Building the resilience and on-farm biosecurity capacity of the Australian production nursery industry (NY15002)

What’s it all about?

Beginning in 2016, this project is enhancing the biosecurity preparedness of the Australian nursery industry by developing new pest and disease contingency plans and producing new and updated information for growers on on-farm biosecurity issues.

Key project activities include…

• Production of content and imagery for the industry’s Pest Identification Tool (pestid.com.au), to make diagnostic identifications more financially viable for production nurseries.
  
  
• Delivery of biosecurity-focused webinars, as well as workshops in all states and territories. Look for details in Nursery & Garden Industry Australia channels as they become available.
  
  
• Development and updating of grower resources including pest management plans, fact sheets and contingency plans.
  
  
• Diagnostics, with samples submitted for analysis by pest and disease diagnostic service Grow Help Australia.

During 2018, as requested by industry, an additional element of the project included a biosecurity simulation exercise relating to Xylella fastidiosa, delivered by Plant Health Australia.

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New resources from the project are added below as they’re produced.

Fact sheets and plans

• Rust diseases and their management in production nurseries (a 2018 Nursery Paper)
• Pest management plan for aphids in production nurseries
• Diagnosing and managing non-pathogenic disorders in production nurseries
• Managing leaf beetles in production nurseries
• Managing fungal leaf spot pathogens in production nurseries
• Managing scarab beetles in production nurseries
• Managing gall-inducing insects in production nurseries (management plan)
• Pest contingency plan: Glassy-winged sharpshooter
• Endophytes and latent pathogens - implications for the nursery industry (a 2017 Nursery Paper)
• Botrytis fact sheet
• Thrips fact sheet
• Thrips: A pest management plan for production nurseries
• Scale insects fact sheet
• Scale insects: A different problem that can be managed
• Baiting for Phytophthora and Pythium in production nurseries (a 2016 Nursery Paper)
• Gall-producing insects fact sheet
• Gummy stem blight on curcubit transplants
• Dutch elm disease
• Aphids

You can also access all fact sheets produced by past and current projects here.

Webinar recordings

• Phytotoxicity: how is it caused and how can it be managed
• Pesticide selection for resistance management
• Virus identification and management
• Leaf spots and fungicides, with a written webinar recap also available 
• Comparing fungal and bacterial leaf spots
• Insects and pesticides
• Identifying pests and beneficial insects and mites
• Mite identification and management

All webinars are also available in a YouTube playlist here.