

Berries Australia also facilitated a project co-design workshop with industry stakeholders in January 2023 to review the findings of the survey and industry consultation.

The workshop confirmed the need for a mix of activities to deliver outcomes in the priority areas identified for the next five years.

The extension strategy process determined a number of priority areas for increased awareness and practice change, but also highlighted regional differences in needs and priorities, as well as differences across diverse business models. The project will take these differences into account when planning activities and opportunities for learning in each region, while ensuring a consistent approach to extension, and capitalising on the extensive range of expertise within the team.

Management

Pest & Disease Management

Business & Labour Management

New Technologies & Robotics

The Project Team

Project Team

Position & Expertise

Industry Development Officer – NSW (Blueberries/Pollination/Chemical/Next Gen)

Gaius Leong NSW Dept of Primary Industries (NSW DPI)

Wollongbar, NSW

Industry Development Officer – VIC & SA (Strawberries/Biosecurity/Pest & Disease)

Industry Development Officer – QLD (Strawberries)

Industry Development Officer – TAS (Rubus)

Industry Development Officer – WA (Strawberries)

Angela Atkinson Vic Strawberry Industry Development Committee (VSIDC) Wandin, VIC

Wendy Morris Berries Australia Brisbane, QLD

Mark Salter Fruit Growers Tasmania Inc (FGT) Hobart, TAS

Helen Newman Aileen Reid (part time)

Agricultural Produce Commission (APC) Perth, WA

Communications Manager Jane Richter Teres Communication Sunshine Coast, QLD

Management & Project Support

Fruit Growers Tasmania Annual Conference 2023

Mark Salter, Berry Industry Development Officer, Fruit Growers Tasmania

Fruit Growers Tasmania recently held their annual conference on 15–16 June in Launceston at the Country Club Tasmania. Focusing on growing sustainability and business profitability, the conference delved into the different elements which help businesses to achieve this.

The Hon. Jo Palmer Tasmanian Minister for Primary Industries and Water opened the conference on Thursday morning. Many great presentations followed over the next two days on subjects including pollination, biosecurity, labour management, markets and supply chains, production costs and efficiencies, and Agritourism.

Several interesting presentations for berry growers included Kara Barry, an Associate Professor with the Tasmanian Institute of Agriculture (TIA), with an update on the blueberry defoliation trials her team is carrying out. The trials, across various locations in Tasmania, are being conducted to help control Blueberry rust by promoting early leaf fall in semi-evergreen and evergreen varieties of blueberries. Early indications are promising with at least one of the trials proving positive.

Dr Jon Finch, a research fellow at TIA, then spoke on developing effective pheromone-based methods for managing mirids and vegetable bugs. His presentation centred around providing recommendations for raspberry and blackberry growers on how pheromones and traps fit within an integrated pest management approach. The project is well on the way to identifying various pheromones and ultimately looking at being able to synthesise and produce pheromones for a commercial mirid and vegetable bug trap.

Dr Raylea Rowbottom, an entomologist and researcher with seedPurity, spoke on the commercial efficacy of fly pollinators. Her research shows how flies can prove to be effective pollinators, which may have commercial benefit for producers where honeybees are not available.

Later, Jon Finch hosted a session on pollination in berries, in which he discussed the various alternative pollinators that may have commercial possibilities.

Narelle Jones, Senior Biosecurity Officer (Industry Collaboration) at Biosecurity Tasmania, spoke on biosecurity responses for bee pollinators including small hive beetle and Varroa mite. She also outlined to growers the process that Biosecurity Tasmania takes when there is an exotic pest incursion. Narelle coordinates relationships and communications with industry and other internal and external stakeholders to ensure they have up-to-date and accurate information on current biosecurity developments.

Jake Gaudion, a consultant with RMCG, spoke on improving resource use efficiency in substrate performance, reducing waste and improving production efficiency within Tasmania’s berry sectors. His presentation centred around progress on a research and development project on coir reuse led by Fruit Growers Tasmania. The project involves research agency RMCG along with four commercial growers. The project is researching the reuse of coir in strawberry production systems and has identified two wood fibre products which have the potential to be used either as a stand-alone substrate alternative or mixed with coir to extend its life. Early results from trials carried out are looking promising.

You can find out more about this project in articles published in the Autumn 2020, Winter 2022 and Autumn 2023 editions of this journal which are available online at bit.ly/BA-ABJ

1 & 2. Delegates attending the presentations made at the conference. 3. Conference attendees networking over drinks in the Trade Show area. 4. Award winner, Kate Sutherland from Burlington Berries with the Hon. Jo Palmer Minister for Primary Industries and Water. Photo credit: FGT

With the rising cost of labour, talks focusing on labour management and supplementation were well received across all sectors. Feedback from berry attendees highlighted the following talks:

• Ross Wilson’s talks on business decision-making and how to make effective data-driven decisions at harvest, which resonated with growers across all fruit-growing sectors. A grower in his own right, Ross is also a founding member of Agfirst in New Zealand who brings with him over 20 years of horticultural experience and regularly leads field days to ensure the latest technical advances and tree management techniques make it into the hands of growers.

• Simon Drum also spoke in the labour management session and outlined his experience incorporating LEAN manufacturing principles into fruit production. The example he used was how the production line of a large vegetable processor, through the LEAN production system, was able to reduce labour inputs and turn their inefficient production system into an efficient and profitable process.

• Eva Thilderkvist, a software engineer and Tasmanian Site Manager with Dogtooth Robotics at Burlington Berries in Cressy, maintains and supports the ongoing training of Dogtooth’s sixteen robots operating at the site. Eva spoke on the progress of the robotic strawberry harvesting trials which have been going on for over five years. She outlined the five-step process the robots take to harvest each berry. Each season’s harvest data from the robots in Cressy is collated along with 70 other sites globally using the same technology to improve the harvest efficiency of all the robots.

The Agritourism session also proved to be very popular, with two examples of successful agritourism businesses on show. This was the first time Agritourism had been included in the session and proved popular with businesses of all sizes. The invited speakers presenting as part of the session included:

• Allison Clark, who spoke on the information and support available to producers looking to start their own journey into Agritourism, and the wider efforts being made by producers and government to grow Agritourism across the state.

• Kate Bradley, who shared her experiences building a successful business, starting off 32 years ago after moving from Victoria to Tasmania and purchasing a block of land on the east coast. Kate is the owner and

manager of Kate's Berry Farm, an English-style farm growing strawberries, raspberries and blueberries, which has become an icon for Tasmanian locals, interstate and international visitors and is well known for showcasing the quality of Tasmania’s cool climate products. Kate puts her success down to listening and engaging with her customers and providing a unique experience on her farm. You can read more about Kate’s operations in the Spring 2022 edition of this journal which is available online at bit.ly/BA-ABJ

Rebecca Duffy also spoke on her experience of building a well-known premium Tasmanian wine brand, Holm Oak. She has more than 20 years of winemaking experience in Tasmania, mainland Australia and California. Based in Rowella, Rebecca manages the creation of complex and unique cool climate wines, as well as interacting with buyers and consumers within the site’s cellar door outlet and sensory garden experience.

The conference also included two panel sessions where growers, suppliers, researchers and other stakeholders could ask questions of growers and industry representatives. These provided an opportunity for the audience to hear back from growers about some of the pressures and challenges facing the sector, and to find out how Tasmanian businesses and industry were addressing these. It was also an opportunity for audience members to recognise and focus on the many positives the industry has, and some of the reasons why people in the sector continue to choose to be fruit growers.

The conference wrapped up with a Gala dinner on Friday evening. During the event, several awards were presented including to Kate Sutherland from Burlington Berries who received this year’s award for Excellence. Tamara Clark from Murrakei Farms received the ‘Outstanding Young Berry Grower’ award. Congratulations to both award recipients.

Fruit Growers Tasmania would like to thank the many attendees, sponsors and exhibitors for supporting this year’s conference. With special thanks to ServeAg, Steritech and Hort Innovation for their support in making this year’s conference one of the most successful so far.

Berries Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) App now available

Jen Rowling, Projects Manager, Berries Australia

The Berries Australia MRL App provides information on maximum residue limits (MRLs) and withholding periods (WHPs) for both domestic and export markets. The easy-to-use interface provides users with access to real-time pre- and post-harvest chemical application data based on domestic and export market, target pest or disease and/or active constituents. And with its offline capability, the app can be used anywhere and anytime.

The MRLs app has been developed in partnership with the Australian Wine Research Institute (AWRI) and the Australian Table Grape Association (ATGA) with funding support from the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) to help industry members comply with MRLs in export markets. Changes in MRL and WHP recommendations will be updated as new information becomes available to ensure that the data provided is kept up to date.

What are MRLs and WHPs and why are they important?

A Maximum Residue Limit (MRL) is the maximum level of pesticide residue that can legally remain on a food product.

The Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicine Authority (APVMA) sets MRLs for agvet chemicals in agricultural produce, particularly products entering the food chain. These MRLs are set at levels that are not likely to be exceeded if the chemicals are used in accordance with the approved label directions (including the withholding period).

The role of MRLs is to ensure food safety and to protect consumers from exposure to harmful pesticide residues. At the time MRLs are set, the APVMA undertakes a dietary exposure evaluation to ensure the levels do not pose an undue hazard to human health.

The withholding period (WHP) is the minimum period that must elapse between the last administration or application of a pesticide and the harvesting of the fruit for human consumption. The objective of a WHP is to provide users with the information they need to ensure that residues in their treated produce will not exceed the MRL. WHPs are mandatory for domestic sale and are on the label of every registered product.

Compliance with MRL levels is mandatory for all growers to avoid legal consequences and maintain market access. Ensuring that a product is safe and free from harmful residues is also vital to safeguard the reputation of the industry and improve consumer trust. Breaches of MRL levels can seriously jeopardise trade and existing market access.

Why do we need an App for MRLs in export markets?

MRLs in export markets may differ from Australia.

If the MRL in an export market is higher than the Australian MRL, then exporters do not need to change their practices to be compliant with that market’s regulations. If the MRL is lower than the Australian MRL, then exporters must modify how they manage their production in blocks destined for export. In some circumstances, the MRL may be so low that it is not possible to use particular chemicals and growers need to be mindful of this in advance of committing fruit to export markets.

Berries Australia has developed the MRL app to help growers check if an export market MRL is higher or lower than Australia. The MRL app compiles information published by a wide range of countries and is the best available data at a point in time. Exporters are

A new mobile phone app designed to help growers manage chemical application and facilitate trade has been released by Berries Australia.

encouraged to speak to their importer for confirmation as they should be able to clarify any particulars relating to a specific product. Breaching another country’s MRL levels represents a serious export non-compliance. If detected upon arrival, the consequence may be the rejection of the consignment (at the exporters cost) or possibly broader, commodity-wide ramifications such as closure of market access.

Important points to consider

The WHP recommendations are determined by the export market maximum residue limit (MRL) and are based on the residue results of trials conducted in Australia and overseas.

As these results may not reflect the residue levels in all growing conditions and varieties, it is advised that berry growers test their produce for agrochemical residues to confirm that export market MRL levels are being met.

• WHPs may vary if chemicals are applied in a protected cropping environment.

• The growth-stage can be variable across a plot or block. When assessing for the purpose of applying agrochemicals, base the assessment on the most advanced crops in the plot or block to minimise the possibility of residues at harvest.

• When spraying, ensure that the amount of chemical applied never exceeds the rate specified on the manufacturer's label (unless otherwise specified).

• Always read the label on the chemical container. The products mentioned in the App might not necessarily be registered for use in your state.

• Keep detailed records of agrochemical applications and when spray equipment is calibrated.

• Should residue testing results not conform with the information provided in the App, contact Berries Australia.

The Berries MRL app is restricted for download in Australian app stores and users must have a login account to use the app.

User accounts are only available to berry industry members. After installing the app on a device, select Register > and follow the prompts. Once your access has been approved, you will receive a confirmation email with a temporary password. Open the app & enter your registered email address then follow the prompts to set up your secure password.

We encourage all growers to download the App for use, whether supplying domestically or for export.

Not only can it help to protect the integrity of your own business, but compliance will help our industry to grow into international markets whilst ensuring the safety of our produce and building the trust of consumers.

Future of the PALM scheme in doubt due to rushed consultations

Steve Burdette, Executive Officer, Approved Employers of Australia

After working with industry for years to support the development of the Pacific Australia Labour Mobility (PALM) scheme, the Australian Government gives industry and other stakeholders just 10 days to consider the most significant changes to the scheme in a decade. The future of the scheme is at risk with a series of unworkable and ill-considered requirements being introduced.

The PALM scheme is one of Australia’s most significant international development and foreign policy success stories in the last decade. Through COVID when Pacific countries were struggling with no tourism and Australia had a workforce shortage due to closed borders, the PALM scheme expanded rapidly.

The PALM scheme provides work opportunities for nearly 40,000 people across 10 Pacific countries and TimorLeste. Those countries benefit from remittances from workers that support families and communities across the Pacific, and the skill and knowledge development that visa holders receive when they are in Australia.

The success of the PALM scheme is built on trust and good faith between Pacific countries and TimorLeste, the Australian Government, employers, and all stakeholders in participating countries, however the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) recently released the most significant changes to the scheme with just 10 days consultation.

More than 28,000 of the 40,000 people working in the PALM scheme are working in Australian horticulture because the short term, seasonal nature of the work means that they can return to their families every year. The seasonality of horticulture requires flexibility in the scheme and in business.

DEWR has publicised that it has consulted widely with Approved Employers (AEs), industry groups, Unions, Community organisations, Pacific countries, to name a few. However, despite multiple consultation sessions, emails, letters, and regular meetings stretching back to early 2022, DEWR has failed to provide Approved Employers with a workable framework for the scheme.

DEWR has not consulted in good faith due to the following:

• Approved Employers and Industry Associations were given 10 working days to provide comments on the 180 pages of the draft Deed & Guidelines.

• Despite this, AEs provided constructive feedback on the Deed & Guidelines circulated. However, the final document released differed significantly to what we consulted on without any further consultation with AEs.

• There has been a considerable lack of transparency around submissions from all stakeholders - access to submissions would have assisted all stakeholders to address the concerns raised and develop solutions.

• Despite continuing requests, no data has been provided by DEWR or others to support the position of ‘mass worker exploitation’ in comparison to any other sector. A Fair Work Ombudsman (FWO) representative at Hort Connections announced that PALM Approved Employers were 95% compliant with legislation which is much higher than any other sector.

• We question whether the Pacific countries and Timor-Leste are being consulted properly (as are we) or whether it has any influence on some of the settings, such as the repatriation and redeployment of workers. The consequences of these new settings may be enormous and unnecessary.

• Government inaction to address illegal operators and absconding is bringing the program into disrepute and creating an unlevel playing field.

What we are left with are unnecessary and impractical changes which are not aligned with the realities or needs of business. These changes have already led to several Approved Employers exiting the scheme and divesting ownership of accommodation and/or moving away from accommodating PALM workers.

Critically, overlapping clauses affect issues like minimum wage and minimum pay requirements; standdowns; and pay parity, accommodation, and other conditions. (See Table 1).

As Approved Employers we fear that by the time the effect of these changes becomes clear it will be too late for growers, Pacific countries, and Timor-Leste to recover due to unintended consequences.

This industry proposal was being considered by Unions and other stakeholders in Australia, Pacific countries, and Timor-Leste, but the Department is moving forward with a requirement for a ‘minimum of 30 hours per week employed’ instead of a ‘minimum average of 30 hours of work a week for the duration of their employment’ that will reduce demand for Pacific workers, particularly among smaller growers.

Industry surveys indicate a drop in demand for the PALM scheme by 20-30%. This means a reduction of 9,000 workers in Horticulture alone. The full impact of these decisions will really only be known in 12 months’ time when a number of these settings are implemented.

Australian employers have outlined a practical and pragmatic approach that ensures worker earnings are maintained while allowing employers to manage weather events and the seasonal nature of harvests.

Instead of working with employers, workers, stakeholders and participating countries, DEWR is moving forward with their rushed and ill-considered proposal that will mean growers cannot continue employing as many Pacific people, reducing their work opportunities and the benefits to their families from working in Australia.

Bela, a worker from Timor-Leste, has worked as a Supervisor at Approved Employer Burlington Berries in Tasmania. Photo credit: Burlington Berries

We call on Ministers to intervene and implement the four-week averaging period for the benefit of Pacific workers and their home countries as well as to come back to the table and renegotiate other unworkable settings.

Issues that require further policy development

Deed & Guidelines Reference Outline of Issue

You must offer to each Short-Term Worker at least the following number of hours of work:

(a) From the commencement of Your Deed to 31 December 2023 (inclusive), You must offer to each Short-Term Worker at least 30 hours per week averaged over the Worker’s Placement until 31 December 2023.

(b) From 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2024 (inclusive), You must offer to each Short-Term Worker at least 30 hours per week averaged over 4-weeks during the Worker's Placement.

(c) From 1 July 2024, You must offer to each Short-Term Worker at least 30 hours per week, every week during the Worker's Placement.

Industry understands that a key goal of workers participating in the program is to maximise their earnings and that ensuring suitable hours of work are offered enables this outcome.

The horticulture sector is defined by seasonal production. This seasonal production is further defined by shoulder seasons (i.e., coming in or out of harvest) and peak periods. While a general time period for a season is known, often specific times of peak harvest and shoulder seasons can be delayed/ brought forward by several weeks at a time. It is these seasonal fluctuations that make workforce planning in the sector challenging and require greater levels of flexibility from the PALM scheme. Considering the seasonal nature of horticulture production, industry have consistently advocated for an averaging period for hours that finds the balance between workers interests and the ability of horticulture employers to engage the workers.

G 2.1.5

You must engage each Worker as an employee in accordance with all relevant laws, including by ensuring that: …

(e) Workers are provided with at least the National Minimum Wage and their minimum entitlements under the National Employment Standards (NES). An enterprise agreement or other registered agreement or employment contracts cannot provide for less than the NES or exclude them.

The PALM Transition Team issued this notice to all Approved Employers on 21 August 2023:

The final guidelines released a new requirement that Workers are provided with at least the National Minimum Wage, which is approximately 60c per hour higher than the Horticulture Award Level 1. This is a significant and unforeseen cost increase that will have a broad impact due to the number of PALM workers (28,000+) engaged in the horticulture industry.

G 5.5.1

You must ensure that Workers:

(a) are employed for at least the minimum working hours, and

(b) receive at least the minimum rates of pay, either:

(c) specified in these Guidelines, or

The existing PALM scheme Guidelines require PALM workers to be paid the National Minimum Wage or the relevant Fair Work instrument, whichever is higher. After these were drafted, the independent Fair Work Commission released its 2022-23 Annual Wage Review decision which resulted in a number of adult pay rates within some awards – primarily introductory rates including for Horticulture and Meat Industry Awards – falling below the National Minimum Wage. Following significant stakeholder feedback, the Government has agreed to amend the guidelines to replace references to the National Minimum Wage with the applicable minimum rate of pay. The department will revise the Guidelines and publish an updated revised version as soon as possible. The revised approach in the guidelines will take effect retrospectively from the date of execution of the new Approved Employer deeds.

This is likely to also create disharmony in the workplace where PALM workers have greater entitlements than Australians and other migrant workers.

(d) as required by law, including the Fair Work Act, whichever is higher.

In addition to the details referred to in section 3.6.3, You must include, in each draft OoE submitted by You under clause 9.1 of the Deed, as much information as possible to support Workers to understand the key elements of their OoE, including:…

(c) other conditions such as ordinary hours of work, rest and meal breaks, provisions for overtime or time-off-in-lieu, piece rates (if applicable) (ensuring You consider pay parity requirements), and …

You must pay Workers the same full rate of pay attached to the relevant classification in the applicable Fair Work instrument if workers are performing the same type of work and engaged at the same site as other employees.

G2.3.3 G 2.3.5

The full rate of pay is defined in section 18 of the Fair Work Act and includes the base rate of pay, incentive-based payments, loadings, monetary allowances, overtime and penalty rates, and any other separately identifiable amounts.

When You submit any Recruitment Application to Us, You must declare You will comply with sections 2.3.1 and 2.3.2 and include information demonstrating this (including as part of Your draft OoE).

You are responsible for identifying the relevant rate of pay in a Fair Work instrument for any employee performing the same type of work at the work site and ensuring the pay rate You provide to a Worker aligns. This evidence is determined by Your entity type:

Implementation challenge for AEs and conflict with piece rate provisions.

The PALM Transition Team issued this notice to all Approved Employers on 21 August 2023: The existing PALM scheme Guidelines require PALM workers to be paid the National Minimum Wage or the relevant Fair Work instrument, whichever is higher. After these were drafted, the independent Fair Work Commission released its 2022-23 Annual Wage Review decision which resulted in a number of adult pay rates within some awards – primarily introductory rates including for Horticulture and Meat Industry Awards – falling below the National Minimum Wage. Following significant stakeholder feedback, the Government has agreed to amend the guidelines to replace references to the National Minimum Wage with the applicable minimum rate of pay. The department will revise the Guidelines and publish an updated revised version as soon as possible. The revised approach in the guidelines will take effect retrospectively from the date of execution of the new Approved Employer deeds.

(a) Direct Employers – evidence of the relevant rate of pay in the applicable Fair Work instrument that would apply to any other employee outside of the PALM scheme.

(b) Labour Hire Companies – evidence of the relevant rate of pay in the applicable Fair Work instrument that would apply to an employee engaged directly by the Host Organisation to perform the same type of work at the same work site as the Worker, and a statement countersigned by the Host Organisation and Labour Hire Company agreeing to maintain pay parity for the duration of the Placement.

ABOUT STEVE BURDETTE

Steve is a senior executive with a strong background in agribusiness, ranging from field packing, logistics and marketing to commercialising intellectual property rights, restructuring/mergers and developing extensive national and international contacts and relationships. He is expert in all aspects of horticultural supply chains; from orchard development (including drought mitigation strategies and environmental sustainability) through to market.

His pragmatic experience is complimented by extensive knowledge in R&D tax, chairing a number of national and regional committees including Biosecurity, Fruit Fly, Variety and Rootstock leadership and seasonal worker programs. Steve has previously founded two variety commercialisation companies and formed grower clubs in order to maximise the returns and market opportunities. He is also author and co-author of a number of technical publications.

Steve has participated in the Seasonal Worker Program since the pilot commenced in 2012. His extensive knowledge and experience was gained between 2012 and 2018 in the recruitment, selection, administration, welfare and wellbeing of up to 200 workers from the Pacific region.

Steve has also been a key driver in the formation of the Approved Employers of Australia, chaired the Association between 2019 and 2021 and is now the Executive Officer.

www.approvedemployersofaustralia.com.au

steve@approvedemployers.com.au

Elite Tunnels is an established British manufacturer and global supplier of field-scale multi-span polytunnels, substrate gutter growing systems, and ancillary parts.

For assignments of any scale, we will handle your project professionally –with a personal touch.

We hold stock of a variety of ancillary parts, including:

• C-clips • hinge-clamps

• sheeting-rope • rope-pullers

• rolls of polytunnel film.

Early Needs & Recovery Project: Energy Audits Delivered

John Hay, Recovery & Resilience Project Officer, Berries Australia

A key focus for Berries Australia's Early Needs and Recovery project was to increase the triple bottom line by highlighting the risks to business and using purposeful strategies to mitigate these risks. With that in mind, Berries Australia have now delivered rapid assessment energy audits and installed a switchable real-time energy monitoring device for an initial three farms in the Coffs Harbour region.

The process for the energy audit included an initial site visit to discuss the general design, current practices, and yields. At the same time, pictures were taken of the infrastructure, and details were noted about the models and sizing of equipment.

The farms were required to provide two years of energy consumption including the costs. Keeping in mind that general billing can be monthly or quarterly the ideal is 5-minute granular data from real-time monitoring which will provide higher accuracy.

Energy consumption data also included diesel or petrol fuel use, and it was just as important to separate out the fuel end uses such as vehicles and generators. If there was solar onsite, a download of the generation, imports, and exports was also necessary to complete the picture. Records of irrigation scheduling was needed to match against pump sizing and run times. Plus, for more complex audits more detail may be required including irrigation design, cold room door times (open and closed), and throughput.

A small, medium, and large site were chosen to show that opportunities exist no matter the size of the operation. The audits highlighted the need to improve data management for ease of auditing so that trends can be monitored over time, and areas for efficiency improvement can be identified. Savings can be relative to the size, current efficiency of the enterprise, and run time of equipment.

The opportunities identified at the sites included:

• Tariff reviews

• Irrigation design changes

• Solar installation and utilisation

• Batteries

• Installation of additional real-time monitoring

• Management and practice changes using metrics, benchmarks and tools

Across the three sites, thirteen opportunities were identified at a capital cost of $51,800, resulting in an average payback period of 5.3 years. Potential annual energy savings of 29,509 kWh, a reduction in costs of $9,806, and 23.90t CO2-e were identified.

The monitoring devices were installed across main meters, pumping and general power circuits. Although not chosen for this project, solar generation is another option to consider if installing a device.

Due to the seasonality of blueberry production and the use of cold rooms at one site, the devices are important to capture the five-minute Time of Use (TOU) data so that a suitable hybrid solar system can be designed and precise Return on Investment (ROI) decisions can be made.

During and after the audit process, further opportunities were unpacked. These included:

• installation of rapid close doors on a cold room

• replacement of diesel gensets

• energy circuit design changes

Investigations are also continuing for a wider project to replace smaller pump motors, as they are quite inefficient. In most cases, you wouldn't change one that is currently in good working order, but advances in technology with higher efficiency options now available mean that changes could be considered under the NSW Energy Savings Scheme (ESS). Under the ESS real-time devices are recommended to provide the level of data detail needed to accurately identify energy saving opportunities.

To further enhance the value of participating in the audit project, Irrigation Distribution Uniformity (DU) tests were also completed for the three sites. Knowing the pump specifications and the run times during the test enables kWh/ML/m head to be set and used as a metric for benchmarking and monitoring. There is a direct correlation between energy and water, and if either is underperforming there is likely to be increased costs.

The audits were emailed to the growers in the form of a PDF report and through a private online digital portal. The digital reports provide a collated data source as often there are multiple site visits conducting the same tests, as well as other projects at a single site over time.

The inclusion of additional datasets, such as averaged Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) climate data based on location, the closest Internet of Things (IoT) station, live stream gauges, and other sources can then be used to correlate against results on the farm. Overall, this will aid with forecasting and giver deeper insights for easier decision making.

Although not considered a first line of defence for recovery and resilience, through the energy audit process you can:

1. Gather an updated list of infrastructure and images for insurance purposes

2. Increase knowledge so that changes can be considered should damage take place

3. Increase profits through adoption and practice change

4. Reinvest profits in strategies that provide resilience on farm

Additional free energy and irrigation audits are available for farms in the NSW region that are eligible under the Hort360 Recovery and Resilience project.

Acknowledgements

The Early Needs Recovery Program is part of the $150 million Primary Industry Support Package which is co-funded by the Australian and NSW Governments. For more information about the program, please visit Early Needs Recovery Program - Local Land Services (nsw.gov.au).

FAIR & ETHICAL SOURCING CONFERENCE

‘Perspectives & solutions for Australian horticulture’

Introducing our keynote speaker:

BERNARD SALT

Bernard Salt is one of Australia’s most renowned demographers, a social commentator and an author known for his insightful analysis of demographic and social trends.

...And our first round of speakers

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

20 October 2023

The Cargo Hall, Melbourne

More speaker announcements coming soon…

EMMA GERMANO President Victorian Farmers Federation

STEVE RONSON Executive Director of Enforcement Fair Work Ombudsmen

BRENDAN HAAR General Manager Haars Nursery

STEVE BURDETTE Executive Officer Approved Employers of Australia

National map of Protected Cropping Systems now live

Craig Shephard, Senior Researcher, Applied Agricultural Remote Sensing Centre (AARSC)

Australia’s first protected cropping map was launched in July 2023 as an interactive dashboard that allows users to explore the location and area of around 14,000 hectares of glasshouses, commercial nets, polytunnels and shadehouses. Through the map, the horticulture sector will now be better equipped to forecast yields, manage logistics, and respond to natural disasters and biosecurity threats.

Delivered through Hort Innovation and led by the University of New England’s (UNE) Applied Agricultural Remote Sensing Centre (AARSC) in collaboration with Protected Cropping Australia and NSW Local Land Services, and supported by Future Food Systems CRC, the resource provides a current measure of Australia’s horticultural production within protected cropping systems. This includes all commercial greenhouses and nets, which are used to grow crops such as tomatoes, berries, and leafy greens.

The mapping project found NSW to have the highest proportion of permanent nets (3,005 ha), while South Australia boasts more than half of the country’s polyhouses (1,103 ha). In total, it identified 13,932 hectares of protected cropping structures (PCS) nationwide— a number that exceeds previous industry estimates by 30 percent.

Professor Andrew Robson, Director of AARSC, says the new resource will fill a significant knowledge gap faced by the industry.

“The map is a fundamental dataset supporting decision-making at multiple scales,” he says.

“At a national and regional level, the map is informing strategic decision-making for industry, including new developments and market analysis for labour and transport logistics.

Led by AARSC’s Craig Shephard, the research team primarily applied remote sensing analytics, including satellite imagery to map the location and extent of the country’s protected cropping facilities, along with extensive industry engagement and field validation.

“Having this data on hand is invaluable in situations such as the recent Varroa mite biosecurity outbreak in NSW,” says Mr Shephard.

At the local level, the map supports growers as a collective, as knowing where crops are located is vital for an improved response to biosecurity incursions and the coordination of onground surveillance. It’s also necessary for quantifying area of structures affected following a natural disaster.

“We were able to leverage the PCS map to create the Varroa Mite Rapid Response Map, which is an interactive application that reports the total area of impacted structures within the eradication and surveillance zones.

“Through knowing this data, the industry has been able to accurately quantify impacts and prioritise responses to affected growers, minimising impact on the supply chain.” To ensure the data remains accurate, the map will be updated periodically, and industry will be engaged using location-based tools built by AARSC. These include the PCS Survey (best for mobile), or the Industry Engagement Web App (best for desktop).

For more information contact: Craig Shephard | cshepha2@une.edu.au or Andy Clark | andrew.clark@une.edu.au

Acknowledgement: This project is being funded by Hort Innovation through the Hort Frontiers Advanced Production Systems Fund with co-investment from Future Food Systems CRC, Protected Cropping Australia LTD and Greater Sydney and North Coast Local Land Services and matched funding from the Commonwealth Government. AARSC is fortunate for the support of the project partners in this initiative.

Access the PCS Dashboard at bit.ly/PCS-Dashboard

The Mini Farm Project

Wendy Morris, Berry Industry Development Officer, Queensland

In 2022, over two million Australian households experienced severe food insecurity. Charities, who must source or purchase fresh produce, often rely on heavily processed packets and cans of food to supply their clients. Nick Steiner has always been passionate about health and giving back to the community, and to him this wasn’t good enough. From his backyard in 2014, he started an initiative growing fresh produce to provide to charities to feed people in need.

From very small beginnings, The Mini Farm Project grew to urban farms, where unused plots outside of skyscrapers and office buildings became fruit and vegetable gardens.

Covid-19 put a swift end to the original model. The project shifted operations to two initial sites – one at Samford and a second at Loganlea State High School, both in south east Queensland. The charity farms are run by both paid and unpaid staff using low impact growing and sustainable farming methods.

The produce is harvested and delivered next day from the Samford farm. At the Loganlea State High School plot, where the project is built into the curriculum, two students who are studying a Cert II in Volunteering undertake picking, washing and packing every Wednesday. Produce is delivered on the day of harvest.

For the thousands of Australians who have benefitted from The Mini Farm Project, the fresh fruit and vegetables have been a lifeline. The Mini Farm Project also supplies nutritious soup to people staying at the Ronald McDonald House – a home-away-from-home for families of seriously ill children being treated at nearby hospitals - to ensure they are well fed during some of the most stressful days, weeks or months of their lives. At LuvaBerry in Wamuran, Queensland, an acre of land has been set aside by the farm owners Adrian and Mandy Schultz for use by The Mini Farm Project on their strawberry farm. The LuvaBerry site in Wamuran, and another further up the Sunshine Coast in Coolum are part of the future for the project and both sites are awaiting sufficient sponsorship to fund their opening. Once open, they will grow fruit, vegetables and herbs for needy families and local charitable organisations all year round.

The project relies on 3 revenue streams for funding:

Sponsorship of a farm bed Sales of produce grown

Nick has his eye on expanding the range of products available, to include chicken, eggs, honey, bush food and fish. The end goal? 100 farms stretching the length and breadth of Queensland from Coolangatta to Cairns. To help fund the project, consumers can purchase fruits, herbs or vegetables direct from The Mini Farms website or commit to sponsorship for as little as $3.70 a month.

Sponsors are provided with full financial transparency, voting rights and livestreaming of operations. All donations and Sponsorship payments are fully tax deductible.

Find out more at www.mfp.org.au

FACEBOOK-SQUARE www.facebook.com/theminifarmproject instagram www.instagram.com/minifarmp

Nick Steiner shows off just some of the fresh produce grown by The Mini Farm Project. Photo credit: Nick Steiner

A one acre plot has been set aside at LuvaBerry waiting for sufficient sponsorship to ‘break ground’.

Photo credit: Wendy Morris

The site at Loganlea State High School in south east Queensland. Photo credit: Nick Steiner

The Tapex Group is excited to announce the merger of two subsidiary companies, Polygro and GreenLife Structures, to create a leading solutions organisation for growers in protected cropping across Australia. The name GreenlifeGRO represents what we do – helping growers ‘shield and yield’ their crops. We are modern leaders in protected cropping and horticulture solutions, overcoming current and future climate and bio security concerns in agronomy. GreenlifeGRO strives to deliver better crop outcomes, while minimising its environmental impact through less waste and by developing circular economies for sustainable outcomes. GreenlifeGRO offers the highest quality products and solutions for growing produce and plant life today, tomorrow and into the future.

• Commercial Greenhouses

• Netting and Shade Structures

• Netting and Fabric Products

• Greenhouse Films

• Coir Products

• Twine

• Weed Mat

• Rope

• Greenhouse, Netting and Tunnel Accessories

Chlorine dosing to manage bacterial iron in a bore

Helen Newman, Berry Industry Development Officer, Agricultural Produce Commission

Many growers are challenged by the buildup of brown sludge in irrigation systems caused by iron bacteria. Ben Funnekotter at The Seedling Factory showed us how he controls iron bacteria in his contaminated bores during a recent tour of his operations. His home-made system provides continual chlorine treatment to the bore (which kills the bacteria) using a simple Venturi setup that draws water through a canister containing chlorine tablets.

How does it work?

When the bore is pumping, part of the outgoing water is diverted through 4-6mm micro tube (yellow tube) that delivers water to the top of the canister containing chlorine tablets. The canister diameter can be 65-100mm.

The water percolates through the chlorine tablets and is then led by another 4-6mm micro tube (red tube) from the bottom of the cannister to the very bottom of the bore where the chlorinated water is recirculated with the main ground water stream before it’s pumped to the surface.

No power needed, just a weekly top up of chlorine tablets. A simple home-made system that does the job!

Iron bacteria are microorganisms that occur naturally in soil, surface water, and shallow groundwater. While most bacteria get their energy from decomposing organic matter, iron bacteria derive theirs from oxidising dissolved ferrous iron or manganese in groundwater. Gallionella spp. and Lepothrix spp. are the two common bacterial species involved in iron and manganese oxidation.

Although a small population of iron bacteria can naturally occur in groundwater, they typically exist in abundance above ground. The most common way for these organisms to enter wells is when the bacteria enter from the ground surface during well drilling, submersible pump installation, or any other construction, maintenance, or well servicing. Good hygiene practices when drilling and maintaining a bore can help keep the water source free from the bacteria.

An extreme case of iron sludge deposits inside a pipe. Photo credit: Patrick Ruohy

Red micro tube takes chlorinated water from the tablet canister down to the base of the bore where it is mixed with the main groundwater stream providing continual dosing while the bore is pumping

Yellow micro tube supplies water from the bore to the top of the

Galvanised post:

• holds the canister off the ground

PVC canister:

• holds 10 x chlorine tablets

• refill 1 x week depending on water usage

Thank you to Ben Funnekotter at The Seedling Factory for sharing this system design.

Iron bacterial treatment system used at The Seedling Factory to prevent iron sludge in irrigation pipes.

Photo credit: Helen Newman

chlorine tablet canister

Recommended sizing for pipes and the canister. Photo credit: Helen Newman

Dùng chlorine để kiểm soát vi khuẩn sắt trong giếng khoan

Helen Newman, Berry Industry Development Officer, Agricultural Produce Commission

Nhiều người trồng trọt gặp khó khăn do sự tích tụ cặn bẩn nâu trong hệ thống tưới do vi khuẩn sắt gây ra. Ben Funnekotter từ The Seedling Factory đã chỉ cho chúng tôi cách anh ấy kiểm soát vi khuẩn sắt trong các giếng khoan bị ô nhiễm trong một chuyến tham quan cơ sở của anh ấy. Hệ thống tự chế của anh ấy cung cấp khả năng xử lý bằng chlorine liên tục cho giếng khoan (giúp tiêu diệt vi khuẩn) bằng cách sử dụng thiết lập Venturi đơn giản bơm nước qua một bình chứa các viên nén chlorine.

Hệ thống này hoạt động như thế nào?

Khi nước giếng khoan bơm lên, một phần nước chảy ra được chuyển hướng qua một 4-6mm ống (ống màu vàng) để đưa nước vào phía trên cùng của bình chứa các viên nén chlorine. đường kính của thùng chứa có thể là 65-100mm.

Nước thấm qua các viên nén chlorine và sau đó được dẫn bằng một ống (ống màu đỏ) từ đáy bình chứa đến điểm thấp nhất mà nước giếng khoan vừa bơm lên nơi mà nước có chứa chlorine được tuần hoàn với dòng nước ngầm chính trước khi được bơm ra bên ngoài.

Không cần dùng điện, chỉ cần thêm các viên nén chlorine hàng tuần.

Vi khuẩn sắt là vi sinh vật xuất hiện tự nhiên trong đất, nước mặt và nước ngầm nông. Trong khi hầu hết vi khuẩn lấy năng lượng từ quá trình phân hủy chất hữu cơ thì vi khuẩn sắt lấy năng lượng từ quá trình oxy hóa sắt hoặc mangan hòa tan trong nước ngầm. Gallionella spp. và Lepotrix spp. là hai loài vi khuẩn phổ biến tham gia vào quá trình oxy hóa sắt và mangan.

Mặc dù một số lượng nhỏ vi khuẩn sắt có thể xuất hiện tự nhiên trong nước ngầm, nhưng chúng thường tồn tại rất nhiều trên mặt đất. Cách phổ biến nhất để những sinh vật này xâm nhập vào giếng là khi vi khuẩn xâm nhập từ bề mặt đất trong quá trình khoan giếng, lắp đặt máy bơm chìm hoặc bất kỳ hoạt động thi công, bảo trì hoặc bảo dưỡng giếng. Thực hành vệ sinh tốt khi khoan và bảo trì giếng khoan có thể giúp giữ cho nguồn nước không có vi khuẩn.

Một trường hợp nghiêm trọng của cặn lắng đọng bên trong đường ống. Photo credit: Patrick Ruohy

Ống nhỏ màuđỏ: dẫn nước có chứa chlorine từ bình chứa đến điểm thấp nhất mà nước giếng khoan vừa bơm lên, nơi mà nó đượchòa lẫn với dòng nước ngầm chính cung cấp liều lượng liên tục trong khi nước giếng khoan được bơm ra ngoài

Ống nhỏ màuvàng: cung cấp nước từ giếng khoan vào phía trên cùng của bình chứa các viên nén chlorine

Trụ đỡ:

• Giữbình chứa khỏi mặt đất

Bình PVC

• Chứa được 10 viên nén chlorine

• Thêm 1 lần 1 tuần tùy thuộclượng nước sử dụng

Kích

Hệ thống xử lý vi khuẩn sắt được sử dụng tại The Seedling Factory để ngăn cặn sắt trong đường ống tưới.

Photo credit: Helen Newman

thước khuyến nghị cho đường ống và hộp đựng. Photo credit: Helen Newman

Cảm ơn Ben Funnekotter từ The Seedling Factory đã chia sẻ thiết kế hệ thống này.

IPM Notes: Chilli Thrips

Cezar Moraes, Senior IPM Consultant, Biological Services. Elliot Howse, Research Scientist, Insect and Disease Management Department of Primary Industries and Development. Aileen Reid, Strawberry Industry Development Officer, Agricultural Produce Commission

Chilli thrips have quickly jumped onto the radar of many horticulturalists in Western Australia despite having been present in northern Australia for around 20 years. The first complaints from home gardeners in the Perth metro area were received in approximately 2020. This was followed by table grape growers the following year and by berry growers in 2021/22. This highly polyphagous pest, with a wide host range of 225 plant species, is known around the world to be notoriously difficult to manage and can cause significant economic damage to horticulture.

Distribution

Chilli thrips (S. dorsalis) are native to Asia. They were first recorded in Florida in 1991, became established in Florida in the USA in around 2005 and since then have become a major pest of many horticultural crops. They have been reported in various parts of Africa and are also established in Israel, the Solomon Islands, the Caribbean and South America. They were first reported in northern Australia approximately 20 years ago.

Description

S. dorsalis are sap-sucking insects that can cause deformities in flowers, leaves, stems, and shoots and are a known vector of several viruses including tomato spotted wilt virus and tobacco streak virus.

Also known as strawberry and/or yellow tea thrips, S. dorsalis has an extensive host range. In WA, it has been reported on table grapes, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, capsicums, chillis, roses and tomatoes, but there are many other hosts reported including a wide range of fruit and vegetable crops. Nightshades and Acacia are also listed as hosts and may be responsible for overwintering.

Thrips are most active during spring, summer, and autumn. In Western Australia, dryness and higher temperatures create conditions that are conducive to S. dorsalis feeding, spread and reproduction. Like most thrips,

S. dorsalis feeds on tender plant parts, which results in undesirable feeding scars, distortion of leaves, and discoloration of buds, flowers, and young fruits. The pest is not reported to feed on mature host tissues.

Identification and key characteristics

Chilli thrips are pale yellow in colour. They are very small (0.5-1.2mm long) and hard to distinguish from other thrips species without a microscope. Key distinguishing features are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Distinguishing features of Chilli thrips.

Life Cycle

The thrips life cycle, comprising egg, larva, pre-pupa, pupa, and adult (Figure 2), lasts from 15-40 days depending on temperature and host plant. For example, it takes 11 days to become an adult from first instar larva on capsicum plants and 13 days on squash at 28°C. Adults can survive for 15 days on eggplant, but 13 days on tomato plants and roses. They can survive at minimum temperatures as low as 9.7°C and maximum temperatures as high as 33.0°C.

S. dorsalis can have many generations in a single year and populations can build up quickly over a relatively short time. In the Perth region, up to 13 generations may be possible (Figure 3). This would likely be higher for those under high tunnels and in greenhouses. Understanding the lifecycle of the pest will help with management options and schedules.

Monitoring

• Yellow sticky traps are the most commonly used and are effective in attracting the thrips; other research shows that blue can also be effective (Figure 4).

• Crop scouting includes direct methods such as counting thrips on any part of a host plant (e.g. leaf, flower and fruit) using a (10x) hand lens, microscope or the naked eye.

• Tapping flowers or branches into a white paper board will dislodge adults which can then be counted.

• Sampling methods must take account of the distribution of the thrips within the crop as the pest is often quite unevenly distributed.

Figure 2. Chilli thrips life cycle lasts from 15-40 days depending on temperature and host plant.

Illustrations by J.R. Baker, NC State University.

Figure 3. The number of weeks it takes for a generation of Chilli thrip to complete a life cycle in the Perth region is shown with the monthly accumulated degree days. Source: Elliot Howse, DPIRD

Figure 4. Sticky traps used in monitoring and management trials: (L) yellow trap placed above a Rubus crop to attract thrips away from fresh tips; (R) blue traps used in blueberry trials. Photo credit: Cezar Moraes, Biological Services

Symptoms of Damage

Strawberries

Heavy feeding causes reddening and darkening of leaf veins and petioles (Figure 5A). With severe infestations, the entire leaf turns dark, crinkled, and deformed (Figure 5B). Fruit damage shows as bronzing, and cracking of fruits, ultimately reducing crop yields (Figure 5C).

Blueberries

The appearance of bronzing on new flush may be the first indication of the Chilli thrips presence in blueberries (Figure 6A). Chilli thrips feed primarily on young blueberry foliage during summer and early autumn. Adults and larvae punch holes through the epidermis inserting a stylet to remove the contents, leading to necrosis and death of tissues (Figure 6B). Injury symptoms first appear as bronzing along leaf veins and petioles, then leaves start to curl and distort (Figure 6C). Heavy infestations cause flower abortion and leaf defoliation with extensive curling of leaves.

Figure 5. Symptoms of Chilli thrip damage in strawberry. Photo credit: Cezar Moraes, Biological Services

Figure 6. Symptoms of Chilli thrip damage in blueberry. Photo credit: Cezar Moraes, Biological Services

Blackberries

Early signs of Chilli thrips damage are browning and dehydration of the leaf margins (Figure 7A, 7B). With heavy infestations leaf margins start to curl upwards (Figure 7C). Fruit may be distorted with individual drupelets appearing dehydrated.

Biological control

Biological controls are important in a Chilli thrip control strategy due the ability of the thrips to quickly develop resistance to chemicals.

Below is a description of the strategies Biological Services used to manage the pest in 2022 and 2023.

Strawberries

Chilli thrips were present in most of the second-year plants in the Wanneroo-Gingin area in 2022 and 2023. The control strategy involved a rotation of Success Neo™ (spinetoram), Entrust™ (spinosad) and Hymal™ (maldison), which was applied after the plants were cut back in March/April.

The aim was to reduce the pest population before releasing predators such as Cucumeris and Orius.

Cucurmeris mites (Neoseiulus cucumeris)

Cucumeris mites are less than 1mm in length and can be distinguished from most pest mites by their shape and mobility. Cucumeris is teardrop shaped and moves rapidly along the underside of leaves and in flowers. Development of the mite takes from 8-11 days (at 25-20°C). Cucumeris mites can live up to 32 days and females produce an average of 35 eggs in their lifetime.

Cucumeris prefer environments with greater than 65% relative humidity (RH), but eggs can survive as low as 40% RH. Microclimates within the greenhouse crop appear to be important for their survival. Cucumeris feed on small (1st and 2nd instar) thrips on foliage and flowers, and will not feed on large larvae or adult thrips. Cucumeris is a generalist predator and will also feed on other mites.

Cucumeris rate: 20 litres / hectare (strawberries) in two releases each of 10 litres. They can be supplied as loose material or sachets.

Figure 7. Symptoms of Chilli thrip damage in blackberry. Photo credit: Elliot Howse, DPIRD

Orius bugs (Orius tantillus)

Orius go through 7 developmental stages in their life cycle which includes egg, five larval (nymphal) stages and adult. The female lays eggs into the plant tissue of the stem, fruit, petiole and major veins on the underside of leaves. The eggs are almost completely embedded within the plant tissue and only the cap-like upper part of the egg is visible. Monitoring of egg laying should be carried out with the use of a hand lens. The development time from egg to adult can vary from 16-18 days at 25°C, to 12 days at 30°C. Females lay at a relatively slow rate of around 2-3 eggs per day, but adults live for 3-4 weeks.

All life stages of Orius feed on live prey with adults being able to kill up to 20 thrips per day. When the pest population is high, Orius will kill more thrips than are required for their nutritional needs. Orius adults are competent fliers and can move through a crop quickly when searching for food. During the cooler darker periods of the day Orius will hide in flowers, leaf axils and on stems (Figure 8). They are more active in the middle of the day.

For strawberries 2-4 Orius/m² is used.

Blueberries and blackberries

Blueberries and blackberries had significant issues with Chilli thrips during the 2023 season. During summer and autumn frequent applications of chemicals were essential. The high pest pressure and low humidity meant biological controls were not effective.

Some spray applications incorporated two chemicals at the same time. During the peak times of February and March, two spray applications in the same week (Monday and Friday) were necessary.

Currently Cucumeris are applied at the end of autumn and during winter to keep Chilli thrip populations lower during the following spring season, but it appears they will be an issue even from May onwards, so the use of Cucumeris may become more important from May to November.

Chemical control

Management of Chilli thrips can be challenging. The insects can move to surrounding weed crops to take refuge and they lay eggs inside the leaf tissue where they are protected from pesticide sprays. Thrips hide in concealed places such as leaf curls or under fruit calyxes where they can avoid pesticide applications.

It is necessary to apply insecticides in rotation to prevent resistance development.

Trials by Biological Services in Western Australia used a range of pesticides including:

• Success Neo™ (Spinetoram)

• Vertimec™ (Abamectin)

• Py-bo™ (Natural Pyrethrum)

• Entrust™ (Spinosad)

• Benevia™ (Cyantraniliprole)

• Transform™ (Sulfoxaflor)

• Movento™ (Spirotetramat)

• Velifer™ (Beauveria bassiana)

• Adjuvants: Wetcit™/Molasses

Chemicals that offered temporary reductions in numbers were:

• Entrust™

• Hymal™ or Fyfanon™

• Benevia™

Control was improved when adjuvants were used.

Control Summary

• Maintain a weekly monitoring schedule from spring until autumn

• Use more selective chemicals to control Chilli thrips

• Ensure you follow the application instructions on the label or Minor Use Permit

• Avoid using the same chemical more than three times during the season

Figure 8. Orius feeding on Chilli thrip in a strawberry flower. Photo credit: Cezar Moraes, Biological Services

Challenges and future directions

• As in-field identification of Chilli thrips is difficult, better methods for accurate and rapid identification are required.

• Populations develop rapidly often overwhelming bio controls.

• We need better knowledge of overwintering hosts.

• Cryptic behaviour and a lifecycle in different parts of the environment/plant make control difficult. A better understanding of the thrips behaviour throughout its life cycle on different hosts is required. This may include varietal susceptibility and thrips behaviour in response to different substrates such as coir.

• Thrips are notorious for developing insecticide resistance so any control strategy must use a combination of methods including biological controls and chemicals. There are a number of additional biological controls that could be screened including other predatory mites and entomopathic fungi.

• Chemicals currently being used need to be monitored for resistance and also crop residues.

• In the longer term there may be a need for new pesticide chemistry which is compatible with biological control agents.

• Control strategies using predictive models may be developed as we gain more knowledge on the interaction of the Chilli thrips life cycle in conjunction with climatic variables and crop species.

Developing safer, selective insecticides to preserve honey bee health

Emily Remnant, Joel Mackay, and Jessica Carter, Researchers in the Mackay Lab, University of Sydney

Most currently used pesticides in agricultural applications contain broad-spectrum chemicals, which are harmful to a wide range of insects. However, the majority of insects are not pests, and with concerns about global insect declines and the impact this will have on ecosystem health1, there is a need for more environmentally friendly insecticides that have selective action against major pests while preserving the health of beneficial insects.

Honeybees often top the list of beneficial insects, given that thirty per cent of global agricultural systems are reliant on pollination by bees. However, the health of honeybees is increasingly under threat due to the spread of pests and diseases, including the parasitic mite Varroa destructor and other in-hive pests such as the small hive beetle. Broad-spectrum pesticides used in agriculture also contribute to declines in pollinator health2.

The recent arrival of the mite Varroa destructor on Australian shores has caused widespread concern to the beekeeping and horticultural industries, leading to a hive euthanasia program and feral colony baiting in the affected regions as part of the eradication response. This event was a stark reminder of the importance of maintaining current, effective pest control strategies for mites.

Pesticides used to control mites elsewhere in the world are dwindling in efficacy due to the development of chemical tolerance3, and novel control methods are urgently required to safeguard the pollination and horticultural industries. In particular, a selective pesticide that was harmful to Varroa but safe for honeybees would provide a valuable weapon in our arsenal of strategies to combat mites.

How are new insecticides discovered?

In the past, insecticides were identified serendipitously via toxicity screening, with the aim to find chemicals that were lethal to insects, but not to mammals, fish or birds. Once identified, as long as a chemical effectively killed pests, little attention was given to how that chemical killed pests.

Insecticides generally work by entering the insect via the gut, respiratory system or through their hard, shelllike external cuticle, and binding to a specific protein ‘target’, causing that target to malfunction in some way. Often, the protein target of early insecticides was not known until the insecticide stopped working, usually due to a genetic mutation in the target protein that led to insecticide resistance.

Many targets have been identified by studying insects with resistance mutations, but by this stage it is too late – once resistance develops, any insecticide with a similar chemical structure is likely to be ineffective. We now know that most broad-spectrum insecticides are neurotoxic, affecting a range of different protein targets in the peripheral and central nervous systems of the insect, causing paralysis and death. However, in principle any target that provides an essential function to an insect is a potential avenue for insecticide discovery. Designing pesticides that kill one group of insects but not others is a relatively new area of research, but it draws upon the principles of modern drug discovery that are used to identify new pharmaceuticals. Such methods combine toxicology and chemistry with structural biology, protein biochemistry and genomics, to identify molecules that bind to promising biological targets. The key difference to this approach – targetbased drug discovery – is that we already know the target. In the insect world, an ideal target is one that performs an essential biological function, but is both

absent in vertebrates (so that it’s safe for animals such as mammals, fish and birds) and also subtly different between insects, providing an avenue to selective insecticides that are safe for ‘bystander’ insects. Once a target is in hand, high throughput screening of an extensive library of chemicals is performed to identify candidate molecules, which are then optimised to increase affinity and selectivity.

Our research at the University of Sydney, led by Prof Joel Mackay, Prof Ron Hill and Dr Emily Remnant and funded by Hort Innovation and a generous philanthropic donation, aims to identify a selective pesticide that targets the Varroa mite but is harmless for honeybees. Although mites are distinct from insects (they are arachnids, like spiders and ticks), they contain similar biochemical pathways that can be targeted by insecticides. However, these processes are slightly different in honeybees, and we are looking at these differences to find a pesticide that kills mites, but not bees.

In our work to date, we have identified a promising target that is part of the insect and mite hormonal system. Insect hormones regulate many major developmental processes that affect insect reproduction, development and behaviour. These hormones bind to protein receptors that vary subtly in structure between insect groups, providing an opportunity for selective pesticide design. We have now developed an efficient, large-scale process for making our target receptor, and have recently completed our first screening of drug fragments on the Varroa mite hormone receptor. Excitingly, we discovered a number of molecules that interacted with the receptor, and we are now in the process of validating these ‘hits’.

At the same time, we have been working to determine differences in the three-dimensional shape of the Varroa and honey bee hormone receptor proteins, to aid us in the search and design of molecules that can exploit those differences. This year we have already made significant progress towards determining these shapes and we hope to have them locked down in the next six months, which will provide a significant boost to our efforts.

Finally, we are concurrently targeting another pollinator pest – the small hive beetle, which thrives in the humid conditions of Australia’s east coast. While current beetle traps are effective, they incorporate a broad-spectrum neurotoxic insecticide, fipronil, which is highly toxic for bees if they are exposed.

For example, if a hive takes on water and floods the trap, fipronil can be released into the hive, killing bees. Our aim is to generate beetle-specific chemicals using our hormone-receptor strategy that can be used safely within the hive environment.

Overall, we hope that this new approach to insecticide discovery will allow safe, selective and effective pest control, while maintaining the health of honey bee and improving outcomes for the beekeeping and pollination industries.

Acknowledgements

Protecting pollinators from pesticides: Developing safer, selective pesticides targeting Varroa mite and small hive beetle hormone receptors is funded by the Hort Frontiers Pollination Fund, part of the Hort Frontiers strategic partnership initiative developed by Hort Innovation, with coinvestment from the University of Sydney and contributions from the Australian Government.

References

1. Wagner DL, Grames EM, Forister ML, Berenbaum MR, Stopak D. (2021) Insect decline in the Anthropocene: Death by a thousand cuts. PNAS. 118 (2):e2023989118. (doi:10.1073/pnas.2023989118)

2. Goulson D, Nicholls E, Botías C, & Rotheray EL (2015) Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and lack of flowers. Science. 347(6229):1255957.

3. Jack CJ, Kleckner K, Demares F, Rault LC, Anderson TD, Carlier PR, Bloomquist JR & Ellis JD (2022) Testing new compounds for efficacy against Varroa destructor and safety to honeybees (Apis mellifera). Pest Manag Sci. 78(1):159-165.

For more information you can contact: Emily Remnant

emily.remnant@sydney.edu.au

Professor Joel Mackay

joel.mackay@sydney.edu.au

Research updates also appear on Joel’s lab website: mackaymatthewslab.org/wp/research

Profile: Parvinder Lalli, NSW

Gaius Leong, Berry Industry Development Officer, NSW Department of Primary Industries

It is overcast as I drive into Parvinder’s farm. The neat rows of raspberries greet you at the front and you can’t help but notice the massive Cravo set-up as you pull up to his house. These crops are well protected from the elements, unlike me, as I hurry to find shelter from the incoming weather event. I find Parvinder walking to his work shed carrying some chains for his ‘leg-row’ mower. Being a farmer definitely means being a ‘jack of all trades’; growing, harvesting, quality checking, equipment maintenance, people management are all in a day’s work. We proceed into his well-built semi-alfresco living room where we get down to some serious berry business

Parvinder’s parents arrived in the Coffs Harbour area in the late 1960s, where like many other farmers in the community they started banana farming around Woolgoolga. The local banana industry went through some hard times in the late 80s to 90s, which pushed Parvinder towards the hospitality industry. It was always his intention to return to his farming roots, and when the opportunity arose, he purchased his first farm from his parents in 2003.

As blueberry development started to grow in the region, he rode the early wave by removing a few blocks of the existing bananas and planting his first crop of blueberries. Fast-forward to 2010, after a few good years of berry business and highway acquisitions, Parvinder purchased his current farm. Stepping outside his comfort zone and doing something different has provided the opportunity for Parvinder to be one of the first few growers in the region to start growing raspberries and blackberries.

The first raspberry crop was planted in 2015, followed by the first blackberry crop in 2017. Parvinder was also one of the first few growers to adopt the Priva water management systems and Groscale technology in the region.

The system has assisted him in monitoring and controlling plant moisture usage and regulating pot moisture going into the evening. This is quintessential for the control of sooty mould in raspberries. Parvinder’s latest technological investment has been a Cravo retractable roof system in 2020, which allows him to regulate airflow and temperature, creating a more desirable microclimate for plant growth and pollination.

Looking around the property, things have changed drastically over the years. All ground grown; netted berries have given way to protected cropping. The diversification into other berries and other crops is a response to the evolving landscape in a maturing berry industry.

Block currently planted to substrate with protected blueberries (April 2023). Photo credit: Gaius Leong

Being able to read and understand the market demand, adapt to the conditions and execute the changes required are key markers for success in this demanding sector. Diversification has also provided a steady income stream and enabled the retention of skilled labour through the entire season.

The unpredictability of weather events can always put a big dent in even the most well-developed production plans. A devasting hailstorm in 2016 and the last few seasons of wet weather (which increased disease pressure and made harvesting netted berries impossible) are key moments that have propelled Parvinder towards adopting a full protected cropping approach.

Achieving production consistency in quality and timing is paramount in satisfying both retail and consumer demands. Even though disease pressure has dropped off significantly in the new system, pest pressure is still an issue that requires attention in protected cropping.

When transferring to protected cropping, Parvinder points out the importance of understanding the difference in plastic range and quality. Allowing adequate photosynthetic active radiation (PAR) and light diffusion to reach the crop will heavily affect plant growth and eventual yields. In addition, achieving adequate airflow and ground cover at specific times under protected cropping reduces pest and disease pressure. In a nutshell, protected cropping provides a good framework for achieving consistency in production, however, if not executed correctly, can lead to detrimental effects on plant growth and yield.

For the future, Parvinder is exploring the opportunity of installing a closed re-circulation system that will enable the capture and re-use of nutrition run-off, thus reducing environmental impacts and increasing fertiliser use efficiency.

As I prepare to take my leave, Parvinder provides some insight and wisdom.

Firstly, a quote from Roman philosopher Seneca: ‘luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity’. Secondly, ‘have the right infrastructure, but do not over capitalise’.

I wish Parvinder the best of ‘preparation and opportunity’ in his future endeavours.

Block planted to raspberries (March 2016).

Photo credit: Gaius Leong

Block planted to blackberries (September 2020).

Photo credit: Gaius Leong

BERRIES AUSTRALIA TEAM SHARES SOME BERRY LOVE AT THE EKKA

Thanks to Queensland Fruit & Vegetable Growers, members of the Queensland Berries Australia team had the chance to share some berry love with the public during the annual show run by the Royal National Agricultural and Industrial Association of Queensland (RNA) in Brisbane. The show – commonly known as the Ekka – runs for ten days every August and brings the country and city together for a true celebration of agriculture.

The Ekka is Queensland slang for 'The Exhibition’ and since its inception in 1876 it has been heralded as one of the state's most well-known, well attended and much-loved events.

The team – Wendy, Jen & Rachel – were joined by strawberry grower Mandy Schultz and Smart Berries Farm Manager Sally Jolly to share the love of fresh Australian berries with show visitors in the Agriculture Pavilion on Tuesday 15 August. The team sampled fresh local strawberries, blueberries and raspberries, handed out recipe ideas and answered questions about growing berries.

Thank you to Taste n’See, Smart Berries and Queensland Berries for providing the delicious fruit. Thank you to our hard-working growers Sally and Mandy who took time out from their busy farms to help us to show off what delicious berries we are growing in Australia.

Photo credits: Scribblyinc for QFVG, Sally Jolly, Rachel Mackenzie & Jen Rowling

The ABGA LEVY HAS BEEN DISCOUNTED FOR 2023/24

Why should I pay the voluntary levy?

Voluntary levies fund all of the essential activities that contribute to the growth of our blueberry industry. Activities include, but are not limited to:

• Maintaining consumption and price through a dedicated marketing campaign

• Supporting growers through the Varroa mite incursion

• Research & development into registered chemicals + IPM + Integrated Disease Management programs

• Achieving export protocols into Vietnam and other Asian markets

• Progressing applications for market access to China and other countries

• Funding our IDO, Exec Director and support staff

• Communication and engagement with members –industry journal, e-news, website, conference

• Promoting positive industry stories and addressing negative media

• Providing our contribution to Hort Innovation under the Collective Industry Fund which is matched with equal funding used for various industry projects such as managing Chili thrips

How much levy do I have to pay?

Standard levies are $0.07c/kg fruit sold. This year the levy is discounted to $0.03/kg fruit sold in recognition of a challenging season. This will commence 01/08/2023.

When do I pay the voluntary levy?

Levies are payable once every financial quarter:

Quarter Period Covered Payable by

Q1 1 July – 30 September 31 October

Q2 1 October – 31 December 31 January

Q3 1 January – 31 March 30 April

Q4 1 April – 30 June 31 July

How do I pay the levy?

Follow the steps below:

1. Prepare a statement with the following information

• Grower Name

• Quarter + Dates (e.g. Q2 1st Oct - 31st Dec)

• Number of kg fruit sold in that quarter

• Amount of levy being paid

• Indicate if your agent deducts your levies (if so, include agent name)

2. Email the statement to the Membership Officer

Email statement to admin@berries.net.au – the Membership Officer will send you an Invoice for payment

3. Pay your levy to the ABGA account

Account name:

Bank:

BSB:

Account:

Reference:

Australian Blueberry Growers’ Association Westpac 033 107 181 471

GROWER NAME + Financial Quarter (e.g. “Joe Bloggs Q2 levy”)

My agent deducts levies — what do I do?

Send your statement to Membership Officer (Step 1 above). They will then check that the agent has paid the levy. Email the statement to admin@berries.net.au

What about confidentiality

of the information provided?

Any information provided will be kept confidential.

I need help, who do I contact?

Kylie Thompson: admin@berries.net.au | 0491 751 123

Tackling Food Waste: Oz Group Co-op’s Third Grade Fruit Management

Gaius Leong, Berry Industry Development Officer, NSW Department of Primary Industry & Shannon Kirstein, Quality and Compliance Officer, Oz Group Co-op

In this mini-series, we look at various innovative ways that members of the berry industry utilise waste to maximise profitability and reduce environmental impacts. In this edition, we look at the utilisation of a familiar waste product found on all berry farms; third grade fruit.

It is undeniable that horticulture industries across Australia produce tonnes of food waste every season that may never even leave the farm gate. The biggest contributing factor is the application of grading standards to categorise fruit designed to provide quality tiers that meet both retail and consumer expectations. This is accentuated in the berry industry as the fruit is considerably more delicate as compared to apples or oranges, for example.

The waste generated often comes from produce that does not meet the highest grade for fresh sale, driven by expectations set out by retailers to service the needs of their consumers. Fresh fruit grades are described as using objective standards and vary between both countries and customers within the supply chain. Consumer expectations are also continually evolving, and standards have had to adjust over time to continue to meet those expectations. Quality and shelf-life play an increasingly vital role in determining acceptability in both the fresh produce wholesale market and retail sale channels.

The most common defects to occur during blueberry and Rubus harvests are splits and tears, with the risk of bruising more likely during the post-harvest process, which includes transportation, grading, packaging and storage. Harvested berries with large picking scars, tears and splits are prone to quicker deterioration, which will affect the overall presentation of the final packed product.

Ensuring that all berries with defects are removed during the grading process is extremely important to maintain a high-quality standard and deliver the maximum potential shelf-life.

Fruit grading happens throughout the entire harvesting process, from the pickers to the sorters, to the farmers and eventually through the packing facilities. During this process, large amounts of fruit is discarded, either thrown on the ground at farm or moved to waste disposal sites at packing facilities.

Substantial improvements in the grading process have been made in recent years, with most packhouses mechanising some part or all of their systems and thereby reducing the manual components of the packaging line. These days, AI and tailored sensory technology ensure that fruit is graded with increased efficiency and accuracy.

As the berry industry continues to expand and mature, increased operational costs and more competitive sale pricing will result in tightening profit margins for growers. This places an added emphasis on finding more creative ways to improve cost efficiencies and margins back to the grower.

Generating an income from waste products not only reduces the cost associated with waste disposal but adds an additional source of revenue to profit margins.

Mechanised sorting equipment in use at the Oz Group Co-op packhouse takes fruit from the orchards (above) and separates the defective fruit from the premium berries. Photo credit: Gaius Leong

Since 2017, the Oz Group Co-op have become Australia’s single largest supplier of blueberries to the fresh market. In 2020, it generated 163 tonnes of waste product that cost approximately $250,000 in waste disposal fees. The waste was used in the production of mulch, which ensured continuance for the product but not profitability to the growers.

Extensive market research and adequate investment has assisted Oz Group with innovative ways to monetise fruit that does not meet market grade by creating new products like snap frozen berries and jam, or allowing other companies to incorporate graded-out fruit into their products like freeze-dried powder, juices and smoothies, alcoholic drinks, or soft drinks. These additional sales channels were secured over a period of 3-5 years and this value stream is currently overseen by the Oz Group’s production development manager, Shaun Tholen.

The product development process began with investment into equipment that provided snap-freezing capabilities. Even though the investment was substantial, the organisation saw the opportunity to improve profitability and sustainability through tapping the potential of an underutilised resource. Since Covid-19, an increasing number of businesses have approached the Oz Group to discuss incorporating the use of graded-out fruit in their products.

(L-R) Fruit graded out for colour defects, fruit with size defects and the finished premium packed fresh berries.

Photo credit: Gaius Leong

Snap freezing capability developed by the Oz Group in recent years. Berries are washed, snap frozen then portioned and packed. Photo credit: Gaius Leong

The berries are treated in various ways, depending on the requirements of the supply chain. Products can either be delivered to the customers as snap frozen, bulk frozen or fresh.

Frozen berries sold to Coles are frozen using a technique called IQF (individual quick freeze). Currently, at time of writing, these are the only frozen berries available year-round that are produced in Australia. Most frozen berries available in the supermarkets originate from South America and Asia. Photo

The company can now supply multiple formats of processed fruit using graded-out fruit that would previously have been wasted. Photo

credit: Gaius Leong

Oz Group employees Shaun Tholen (L) and Susan Marshall (R). Photo credit: Gaius Leong

credit: Gaius Leong

In 2023, Oz Group estimates that 95% of the projected 200 tonnes of production waste will be re-used, while the remaining 5% will still be used for mulch production. The 5% comprises of mould affected berries which are not viable for food grade use. This shift in approach has doubled the profitability of graded-out fruit and reduced waste disposal fees by 92%. This is a substantial improvement in a few short years.

Since the beginning of 2023 (January-June is a considerably low production period for the Oz Group), sales from the by-products have generated healthy revenue and helped to even out cash flow. The benefits to the environment are substantial too, with the reduction in transportation to the waste facility resulting in lower CO2 emissions and a reduction in pressure on local waste disposal services.

As waste management continues to take a higher priority in the industry, let us continue to build a more sustainable, and environmentally-conscious attitude to not only reducing waste but enhancing the overall viability of horticultural businesses.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Oz Group’s employees, Shaun Tholen and Susan Marshall for the tour of the packing facilities and necessary information provided for this article.

We

specialists

Ramm Botanicals provides high scale onsite tissue cuture and young plant production and services for domestic and international markets.

Rewarding pollinators with sweet-talking blueberry flowers

Sophie Parks, Research Horticulturist, New South Wales Department of Primary Industries

Introduction

Floral nectar is the main attractant to blueberry crops for honey bees, with the pollen ignored due to its low protein value compared with other pollens. Access to nectar resources, however, can be limited for honey bees in blueberry crops under covers, used to exclude birds and provide protection, since these covers form barriers that affect their flight path. Our research aims to better understand the attributes of nectar from blueberry flowers with a view to increasing the ‘attractiveness’ of this crop by developing new practices to manipulate nectar and ensure pollination success under protective covers.

One potential intervention to modify nectar production in blueberry flowers is through fertigation. Blueberry crops are often fertigated (irrigation containing fertiliser salts), and we hypothesised that adjusting fertigation strength has the potential to modify nectar production to suit the needs of pollinators.

Experiment set up

We conducted a glasshouse experiment at Wollongbar Primary Industries Institute with 30 mature blueberry plants (variety 11-11), growing in potted substrate, and applied 3 fertigation treatments of low, moderate and high concentrations of nutrient salts (electrical conductivities of 0.7, 0.9 and 1.2 dS/m), to 10 plants per treatment. Pollinators were excluded. During peak flowering, we extracted nectar with a pipette, from 6 flowers of the same age, per plant. The nectar samples were weighed and analysed for their sugar concentrations. Other measurements included plant canopy area, flower count per plant and temperature and relative humidity during the experiment. Following the experiment, data were statistically analysed.

Can fertigation modify nectar in blueberry flowers?

The total amount of sugars in nectar including sucrose, glucose and fructose ranged from 6 to 14 mg per flower with concentrations of between 34 and 86%. The temperature during nectar collection (18 - 23ºC) was a major factor affecting the weight of nectar (12-23 mg per flower), with a trend of increasing weight from 18-22ºC, and declining thereafter. However, the temperature and humidity did not relate well to the sugar concentration of nectar, in contrast to other studies. Further, the fertigation treatments did not affect these nectar characteristics but their effects on the proportions of sugar types in nectar may prove otherwise, and data analysis of these is ongoing. Some studies suggest that honey bees prefer nectar with a high ratio of sucrose relative to glucose and fructose contents, so understanding the role of fertigation in the proportion of sugar types in nectar is of value here.

Following peak flowering, nectar was extracted from blueberry flowers for mineral analysis. Flowers and nectar were limited and only enough nectar was extracted for one sample each of the medium and high fertigation treatments. Nectar volumes were not sufficient to measure nitrogen, but potassium, calcium, manganese, copper and zinc were detected in these nectars, with the other elements being below levels of detection.

The potassium concentration in the nectar from the high fertigation treatment was higher than that for the moderate fertigation treatment, and we can speculate that this relates to the greater potassium amounts supplied to the plants in the high fertigation treatment. The potassium concentrations in nectar were low compared with reports for avocado and onion nectar, which can deter honey bees, but higher than those reported in citrus which is highly attractive.

As the fertigation strength increased from the low to high treatments, the number of flowers per plant increased, relative to the canopy area, suggesting that higher fertigation strength is a way of increasing the nectar available for pollinators. Although this appears to be promising, the plant needs to be able to support the development of the extra flowers into fruits following pollination, without limiting fruit size which can occur when resources are limited.

Acknowledgements:

This problem can be avoided by using practices that ensure crops are growing optimally, such as conducting leaf mineral analysis in summer after harvest, to evaluate the nutrient status of the crop.

This work has highlighted the important role that microclimate can play in nectar production but also the potential effect that fertiliser practices can have on crop floral resources. We look forward to updating you on the results of this project as it comes to completion.

This work is part of the collaborative project Novel technologies and practices for the optimisation of pollination within protected cropping environments under the Australian Government Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Rural R & D for Profit Program, coordinated by Horticulture Innovation. Partners include NSW Department of Primary Industries, Plant and Food Research Australia, the University of Adelaide, the University of New England, the University of Tasmania and other representatives including the beekeeping and netting industries, and several horticultural industries (Berry, Apple, Onion, Sweet Cherry). It addresses pollination issues that limit the optimal production of some horticultural produce under cover.

Leanne Davis, Technical Officer (NSW Department of Primary Industries) in the experiment at Wollongbar, NSW, where nectar from blueberry flowers was extracted for analysis of sugars, and chemical elements in some samples.

Photo credit: NSW DPI

A blueberry flower with nectar droplets visible on the stigma and inside the floral tube.

Photo credit: NSW DPI

Blueberry Sorting Revolutionised

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Reflections on 13 years of the International Blueberry Organisation (IBO) and the 2023 IBO summit

Peter McPherson

As some of you may be aware, as well as being Chair of Berries Australia up until last year, I have also been the ABGA representative since the inception of the IBO and honoured to be Chair since 2016, and will step down later this year. I thought it was important before I moved on, to remind Australian growers about the International Blueberry Organisation and encourage greater participation from blueberry industry players.

The IBO is a global organisation bringing together leaders from the blueberry world in all segments of the industry, including blueberry producers and marketers, affiliated business, social groups, and governmental organisations worldwide.

Why would a relatively small blueberry growing country with limited blueberry exports and imports even need to be part of this global organisation and why would someone like me give up time and energy to support the organisation? The answer is that fundamentally we are part of a global economy and cannot ignore what is happening overseas. More importantly, we can learn from the experiences of others to build our industry here and as we increase our export footprint.

The IBO’s main mission is to collect and share blueberry information, fostering a common goal of increased worldwide blueberry consumption in all forms. This involves promoting a better understanding of the common interests shared by blueberry growers and marketers, as well as affiliated business, social groups and governmental organisations throughout the world. One of the primary deliverables of the IBO is the annual report on the State of the Global Blueberry Industry. A stand-out from the 2023 report is that since 2010 the blueberry industry has quadrupled in volume whereas the physical growing footprint has only tripled.

What this says is that our efficiency has increased significantly over that short period. It is also clear that there are a lot of blueberries coming online around the world and we all have to work together to increase global consumption.

One of the other major activities of the IBO is the biannual conference which was held in Poland in July. This was the first face-to-face conference since Covid and I would like to commend the Polish Blueberry Promotion Foundation for their efforts in pulling this event together. There were numerous excellent speakers, and the overall sense was one of optimism. I was extremely impressed by the coherent and strategic approach of the Polish blueberry industry which is now the largest in Europe. Similar to Australia, they have significant domestic consumption but they also have to compete domestically with other European producers The three pillars to their success are quality, promotion and co-operation. Whilst I certainly think our quality here in Australia is outstanding, I was really inspired by how their promotions focus on promoting the industry as well as the fruit. The gains they have made since working more closely together are significant and it is contingent on all ABGA members to ensure they keep supporting their association here in Australia.

It was very pleasing that Rachel Mackenzie was able to attend and present at the IBO summit and I strongly urge all blueberry growing businesses to consider attending the next summit in South Africa in 2025.

I can also say that despite Australia being a very minor player from a global volume perspective, we are highly regarded by the global blueberry family, be that for our quality reputation, success of private genetics programs or innovation, this is something we as an industry should be proud of. We cannot rest on our laurels as the future and the success thereof is in our hands so I cannot emphasise enough that supporting both ABGA and Berries Australia is a must, as is our membership of and participation in the IBO.

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ABGA teams up with Wavemaker Brisbane again for the 23/24 season

Eliza Wilding, Client Coordinator, Wavemaker Brisbane

Australian Blueberries have teamed up with Wavemaker Brisbane again for the 2023/2024 season. The media strategy will focus on being loud launching the start of the blueberry season utilising Out of Home (OOH) and Radio media channels to reach as many consumers as possible in a short period of time.

The season will kick off with the same creative as last season with new material being developed as the season progresses.

Through 2023 we are putting together a plan that focuses on ensuring people are aware that Australian fresh blueberries are in season again – high quality and affordably priced - and ultimately get the product back onto the shopping list.

Wavemaker have worked with the AGBA for just over a year and are extremely excited to continue to work with the Association as well as partner with the award-winning creative agency Ogilvy to design the new creative.

Looking after the AGBA account is our Social & eCommerce Associate Director Sam Chadwick and Client & Marketplace Manager Brad Vickery, who are supported by Sam Melit (Performance Executive) and Eliza Wilding (Client Coordinator).

The team is supported by Technology & Strategy Partner Lily Nielsen and Group Business Director James Lever and will work to transform Australian blueberries from an impulse purchase into a grocery basket essential and the ultimate super-snack.

Campaign Overview

With the support of market-leading data, tools and expertise, this campaign will create optimal awareness around Australian fresh blueberries coming back into season and straight into grocery buyers’ baskets.

The media strategy has been designed to build optimal awareness and mental availability of the ‘fresh in season blueberries’ message and, in addition, position the fruit as a staple item on the shopping list. This will position blueberries as front of mind for the consumer on the path to purchase.

Channels

The campaign will be underpinned by key high reaching media channels to launch the Australian Blueberries campaign and to make an announcement of the season.

We will be using Radio, OOH advertising and Retail advertising to highlight and create optimal awareness around blueberries coming back into season.

Retail OOH will also allow us to reach grocery buyers at scale and close to the point of purchase, reminding them that blueberries are now in season. Partnering with leading media company - Shopper Media - we will be able to reach 32% (approximately 1.7 million) of all grocery buyers (GBs) across the Eastern Seaboard at a frequency of over 15 meaning each of the 1.7m buyers will be exposed to the advertising over 15 times during the campaign.

Radio is an efficient and high-reaching channel which aligns with our strategic direction of creating optimal awareness for the new 2023 season of blueberries. Airing on key networks, we have worked to secure efficient reach across the high audience time slots of ‘Breakfast’ and ‘Afternoon’.

Finally, retail activity across Coles and Woolworths will provide a direct platform to drive sales of fresh blueberries.

We are looking to make blueberries a more soughtafter choice that will find their way into more trolleys more often.

When will the campaign activity be visible?

Messaging about blueberries will be shared on our own social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram

Season launch activity (radio, OOH, retail) Retail: Activity across Coles and Woolworths which provides a direct platform to drive sales of blueberries

If you have any questions about the current season or if you’d like to be a part of the grower content, please contact: berriesaustralia@wmglobal.com | www.australianblueberries.com.au |

australianblueberries

UV-Transmitting plastics reduce powdery mildew in strawberry tunnel production

Helen Newman, Berry Industry Development Officer, Agricultural Produce Commission

This article summarises the findings of research published in The American Phytopathological Society Journal of Plant Disease in September 2022: Onofre, B., Gadoury, D., Stensvand, A., Bierman, A., Rea, M., and Peres, N. (2022), UV-Transmitting plastics reduce powdery mildew in strawberry tunnel production, Plant Disease 106:2455-2461, The American Phytopathological Society.

• Results of this research indicate that the exclusion of UV radiation by certain plastics is a major factor in disease development in protected cropping systems

• Exclusion of solar UV radiation is a principal factor in contributing to higher disease severity

• Disease severity for crops covered with film transmitting 80% of solar UV-B was significantly lower than the UV-blocking film types

• Marketable yields were significantly higher under the UV transmitting films compared to standard polyethylene

Strawberry powdery mildew can be particularly destructive in protected cropping systems, which are generally constructed of materials that block ultraviolet solar radiation. This research compared powdery mildew development under standard polyethylene, which blocks nearly all solar UV-B, and two formulations of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), one of which contained a UV blocker and another that transmitted nearly 90% of solar UV-B.

Many previous studies have considered the more favourable temperature and relative humidity conditions prevailing in protected cropping systems compared with open-field systems as principal causes of higher powdery mildew severity. This research has shone a light (pun intended) on the role UV radiation plays, showing that exclusion of solar UV radiation is a principal factor contributing to higher disease severity.

Experiments were conducted at the University of Florida Gulf Coast Research and Education Centre in Wimauma, Florida over two consecutive seasons. Barerooted runners of strawberry cultivar Florida127, known for its high susceptibility to powdery mildew, were used in the experiments. Runners were planted into plasticmulched raised beds with small tunnels placed over

the top of treatment plots (Figure 1). Treatments were open-field (no plastic cover), UV-B-transmitting ETFE film (F-Clean Clear), UV-B-blocking ETFE film (F-Clean Gruv), and standard polyethylene film (Polyethylene).

The total diffuse spectral transmittance of each plastic film was measured under laboratory-applied UV at the Lighting Research Centre in Troy, New York (Figure 2). Note the small peak in polyethylene film near 270 nm corresponds with the UV-C range*. The solar UV-B transmittance of the plastic film was also tested in the field and was 80% for the F-Clean Clear, 17% for the F-Clean Gruv, and 1% for the standard polyethylene.

About UV radiation*

UV-A rays have the longest wavelengths, followed by UV-B, and UV-C rays which have the shortest wavelengths. While UV-A and UV-B rays are transmitted through the atmosphere, all UV-C and some UV-B rays are absorbed by the Earth’s ozone layer. So, most of the UV rays that reach the Earth’s surface are UV-A with a small amount of UV-B. The only way that plants can be exposed to UV-C radiation is from an artificial light source.

Figure 1. Small tunnels constructed to compare the different films with open-field plants. A randomised block layout with four replications of each treatment and 16 plants in each replicate was used in the experiment (only part of the experiment is pictured here). Photo credit: Natalia Peres, University of Florida Gulf Coast Research and Education Centre

Figure 2. Total diffuse spectral transmittance for each film under laboratory-applied UV

Temperature and relative humidity data was collected for each treatment to compare conditions under the different plastic films and in the open-field.

Over the season, temperature differences between all treatments were minor and differences between humidity readings under the different film types was negligible. Table 1 shows daily average temperature and humidity recordings for each of the treatments over the second year of the trial.

Fruit disease incidence and marketable yield were measured over the two growing seasons to compare the treatments (Figure 3).

Key results

• In both seasons, the incidence of powdery mildew on fruit was inversely related to the UV transmissibility of the plastic film.

• Marketable yield was also consistently higher in the open-field and F-Clean Clear plastic film compared with the standard polyethylene film.

• The F-Clean Clear plastic film provided an increase in marketable yield when compared to the polyethylene film of approximately 69% in the first year and 21% in the second year.

Table 1. Daily humidity and temperature averages in the different treatments shown with the solar UV-B transmittance of each plastic film.

Figure 3. Effect of plastic film UV-B transmission on A, the incidence of powdery mildew on fruit and B, marketable yield. Columns with the same letter within the same growing season do not differ significantly.

Cumulative foliar disease severity across the treatments was also measured (Figure 4). Powdery mildew severity was lowest in the open-field and highest in the polyethylene film across all treatments for both seasons.

Both the F-Clean Clear and F-Clean Gruv resulted in significantly lower cumulative foliar severity in each season compared with polyethylene film. The F-Clean Clear provided a significant reduction in cumulative foliar disease in comparison with F-Clean Gruv in the first season but not in the second.

In the first growing season, at the peak of foliar disease severity (73 days after planting), the F-Clean Clear and the open-field treatments were not different and had significantly lower disease than the F-Clean Gruv and polyethylene plastic films.

In the second growing season, at the peak of foliar disease severity (71 days after planting), disease in the open-field treatment was significantly lower than all the plastic film treatments, however the F-Clean Clear treatment had 30% less disease compared to the polyethylene treatment.

Conclusions

Results of this research indicate that the exclusion of UV radiation by certain plastics is a major factor in disease development in protected cropping systems. Temperature and relative humidity often remained within the optimal range for strawberry powdery mildew development in both the open and protected system treatments and there were negligible differences in temperature and relative humidity between the plastic types (see the original paper for full details). It may therefore be concluded that exclusion of solar UV radiation is a principal factor in contributing to higher disease severity.

The magnitude of treatment effects in this study were substantial. Disease severity for crops covered with film transmitting 80% of solar UV-B was significantly lower (up to 3.3 times lower) than the UV-blocking film types. Marketable yields were also significantly higher under the UV transmitting films compared to the polyethylene. These findings may provide valuable guidance for selection of plastics and calibration of disease prediction models worldwide.

Figure 4. Cumulative foliar severity of powdery mildew. Columns with the same letter within the same growing season do not differ significantly.

Autonomous pollination using miniature drones – alternatives to honey bee pollination

Dr Angela Atkinson, Berry Industry Development Officer, Vic & SA

Singaporean company Polybee is investigating the use of miniature drones to pollinate crops grown in greenhouses and polytunnels as part of a Hort Innovation project looking at alternatives to honey bee pollination. The team from Polybee has been trialling their technology in collaboration with Perfection Fresh in South Australia and Western Sydney University, and were recently in Victoria to see how strawberries are grown in protected cropping systems.

The project ‘Development of non-biological pollination options for protected cropping using emergent technologies (PH19000)’ is funded by the Hort Frontiers Pollination Fund, part of the Hort Frontiers strategic partnership initiative developed by Hort Innovation, with co-investment from Polybee Pte. Ltd, Western Sydney University, Perfection Fresh Pty Ltd and contributions from the Australian Government.

Honeybees struggle in greenhouse situations, and bumblebees which are used for pollination in the northern hemisphere, are not present on mainland Australia. For greenhouse grown tomatoes, pollination is often done by hand which is labour intensive. As more berries are grown in protected cropping environments, optimising pollination for better fruit development and yield will become more important. This project is investigating whether autonomous drones can be used to increase pollination in self-fertile crops, such as strawberries and tomatoes.

Polybee’s proprietary method, Aerodynamically Controlled Pollination (ACP) pollinates self-fertile crops by using the downdraft from the drone’s propellers as they hover above flower clusters to vibrate flowers and disperse pollen. The down draft from the drones can be optimised for different flower and truss architectures.

Automation has the potential to enhance productivity through the reduction of operational costs on labour for manual pollination in crops such as tomato, as well as higher yields through greater control of pollination.

One of Polybee’s autonomous drones at work in a strawberry glasshouse overseas. Photo credit: Polybee

Polybee are using off-the-shelf drones that are only 15cm by 15cm in size, controlled by a phone app, and after mapping the greenhouse environment or tunnels the drones then navigate the space autonomously to facilitate pollination. When the drones run out of charge, they return to the charging dock and recharge wirelessly before setting off again.

In trials in the UK, ACP was found to increase pollination and yield in strawberries in glasshouse production. A potential benefit of this system for strawberry production is the ability to increase pollination, and hence yield, at the shoulders of the season in southern Australian growing regions when temperatures are not optimal for honeybees and other pollinating insects.

Polybee are also using their autonomous drones and AI to give accurate yield forecasting and are working on systems for plant stress detection and growth monitoring.

Trials were conducted at Western Sydney University on strawberry pollination in a glasshouse setting in collaboration with Dr. James Cook’s research group.

It was observed that ACP demonstrated significant improvement in fruit set and quality when compared to the negative control and manual pollination. The research team visited Spirli Strawberries in Wandin in the Yarra Valley while they were in Victoria to see how strawberries are grown under tunnels, the differences between the commonly grown commercial varieties, and whether their drone system would work in those situations.

Polybee are hoping to partner with strawberry growers to conduct field trials on commercial farms in the coming season to investigate whether ACP can increase yields in protected cropping grown strawberries.

(L-R) Tzi Wah Yeo, Dominic Spirli, Pankaj Malik and Siddharth Jadhav at Spirli Strawberries in Wandin, Victoria

Photo credit: Angela Atkinson

Australian Strawberry Breeding Program Field Day

BS22000 Australian Strawberry Breeding Program

Wendy Morris, Berry Industry Development Officer, Queensland

On Wednesday 26 July, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries

Queensland hosted a field day for subtropical growers and industry stakeholders at the Maroochy Research Facility in Nambour.

The field day provided an opportunity for growers to meet with researchers and better understand the processes behind the Australian Strawberry Breeding Program (ASBP) project. The breeding program develops varieties for temperate, subtropical and Mediterranean growing regions. The day provided the opportunity for growers and stakeholders to examine and provide feedback on advanced subtropical accessions.

Dr Jodi Neal, Principal Plant Breeder and her colleague Dr Katie O’Connor, Plant Breeder walked the group through the trial fields. Dr Neal explained that while thousands of seedlings are assessed each year, only a fraction of these are selected to be trialled again as earlystage accessions, and fewer still make it to advancedstage accessions and eventually to on-farm trials.

Seedling trial plants are assessed at intervals and marked with coloured flags to indicate favourable characteristics throughout the growing, flowering and fruiting period. Before being sent out to on farm trials, in-house virus testing via Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and grafting onto indicator plants takes place.

The program also uses a heritage variety, Phenomenal, as a source of disease resistance genes. Phenomenal was developed over a century ago in Gympie by the Flay family and shows incredible disease resistance and fruits prolifically. The downside as growers quickly noticed, is that the small, soft fruit is tasty but would prove time consuming to harvest and be ill-equipped to deal with the length of modern supply chains.

Growers were invited to assess plants based on a number of factors including yield, fruit size, fruit taste and plant characteristics. Fruit had been picked the day before and kept in an uninsulated shed overnight before being placed near the plants they came from in plastic containers. This allowed growers to gain an indication of shelf life.

Over 35 farmers attended the field day, from a diverse range of backgrounds including organic and traditional farmers, plus growers who farm across Queensland regions enabling year-round harvest. It was fabulous to see a number of younger and next-gen growers also in attendance. The data produced by growers will be invaluable in assisting DAF with their trials.

After the field walk component, we enjoyed a BBQ lunch sponsored by FMC and Nutrien Ag Solutions based in Yandina. Karl and Millie from Nutrien did a fabulous job on the barbeque and nobody left hungry.

For everyone who missed the event, these field days will now be an annual event.

Thank-you to all the growers who attended, our sponsors and DAF staff members Jodi Neal, Katie O’Connor, Louella Woolcock, Joanna Gillespie, Michelle Paynter and Damian Muller.

This project has been funded by Hort Innovation using the strawberry research and development levy, with co-contributions from the Queensland Government through its Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and funds from the Australian Government.

1. Attendees at the ASBP Field Day. Photo credit: Katie O'Connor

2. Lachlan Hammond (Hammond Farm). Photo credit: Wendy Morris

3. (L) Arman Berkett-Saleh and Tim Harris (Stothart Family Farms). Photo credit: Wendy Morris

4. (L) Emily Harrison (R) Ashlee Harrison (Harrison’s Harvest)

5. David Beattie (Coochin Hills Organics)

Photo credit: Wendy Morris

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The relationship between yield and strawberry runner characteristics

Christopher Menzel, Principal Horticulturist, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries

• The productivity of strawberry is dependent on the supply of high-quality nursery plants

• The effect of runner characteristics on the yields of plants in south-east Queensland was investigated. Yields were best with a planting from mid- to late March for ‘Festival’ and from early to mid-April for ‘Fortuna’

• Research in north America suggests that the best yields occur when the runners are exposed to significant chilling in the nurseries. Experiments are required to determine if the temperature models developed in America can predict yield and runner quality in Australia

Horticulture production around the globe is dependent on the supply of quality nursery plants. Plants of inferior quality can fail to establish or produce enough fruit to cover the costs of planting, growing, and harvesting. In strawberry, runner performance can be related to several factors including the size of the plants, the amount of carbohydrate they have stored in reserves, and the level of flowering initiated in the nursery before planting. This article reports on the relationship between yield and runner characteristics seen in Queensland strawberries, including the effect of planting time on yield and the relationship between yield and carbohydrate reserves. Temperature models developed in north America to predict runner performance and yield are also discussed.

Optimum planting time in south-east Queensland

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effect of planting time and runner source on the performance of strawberry crops.

In the first experiment, ‘Festival’ runners were obtained from Stanthorpe in southern Queensland, a warmgrowing environment, and from Toolangi in Victoria and Kempton in Tasmania, two cool-growing environments. Runners were planted from early March to late April/ early May at Nambour over three consecutive years.

Across the three years, yields were best with a mid-March planting, with lower yields recorded for plantings at the other times (Table 1). Plants from Stanthorpe were as productive as those from Toolangi or Kempton, indicating that the differences in climatic conditions amongst the locations were not large enough to influence productivity. Gross returns per plant shown in Table 1 were calculated using the yields (grams per plant) from each treatment for each month from June to October multiplied by the average price received for strawberry in the Brisbane Markets for each of the months.

In the second experiment, ‘Festival’ and ‘Fortuna’ runners from Stanthorpe were planted from late March/early April to late April/early May over two consecutive years. The early planting for each cultivar corresponded with the time when the runners were first available from the nurseries. In this experiment, yields were greater with a planting in late March/early April (Table 2). Average yields were lower in ‘Fortuna’ than in ‘Festival’. Gross returns from the different planting times reflected yield, with a strong linear relationship between returns and yields.

Data are the means (± standard error) of four or five replicates, pooled over three years. Source: Menzel and Smith (2011).

Time of planting

Data are the means of eight replicates. Source: Menzel and Smith (2012b).

Relationship between yield and carbohydrate reserves in Queensland

Research overseas has suggested that runners with high carbohydrate reserves have higher yields than those with low reserves. Carbohydrates typically accumulate over the growing season, especially under cool conditions. Experiments were conducted to study the relationship between productivity and carbohydrate reserves using ‘Festival’ runners obtained from Stanthorpe and Toolangi. In the first experiment, there was a comparison of runners dug at different times at Stanthorpe and planted in Nambour (Table 3). The weight of nonstructural carbohydrates per plant increased as digging was delayed. Plants dug on 17 March had more nonstructural carbohydrates and higher fruit yields than those dug on 3 March. Plants dug on 1 and 13 April had even higher carbohydrate reserves than those dug on

17 March but had lower fruit yields. Only the variations in fruit yields between the plants dug on 3 or 17 March reflected the differences in carbohydrates. In the second experiment, there was a comparison of plants dug in early April from Stanthorpe and Toolangi (Table 4). Information was collected on the concentrations of carbohydrates in the plants and on fruit yields after planting in Nambour. Runners from Stanthorpe had greater carbohydrate reserves than those from Toolangi, but similar yields over the growing season.

Runners with flowers initiated in the nursery have earlier production than those that initiate flowers after planting.

Table 1. Effect of time of planting on yield and gross returns in ‘Festival’ strawberry at Nambour.

Table 2. Effect of time of planting on yield in ‘Festival’ and ‘Fortuna’ strawberry at Nambour.

It was concluded that carbohydrate reserves in runners only partially reflect their productivity. Productivity may have been more closely related to the level of flowering.

Data are the means of eight replicates. Source: Menzel and Smith (2012a).

Data are the means of eight replicates. Source: Menzel and Smith (2012a).

Variations in strawberry transplant (runner) quality. Photo

credit: Christopher Menzel

Table 3. Effect of runner harvest timing on plant weight, the weight of non-structural carbohydrates and fruit yield to the end of July for ‘Festival’ runners sourced from Stanthorpe.

Table 4. Comparison of plant weight, weight of non-structural carbohydrates and total yield of ‘Festival’ runners dug in early April and planted in Nambour.

Relationship between yield and temperature in north America

Research in Florida showed that plants from northern or mid-latitude nurseries in Canada, Massachusetts, Oregon, California or North Carolina out-yielded those from southern nurseries in Alabama or Florida in about half the cases (Menzel and Smith, 2011). The temperatures in these northern areas are up to 10°C lower than those in Florida during the 6 to 8 weeks before the plants are dug.

Tanino and Wang (2008) also investigated the relationship between yield and temperature in north America. ‘Camarosa’ runners grown in nurseries in California and Canada under different weather conditions were planted in Oxnard and Irvine in California and information was collected on yield. Yields from these nurseries were related to the yields of runners from two standard control nurseries at Redding in California, a warm growing area.

There was a strong relationship between yield and the accumulated difference between day and night temperatures in the nurseries (Figure 1). The greater the difference in diurnal temperatures, the higher the subsequent yield. In other words, nursery sites with warm days and cool nights gave the best production. Accumulation of 180 degree-days gave 30% higher yields in the plants from a cool nursery location in Canada over those from a warm location in California. Warm days and cool nights favour strong crown and root growth and possibly good flowering in the nursery.

Implications for commercial production

The optimum time of planting in southern Queensland varies with the cultivar and growing location. Runners dug early can be too small for successful establishment. In contrast, runners dug late only begin to crop in July and have low total production. There are also issues for the commercial viability of the nurseries. It is not practical or cost-effective to supply runners before mid- to late March most seasons in southern Queensland. Yields are best with a planting from midto late March for ‘Festival’ and from early to mid-April for ‘Fortuna’. Carbohydrate reserves in runners only partially reflected their productivity in Queensland.

In contrast, there was a good relationship between yield and temperatures in the nurseries in north America. Research is required to determine if the temperature models developed in north America can predict yield and runner quality in Australia.

Please note: ‘Transplant’ is the universal term used to describe a new nursery plant. The term ‘runner’ only appears in the Australian literature. When looking for information on this topic be sure to use both terms in your search.

The Queensland government is funding the research through the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. Many thanks to the Florida Strawberry Growers' Association (FSGA) for financial support and to Vicki Lane and Helen Newman for your article review assistance.

References

Menzel, C.M., Smith, L., 2011. Effect of time of planting, plant size and nursery-growing environment on the performance of ‘Festival’ strawberries in a subtropical environment. HortTechnology 21, 56–66.

Menzel, C.M., and Smith, L., 2012a. Relationship between the levels of non-structural carbohydrates, digging date, nursery-growing environment and chilling in strawberry transplants in a subtropical environment. HortScience 47, 459–464.

Menzel, C.M., Smith, L., 2012b. Effect of time of planting and plant size on the performance of ‘Festival’ and ‘Florida Fortuna’ strawberry plants in a subtropical environment. HortTechnology 22, 330–337.

Tanino, K.K., Wang, R., 2008. Modeling chilling requirement and diurnal temperature differences on flowering and yield performance in strawberry crown production. HortScience 43, 2060–2065.

Figure 1. Relationship between yield and nursery temperature in ‘Camarosa’ runners grown in Californian and Canadian nurseries.

Source: Tanino and Wang (2008).

To plant or not to plant: Managing the risk of fumigant phytotoxicity

Dr Dylan McFarlane and Dr Scott Mattner, VSICA Research

• The Victorian Strawberry Industry Development Committee are currently funding research by VSICA Research to develop tests for measuring fumigants in soil so that growers know when it is safe to plant their crops

• Researchers are testing two different technologies (photoionisation detectors and colorimetric tubes) that instantaneously detect fumigants in soil

• The use of these technologies in field surveys has already prevented growers from planting into soil containing fumigant residues at 15 sites

• The project has established a field trial in the industry that is evaluating the tolerance of different strawberry varieties to the presence of fumigant residues in soil

• Preliminary results showed strong correlations between the concentration of fumigants in soil and growth inhibition in lettuce as an indicator plant

• If results continue to show success it is anticipated the technologies will be developed as a product or service to growers in Victoria

Fumigant phytotoxicity of strawberry

Soil fumigation is an effective practice used by many strawberry growers to control pathogens and weeds, and increase fruit yields. For example, a recent survey showed that more than 80% of strawberry growers in Victoria fumigate soil to control the fungus Macrophomina phaseolina that causes the disease charcoal rot.

One of the challenges with soil fumigation is that planting runners too early into treated soil can kill or reduce the vigour and yield of strawberry plants (this is called fumigant phytotoxicity). Compounding this, fumigant labels usually indicate variable plant-back periods (the time between fumigation and planting) for strawberry, ranging from 7 days to longer than 35 days. This is because there are so many factors that influence how long fumigant residues remain in soil, including fumigant formulation, application rate, soil temperature and moisture, organic matter, clay content and others.

Also, it is not known if some strawberry varieties are more tolerant of fumigant residues at planting than others. These factors can make the decision of when to plant after fumigation and punching holes into plastic mulch very difficult for growers.

Recently, nearly all strawberry growers in Victoria that fumigate soils transitioned from the use of traditional plastic mulch made from low density polyethylene (LDPE) to totally impermeable films (TIFs). LDPE mulches are very leaky to fumigants, while TIFs are impermeable and seal them in the soil for long periods. The adoption of TIF dramatically increased the control of soil-borne diseases, like charcoal rot (Figure 1), and minimised the emissions of gaseous fumigants to the atmosphere. However, the longer residual times of fumigants under TIF may have contributed to incidences of phytotoxicity in strawberry in Victoria because growers are unsure of how long to increase their plant-back times (Figure 2).

Growers need a reliable method to immediately predict when they can plant to avoid fumigant phytotoxicity (after the minimum plant-back recommendation on the product label). Traditional tests using lettuce germination as an indicator of the risk phytotoxicity take at least 3 days to complete and results are often open to interpretation (e.g., lettuce may germinate but the tips of roots blacken and grow poorly indicating the presence of fumigants).

In response to these issues, the Victorian Strawberry Industry Development Committee (VSIDC) funded a project by VSICA Research to evaluate the robustness of in-field methods that immediately quantify concentrations of fumigants in soil to better assess the risk of phytotoxicity before planting.

The project will also evaluate the relative tolerance of different strawberry varieties to fumigant residues in soil in field trials.

Survey of Victorian strawberry farms

The project used handheld photoionisation detectors and colorimetric tubes (Gastec®) (Figure 3) to quantify the concentration of fumigant residues of 1,3-dichloropropene and chloropicrin in soil prior to planting at 30 strawberry farms across Victoria.

The sites were chosen to cover different growing regions, soil types, moisture and organic matter contents, and temperatures for strawberry production across Victoria. The photoionisation and colorimetric methods provide instantaneous results in the field and therefore could assist growers in making more informed decisions about when to plant their strawberry crop after fumigation. Assessments commenced after the minimum plant-back period on the product label.

Figure 1. The adoption of TIF mulch with fumigants (L) drastically increased control of the soil-borne disease charcoal rot compared with standard LDPE mulch (R) in the strawberry industry in Victoria. Photo credit: VSICA

Figure 2. Fumigant phytotoxicity from planting strawberry too early into soils after fumigation (L). Symptoms of phytotoxicity in strawberry can include plant death, stunted growth, reddening of the leaf margins, dead runner roots, and new roots emerging from the top of the crown (R). Photo credit: VSICA

Overall, we found the colorimetric tubes more reliable for detecting fumigant residues at greater depths in soil than the photoionisation detector. This is mostly because the pump on the photoionisation detector stalled when taking samples at greater depths.

Without the fumigant detection tests, growers at 55% of the sites we tested would have planted into soils containing concentrations of fumigants with the potential to cause phytotoxicity in plants. Most of the growers at these sites decided to delay planting a further week based on the test and this resulted in no plant deaths.

At one of the sites, the grower decided to plant into soils where fumigant residues were detected and determined to be a moderate risk of phytotoxicity. A few months after planting the grower noticed signs of phytotoxicity (wilting and black roots followed by plant death) on >20% of their plants at the site.

Statistical analysis of data from the sites showed that the time between fumigation and scheduled planting was not well correlated (r = 0.02) with the concentration of fumigant in soil. The combined factors of time after punching holes in plastic mulch and soil temperature provided a better indication of the concentration of fumigants in soil at planting (r = 0.52), but was still not reliable enough for growers to predict when it was safe to plant. This means that plant-back time alone is not sufficient for growers to predict if fumigants are still in soil or when it is safe to plant crops after fumigation.

In contrast, soil testing with colorimetric tubes was completed and results communicated to growers within 30 minutes. Most growers commented that this helped

them with their decisions on when to plant, and provided them with greater certainty in planning labour and when to collect their runners.

Phytotoxicity thresholds and strawberry varieties

A field trial was established this autumn on a commercial strawberry farm at Silvan, Victoria to determine the effect of planting at various intervals after fumigation on the survival, time to fruiting, and early fruit yields of strawberry. We measured fumigant concentrations at each planting time using colorimetric tubes and conducted a standard lettuce test. Planting began at the minimum plant-back-time on the fumigant label, and continued at regular intervals until no fumigant residues were detected in the soil. We included different strawberry varieties (Cabrillo, Albion, Monterey) and planting material (bare-rooted runners and plug plants) in the trial.

Preliminary results showed that the growth of lettuce in germination tests was highly correlated with the concentration of the fumigant 1,3-dichloropropene in the soil. The relationship predicted that there was no suppression of lettuce growth when concentrations of 1,3-dichloropropene were at 1 µg/ml (Figure 4). However, it is important to determine if a similar relationship occurs for strawberry plants as the trial continues through the season. The data is vitally important to further develop risk profiles and concentration thresholds of fumigants in soil that predict phytotoxicity in strawberry more accurately.

Figure 3. Dr Dylan McFarlane drawing gases through colorimetric detector tubes (Gastec®) to determine the concentration of fumigants in soil. Photo credit: VSICA

How will this project help strawberry growers?

Experiments are continuing on the use of different methods for testing concentrations of fumigants in soil before planting. We aim to establish another field trial on plant-back times in summer using different varieties (e.g., short-day) and cold-stored planting material. If the methods continue to be successful, it is anticipated that the technologies will be developed as a product or a service to Victorian growers.

We acknowledge funds from the VSIDC for this research. We also thank the strawberry fruit growers

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Figure 4. Relationship between the concentration of the fumigant 1,3-dichloropropene in soil at a depth of 10 cm in the field, and its growth suppression of a lettuce indicator plant in the laboratory.

Healthy runners, more high-quality fruit

Geoff Kelly, Brendan Rodoni and Fiona Constable, Crop Hygiene Biosecurity Services

• High quality runners, free of disease, are key to a successful final product

• Underpinning the success and viability of the Australian strawberry industry is a certification and inspection program that supports production of high-quality high-health runners

• With increasing climatic variation, as well as the phasing out of methyl bromide for fumigation, the Australian strawberry industry may see the emergence of new serious pathogens

• Starting with certified planting stock will help the strawberry industry to limit the impact of emerging and re-emerging pests and disease

Strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa), known for their vibrant colour and sweet taste, are an important Australian berry fruit crop and a staple in most Australian households. In 2022, Australian growers produced approximately 68,000 tonnes of fruit valued at over $416 million (Hort Innovation 2023). While strawberry fruit are the face of the industry, behind the scenes, the runner growers propagate and supply the planting stock for fruit production.

High quality runners, that are free of disease, are key to a successful final product; they produce more highquality fruit. Underpinning the success and viability of the Australian strawberry industry, from planting stock to fruit production, is a certification and inspection program that supports production of high-quality high-health runners. Certification of strawberry runners aims to guarantee the biosecurity of onshore strawberry planting stock through regular pathogen testing for virus, bacteria and fungi.

The Australian strawberry industry runner certification scheme has been in place for more than 60 years. Noticing increasing losses in fruit production fields due to virus infections, the Victorian Government introduced a certification scheme in the 1960s and

it has resulted in a significant reduction in disease in both runner and fruit production. The Victorian Government managed the scheme until the 1990s when responsibility for the scheme shifted to industry.

Currently, both the Australian Strawberry Propagators Accreditation Authority (ASPAA) and the Victorian Strawberry Industry Certification Authority (VSICA) schemes offer growers assurance that the planting stock is of the highest health status.

Strawberry varieties that are certified within the schemes comprise of nucleus plants from which daughter runner plants are grown and increased in number through several generations before they are supplied to fruit growers (Figure 1).

According to the rules of the schemes, to be certified nucleus plants of varieties within schemes are tested annually for select viral, bacterial and fungal pathogens (Table 1). Annual pathogen testing not only serves to ensure that initial planting stock is of the highest quality available, but it also helps maintain the biosecurity of the nursery environment. Daughter plants, at every generation, are inspected by trained inspectors for evidence of disease throughout the growing season.

Crop Hygiene Biosecurity Services (CHBS) is part of Agriculture Research Victoria (AVR) and located at AgriBio Centre for AgriBioscience. AgriBio is Australia’s first integrated agricultural systems biology research centre and one of Australia’s premier state-of-theart agribioscience facilities, with a key emphasis on supporting and protecting Victoria's agricultural sector by focusing on advanced research to improve productivity, fight disease and reduce environmental impact.

CHBS operates as a fee-for-service commercial entity providing independent and confidential services to the Australian horticultural sector. CHBS has provided ongoing support for production of high-health runners since the ASPAA and VSICA took over accreditation schemes. The CHBS high health germplasm program provides pathogen testing services, germplasm management and daughter runner propagation.

The AVR screenhouse facilities at AgriBio and managed by CHBS are Nursery Industry Accreditation Scheme, Australia (NIASA) accredited and house nucleus plants and daughter nucleus runners on behalf of industry clients.

Strawberry varieties may also be maintained in an in vitro collection (Figure 2) for back up purposes, and micropropagation can also be used to increase the number of plants available for runner production.

CHBS provides equivalent pathogen testing services to clients who choose to maintain their own nucleus stock program. CHBS, via the ‘BS19000 High health pre-commercial propagation material for Australian strawberry growers’ project, also works with the Australian Strawberry Breeding Program (ASBP) and Hort Innovation in the pathogen testing and distribution of promising new breeding selections for industry trials.

Figure 1. Strawberry certification pathway. Certified strawberry varieties are multiplied and inspected over several generations before going into fruit production.

Table 1. A list of endemic and exotic pathogens of strawberries and methods used for detection of each pathogen. Not a complete list of significant pathogens affecting strawberries. Not all pathogens require active testing under runner certification schemes.

Pathogen

1 These are quarantine pathogens that are not known to occur in Australia or have been detected and eradicated - active surveillance by visual inspection will improve the biosecurity of the Australian strawberry industry.

2 GI = Biological indexing by graft inoculation onto the susceptible Fragaria vesca cvs UC-4 and UC-6 and F. virginiana cv UC-10 indicators

3 HI = Biological indexing by rub inoculation onto Chenopodium quinoa (herbaceous indexing)

4 RT-PCR = Detection of pathogen RNA by reverse transcription (RT) PCR

5 PCR = Detection of pathogen DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR)

6 B = Detection of pathogen by baiting susceptible F. vesca subsp. vesca forma sempeflorens ‘Alpine’

7 Culturing and /or PCR for X. arboricola pv fragariae, X. Fragariae, Rickettsia-like-organisim and phytoplasmas and PCR for P. fragariae f.sp. fragariae is not mandatory but may be requested by the client for pathogen detection or used by the diagnostic laboratory for confirmation of infection.

Supporting the AVR plant holding facilities used by CHBS are state-of-the-art laboratories and controlled environment growth rooms, utilised for in vitro micropropagation. Expert plant pathology diagnostic capabilities provided through Crop Health Services (CHS), which is AVR’s commercial plant pest and disease diagnostics service, also support CHBS strawberry pathogen testing services.

Pathogens and biosecurity

When it comes to strawberry pathogens, Australia is fortunate to have area freedom from several devastating pathogens affecting overseas strawberry production, such as angular leaf spot (Xanthomonas fragariae) and red stele disease (Phytophthora fragariae f.sp. fragariae). Maintaining area freedom from such pathogens is not only critical for protecting the Australian industry, but also for retaining market access when exporting planting stock and fresh fruit. Importations of strawberry growing stock undergo post-entry quarantine pathogen testing on arrival to manage the risk of exotic pathogens entering Australia. Once released from quarantine, ensuring the continued biosecurity of the material by testing for endemic pathogens is critical.

Both the runner nursery production and the fruit industry are susceptible to losses caused by viral, fungal, and bacterial pathogens. Undetected infections and accumulation of pathogen inoculum in the runner multiplication phase can potentially have serious future economic impacts when plants (along with pathogens!) are distributed to fruit growers.

Prior to fruiting fields, strawberry varieties will undergo several generations of vegetative multiplication, which gives ample opportunity for exposure to and crosscontamination with pathogens, potentially resulting in reduced fruit quality or yield losses, or even death of planting stock. Visual screening of plants can be useful for the detection of harmful pathogens as some, such as powdery mildew (Podosphaera aphanis), common leaf spot (Mycosphaerella fragariae) or fruit rot (Botrytis cinerea) may have readily observed symptoms and can be controlled through cultural and chemical means. Whereas infection by other pathogens, such as some systemic fungi, viruses and phytoplasmas, may not always be apparent and rely on diagnostic testing for detection. Screening for viral pathogens has been a major aspect of the strawberry runner certification program since its inception. Viral infection in strawberries may be insidious, with impact varying depending on a combination of factors including the susceptibility of the host variety, the virus species, and the virus strain. Common viruses, such as strawberry mild-yellow edge virus (SMYEV), strawberry crinkle virus (SCV) and strawberry mottle virus (SMoV) are generally considered to be mild, or latent infections in most modern strawberry varieties (Martin and Tzanetakis 2006). Once infected, planting stock may remain asymptomatic, or may exhibit subtle effects such as mild leaf symptoms, reduced fruit yield, or reduced runner production –these may be slight effects, difficult to parse out from nutritional disorders or other environmental factors.

Significant impacts, however, may be induced by some virus species or strains: especially in susceptible strawberry varieties. Some of the more damaging strains of SMoV may result severely stunted plants and a yield reduction of 30 per cent (Thompson 2003). Generally, serious economic losses are most frequently observed when a combination, or complex, of viral infections occur in the strawberry plant. When SCV occurs in a complex with SMYEV, SMoV or SVBV, strawberry plants may develop severe symptoms of decline, including

Figure 2. Tissue culture (in vitro) strawberry plantlets ready for transplant and acclimatisation.

Photo credit: Geoff Kelly, AVR

stunting, reddening and crinkling of leaves, and reduced fruit size (Martin and Tzanetakis 2006).

As such, having an undetected or asymptomatic infection with a “low impact” virus present may open the grower up to potentially devastating losses if another virus enters the property.

Infected strawberry material also provides a virus reservoir for acquisition by vectors. Viruses in strawberry, generally, are not mechanically transmitted, and transmission requires the presence of the associated vector (aphids, white fly, nematodes or pollen). Once infected, vegetative propagation of subsequent runner generations is a highly effective method for the propagation and distribution of viruses. One virus infected mother plant may result in over 100,000 infected runners within three generations, through vegetative spread alone. Each of these daughters also serves as an inoculum source for vector acquisition resulting in the further spread of virus, highlighting the importance of ensuring the cleanliness of the initial strawberry stock plants.

Annual pathogen testing

The annual pathogen testing program at AgriBio commences in spring and involves graft indexing candidate nucleus mother plants onto indicator plants; sensitive cultivars of Fragaria vesca and F. virginiana

If the graft union is successful, sap transfer from the virus infected candidate leaflet will carry virus particles to the indicator, where they will infect and replicate in the host plant, resulting in symptom expression, such as stunting, vein banding, leaf crinkle or mottle.

Each of the indicators used in the testing are sensitive to different viruses and will display diagnostic symptoms associated with a particular virus (Figure 3). To prevent false positives due to physiological symptoms, suspect plants are generally confirmed using molecular methods.

Molecular diagnostic techniques (polymerase chain reaction, PCR) may be employed to target specific viral pathogens (Table 1) for either confirmation of suspect positives, or at the request of a grower to rapidly screen material to provide added assurance of the health status. Graft indexing is labour intensive and can take up to 12 weeks to observe for the indicators, whereas the advantages of PCR testing are that it requires less labour and can return a result within a week.

However, each specific PCR test needs a significant investment of time and money to validate, as well as specialised equipment and consumables. Another concern often raised when discussing PCR testing is the greater specificity resulting in the potential for false negatives against novel strains of a particular virus. Therefore, it is important that tests are verified and updated as information about new genetic variants become available.

More advanced molecular diagnostic capabilities such as High-Throughput Sequencing (HTS), also referred to as Next Gen Sequencing (NGS), may also be utilised at AgriBio. This technology can be used to indiscriminately detect any pathogen in a strawberry sample or can be targeted to specific pests. While this currently is not routinely employed for strawberry diagnostic samples by CHBS and CHS, application of this technology may play an important complementary role with biological techniques and can be useful for the identification of the potential causal agents where a disease of unknown etiology is observed in the plants.

In future, HTS may also enable a comprehensive rapid report of the complete virus status of a strawberry variety. HTS has been adopted by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry at its Mickleham post entry quarantine facility to screen imported strawberry stock for exotic plant viruses and viroids. Pathogen testing of nucleus mother stock is not just concerned with viral pathogens, but under the accreditation schemes, consideration is also given to the impact that certain fungal pathogens can have on the viability of strawberry production systems. Nucleus plants are sampled during the growing season and cultured on agar media to isolate any systemic fungal pathogens that may be present.

Root sample culturing and baiting with Alpine strawberries (F. vesca) is also conducted to screen for Phytophthora fragariae f.sp. fragariae. CHS mycologists examine the cultures for the presence of specified fungi. Suspect fungal isolates will undergo further identification for confirmation to species level using genetic sequencing and comparison to the genetic sequence of known species.

Future challenges

With increasing climatic variation, as well as the phasing out of methyl bromide for fumigation, it could be expected that the Australian strawberry industry may see the emergence of new serious pathogens from the ranks of those previously considered minor or secondary pathogens.

Pestalotia leaf spot and fruit rot (Neopestalotiopsis spp.) and Charcoal Rot (Macrophomina phaseolina) have emerged in US strawberry fields as increasingly significant pathogens since the reduction in methyl bromide soil fumigation. Additionally, changing seasonal conditions can favour the development of fungal pathogens and may also favour the spread of the insect vectors that transmit viruses.

Increased insect vector pressure may be seen in strawberry fields as well as the potential for movement of vectors and associated viruses into previously protected areas due to changing climate. Warmer temperatures may favour both virus acquisition by insect vectors and transmission rate of some viruses such as SCV (Martin and Tzanetakis 2006).

Vector control can be effective in the management of viral pathogens; however, the development of chemical resistance can reduce the effectiveness of control measures. Changes to vector and pathogen behaviour may present new challenges for the industry to overcome, starting with certified planting stock will help the strawberry industry to limit the impact of emerging and re-emerging pests and disease.

References

Hort Innovation - Australian Horticulture Statistics Handbook 2021/22

Martin, R. R., and Tzanetakis, I. E. 2006. Characterization and recent advances in detection of strawberry viruses. Plant Dis. 90:384–396

Thompson, J. R., and Jelkmann, W. 2003. The detection and variation of Strawberry mottle virus. Plant Dis. 87:385-390

Figure 3. Grafted Fragaria vesca "UC-4" indicator infected with a combination of SPaV, SMoV and SMYEV Photo credit: M. D. Jones, AVR

Red Leaf Disorder: knowledge through Field Surveys in South East Queensland

Michelle Paynter, Joanna Gillespie and Ky Mathews, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Queensland

• Key data about Red Leaf Disorder has been collected on farms across SEQ for the last 3 seasons

• There are significant differences in the incidence of RLD between varieties

• Further research is required to explore other potential contributing factors including soil types, fumigant usage and runner production systems

Farm surveys can play a crucial role in unravelling the factors contributing to the incidence of strawberry diseases or disorders, particularly the emerging Red Leaf Disorder (RLD) that poses significant challenges to strawberry production in Queensland. RLD manifests as reddish/maroon discoloration between veins on older leaves (Figure 1), leading to reduced plant vigour and diminished fruit productivity, particularly in popular grown commercial varieties. Since 2020, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (DAF) has been conducting field surveys in South East Queensland (SEQ) to monitor RLD in strawberries. The primary aim of these surveys is to identify patterns and potential factors contributing to the disorder.

Figure 1. Strawberry plant exhibiting Red Leaf Disorder. Photo credit: DAF

A crucial aspect investigated in these field surveys is variation in RLD incidence among different varieties grown across multiple farms. It is recognised that different varieties may exhibit varying levels of resistance or susceptibility to RLD. By evaluating multiple farms and comparing RLD incidence across different varieties, patterns can be identified.

Furthermore, the surveys aimed to determine if factors such as source grower, runner type, fumigant usage, nutritional regimes, and plastic type (new or used) have an impact on the level of RLD incidence.

In addition to variety selection and external factors, specific grower practices were also observed to determine their contribution to higher or lower RLD incidence. Factors such as bed size or plant densities may influence the soil environment and root system development, potentially affecting RLD levels.

The evaluations of the surveys aimed to provide insights into the effectiveness of different practices in managing RLD levels. By undertaking an analysis of data collated over consecutive years, patterns and changes can be detected, providing valuable insights into the emergence, spread, and long-term trends of RLD. This enhances our understanding of RLD dynamics, risk factors, and long-term trends.

Strawberry growers have actively contributed to this understanding by participating in on-farm surveys over the past three years, making their valuable insights an integral part of ongoing research.

This article aims to highlight important findings from the data collected during the period from 2020 to 2022 within the strawberry growing production times in SEQ. The insights gained from these surveys not only contribute to ongoing research efforts but may foster a collaborative approach to managing RLD and promote sustainable strawberry production practices in RLD management.

2020-2022 farm surveys

Over the course of three years (2020-2022), field surveys were conducted, involving a total of eleven farms, and resulting in 25 on-farm trials. The survey aimed to gather valuable insights into the agricultural practices and outcomes within these farms. Each participating farm had a unique evaluation period, with five farms involved consistently for all three years, two farms participating only in 2020, and the remaining farms taking part in consecutive years.

Throughout the three-year period, a diverse selection of 12 different varieties were observed, providing a

dataset for comprehensive analysis. The collected data encompassed various aspects, including the varieties grown, management practices (such as planting date, runner type, runner grower, fumigation type, and plastic status), bed layout information, and environmental factors (such as altitude and soil type) specific to each farm.

Results of 2020-2022 surveys

The field surveys yielded significant findings regarding RLD. Notably, Parisienne Kiss consistently exhibited a higher incidence of RLD compared to other varieties, while Scarlet Rose showed minimal symptoms (Figure 2). The presence of RLD varied across different farms and varieties, with some farms experiencing minimal RLD while others faced severe symptoms. The expression of RLD also differed among farms and years, with the year 2021 showing particularly high RLD expression (Figure 3). While this study primarily focused on post-planting aspects, it is evident that further research into runner production systems is required for a comprehensive understanding of plant origin and RLD. By conducting comprehensive investigations across the entire lifecycle, we could gain deeper insights into the factors influencing RLD.

Additionally, it was observed that bare runners displayed slightly lower median RLD incidence compared to plug runners as seen in Parisienne Kiss and Red Rhapsody (Figure 4), although the variation is too large to conclusively determine a significant difference.

Figure 5 shows that there may also be some differences between fumigants, however further investigation is needed to understand the impact of fumigant treatments as well as soil types on RLD incidence.

It is worth noting that no significant difference was found between plant densities and bed height. Further research is required for plastic types (new or used).

While this study primarily focused on post-planting aspects, it is evident that further research into runner production systems is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of plant origin and RLD. By conducting comprehensive investigations across the entire lifecycle, we can gain deeper insights into the factors influencing RLD.

The Farm Survey conducted by the DAF RLD team has provided invaluable insights that the Australian Strawberry Breeding Program (ASBP) can effectively implement into their field trials. This implementation has led to the identification and release of RLD tolerant breeding lines, such as Susie-ASBP.

Figure 2. Days after planting versus the median percentage of plants with RLD for variety by trial (Year by Farm) in Red Leaf farm survey 2020-2022

Farms are represented by numbers 1 to 11. A box and whisker plot shows the centre and spread of a dataset. The middle half of the data are represented by the box – the vertical line in the box represents the median (or middle value). The whiskers (horizontal lines from the box) represent a reasonable distance from the box and the points represents values far from the middle point.

A box and whisker plot shows the centre and spread of a dataset. The middle half of the data are represented by the box – the vertical line in the box represents the median (or middle value). The whiskers (horizontal lines from the box) represent a reasonable distance from the box and the points represents values far from the middle point.

Figure 3. Box and whisker plot of Number of plants with RLD by Farm and by year

Figure 4. Percentage of plants with RLD by variety and Runner type in the RLD farm survey 2020-2022

A box and whisker plot shows the centre and spread of a dataset. The middle half of the data are represented by the box – the vertical line in the box represents the median (or middle value). The whiskers (horizontal lines from the box) represent a reasonable distance from the box and the points represents values far from the middle point.

Acknowledgements

A special thank you to the Queensland strawberry production growers that allowed extensive data collection on their properties throughout the season as well as the Queensland Strawberry Growers Association for ongoing support. All funding support for this work is from the Queensland Government’s: Department of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Disclaimer

The above information is sourced from trials conducted on strawberry farms in Australia. This is the best available information on Queensland local conditions at these sites. The information provided here may not be applicable for all regions and varieties. The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, and Hort Innovation provide the above information as a guide only and take no responsibility for data accuracy.

Figure 5. Percentage of plants with Red Leaf by variety and fumigant in the RLD farm survey 2020-2022

Profile: Tasmanian Raspberry Canes, Carolyn & Simon Curtis

Mark Salter, Berry Industry Development Officer, Fruit Growers Tasmania

Tasmanian Raspberry Canes, owned by Simon and Carolyn Curtis and situated at Wesley Vale in northwestern Tasmania, produces bare-rooted raspberry canes for retail, wholesale nurseries, and commercial growers.

Simon and Carolyn both have agricultural backgrounds. Simon studied horticulture at Ag College and later at TAFE. While actively involved in the raspberry cane business, Simon also runs a landscape construction business. Carolyn comes from a family farming background and together with Simon manages the raspberry cane business.

The Curtis’ purchased the 45-hectare property eight years ago. Currently, they have 2.6 hectares of canes in production, producing approximately 110,000 canes each year. With plenty of land available, it allows for long crop rotation periods and room for expansion. As a result, growing in new ground produces healthy, strong, disease-free canes. Strict Biosecurity controls are in place to protect our disease-free status. The balance of the farm is used for cattle breeding and lucerne production.

The fertile sandy loam soil on the property is ideal for raspberry cane production not only to produce strong healthy canes, but the friable sandy soil also helps to minimise root damage during the harvest process.

The harvest begins in early winter, generally from mid-May until late June when the canes are dormant.

The canes are carefully lifted with a mechanical harvester, before being washed to remove all the soil. The washed canes are then taken to the packing shed to be graded and bundled into packs of ten. Customer orders are compiled and dug into aged compost prior to dispatch. During the grading process, the best quality canes are selected for customer orders, while the smaller canes and root pieces are utilised as growing stock and planted out for next season.

Water is sourced from a 50-megalitre farm dam, and the farm also has access to water from the Wesley Vale irrigation scheme if more water is required. Overhead irrigation is used to water the canes. Multiple applications of granular fertiliser are applied throughout the growing season. Simon is also experimenting with prescription foliar fertiliser blends for each variety to improve cane quality.

Where are the canes sold?

Markets include Tasmania, Victoria, NSW, and Queensland. What varieties are available?

Varieties include many of the older raspberry varieties such as Heritage, Lloyd George, Chilcotin, Chilliwack, and Autumn Bliss. These varieties are popular with their customers because of their sweet taste, with many customers preferring to grow these for their flavour as opposed to long shelf life and appearance.

For customer sales enquiries and orders, the Curtis’ have a website that also has information on varieties and a short story about their business. You can find it at www.tasmanianraspberrycanes.com

As with most small businesses, cash flow is important particularly as it’s a two-year process from planting to harvest. Rising costs are a big concern, particularly the cost of labour which accounts for 60 per cent of the cost of production. Rising costs have put a sharp focus on streamlining the harvest and grading process. They have also implemented improvements to the packing line to help reduce their cost of production.

It was apparent on my visit that the welfare of their staff is important with each staff member valued. Carolyn explained that, in their experience, a harmonious workplace is more efficient. They also work with other producers in the area to provide ongoing employment for their crew where possible, so when work is finished on their farm there is the opportunity to find work nearby.

Although there are many challenges, both Simon and Carolyn are very positive and are looking to increase production and expand the business.

Customer orders are compiled and dug into aged compost prior to dispatch. Photo credit: Carolyn Curtis

Potted canes. Photo credit: Mark Salter, FGT

Simon and Carolyn Curtis. Photo credit: Mark Salter, FGT

How do we achieve effective biological control of invasive European Blackberry?

Dr Robin Adair, Australis Biological & Dr Rae Kwong, Biocontrol Scientist, DEECA

In Australia, invasive European blackberry consists of a complex of around 18 recognised species and a range of hybrids, which collectively are amalgamated into Rubus fruticosus sp. agg. The first introductions to Australia were made for pragmatic and sentimental reasons by our early colonisers, but the species quickly naturalised and spread more aggressively than perhaps they ever envisioned.

Now European blackberry is one of Australia’s worst environmental and agricultural weeds where substantial losses of biodiversity and production occur. The vast extent of infestations across southern Australia and lack of access to many areas restricts conventional control methods, which has precipitated the acceptance and development of classical biological control. This control method utilises natural enemies collected from the region of origin of blackberry (Europe) for suppression of the host plant in areas where it is problematic (Australia).

Natural enemies of blackberry are numerous in Europe and consist of a diverse range of fungal pathogens, arthropods (invertebrates), viruses and bacteria. Many of these organisms are known to be generalist feeders, and therefore are unsuitable for biological control. High levels of host specificity and impact are critical traits required for a successful biological agent, particularly where closely related commercial crops or native plants are present in the area of intended introduction. And Australia has plenty of these to consider.

The commercial Rubus berry industry and native plants belonging to Rubus are key considerations in the development and evaluation of potential biological control agents.

In the 1970’s, biological control of European blackberry in Australia commenced with the selection and testing of the blackberry rust fungus, Phragmidium violaceum, a defoliating pathogen that can weaken infected plants by reducing stem growth, flower and leaf production, and ultimately reduce crown size. Infected plants are less vigorous than those uninfected by the fungus. Extensive host testing of the pathogen prior to its introduction demonstrated commercial Rubus cultivars were not at risk of damaging infections, and the agent was approved for release in 1991.

Subsequently, eight additional strains of the rust with greater effectiveness against the most invasive European Blackberry species have been imported and released in Australia. The pathogen is now widely established throughout southern Australia, and in seasons where cool summers and consistent summer rainfall occurs, the rust has proven to be highly effective. However, Australia is a continent of climate extremes with regular droughts and hot summers that limit the impact of blackberry rust.

In addition to this, the rust is relatively ineffective on blackberry growing under a canopy of taller competitive plants such as native forests, which limit production of new growth of blackberry. Therefore, the

vast infestations of blackberry on public land, National and State Parks and forestry production zones, for example, remain unchallenged by biological control.

The search for additional biological control agents to supplement conventional control methods and the blackberry rust fungus continues and is an important element in the strategy for achieving effective, broad-scale and reliable biological control of invasive blackberry. Several new potential agents are under consideration, with Victoria, leading the development of the new generation of biological control agents.

The systemic and potentially fatal pathogen Septocyta ruborum (purple blotch disease) has been under consideration for over a decade. The pathogen causes a decline in plant health by disruption of the host’s vascular system leading to eventual death. The pathogen is closely allied to the more common pathogen Mycosphaerella rubi (formerly Septoria rubi), a leaf spot disease widely distributed in commercial and wild blackberry populations in Australia and New Zealand, and refined DNA testing protocols developed by RMIT

University and the Victorian Blackberry Task Force, are required to reliably distinguish the two organisms.

A recent field survey of commercial Rubus farms and wild infestations in Victoria and Tasmania determined that only the leaf spot disease, M. rubi is present in Australia. An extensive testing regime is required to select and evaluate potential strains of purple blotch disease suitable for release in Australia, a program that would be undertaken initially in the UK or France where the disease is endemic. As the disease is not reliant on production of new growth, an essential prerequisite for rust fungus outbreaks, the purple blotch disease has considerable potential to effect control in natural ecosystems in Australia.

The cane-boring sawfly, Phylloecus faunus (formerly Hartigia albomaculata) is another potential agent that is currently under scrutiny as a potential biological control agent, and this was discussed in an earlier article published in the Spring 2021 edition of this journal. The sawfly larvae develop within the first-year primocanes where they feed on pith and supporting

Septocyta ruborum on a blackberry stem. Photo credit: Rasbak, commons.wikimedia.org

tissues. Structural integrity of the cane is weakened, and cane collapse occurs which reduces the plant’s capacity to produce new leaves, fruit, and daughter canes.

In a project funded by Meat and Livestock Australia, the sawfly has been recently imported from France into Agriculture Victoria’s insect quarantine facility in Melbourne where it will undergo rigorous screening against commercially important Rubus species and cultivars, and other closely related species including native plants. Collaboration with CSIRO’s scientists based in southern France has been critical to the blackberry biocontrol research, through their local knowledge and expertise in sourcing wild populations of sawflies.

Effective biological control of invasive blackberry in Australia is likely to involve a range of suitable agents working in synchrony to selectively reduce the vigour of wild infestations. Reduction in the size and health of the subterranean crown of the plant, which is an important organ for regeneration and survival, is considered an important step in achieving successful biological control.

Agriculture Victoria is also looking further afield to natural enemies attacking blackberry in the UK, with the galling fly (Lasioptera rubi), the bramble-feeding moth (Thyatira batis) and an eriophyid leaf buckle mite (Aceria sp.) showing promise, thanks to additional funding provided by Forests and Wood Products Australia.

Classical biological control will never eliminate wild blackberry in Australia. Such an outcome is unachievable. But effective biological control could be achieved by significant reduction in the size of plants by reduction of stem and leaf production rates, crown size, and capacity to spread by fruit and daughter cane production.

Australia has progressed positively in this direction, but further suppression is required. The outcome we seek is to weaken wild blackberry by selective suppression with negligible, if any, impact on our important commercial Rubus cultivars and native plants.

For more information please contact:

Dr Robin Adair, Australis Biological | robin.adair@australisbiological.com.au

Robin Adair is Director of Australis Biological an ecological consultancy company that specialises in management of native vegetation. Robin has 32 years as a botanist and entomologist with specialities in the use of insects and pathogens as biocontrol of invasive plants. Robin is a scientific advisor to the Victorian Blackberry TaskForce and has been an active member for 15 years.

Dr Raelene Kwong, Agriculture Victoria | rae.kwong@agriculture.vic.gov.au

Raelene Kwong is a leading biological control scientist with DEECA and is currently working on biocontrol solutions for a number of important target weeds, including European Blackberry.

We thank the Australian Rubus industry for the support given in working towards these objectives and the Federal Government’s ‘Weeds and Rabbits Project’ funding for development of the PCR diagnostic tool for Septocyta ruborum.