This event has been postponed until further notice

Sunday 9 August 2020 – Wollundry Grove, 15 Mary Gilmore Rd, Brucedale, NSW.

Field Day Hosts – Bruce Spinks & Joo-Yee Lieu, owners of Wollundry Grove

PROGRAM

Registration from: 8.30 am at Wollundry Grove – park vehicles in the designated area and meet at the processing shed for refreshments on arrival at the cellar door

AM: Presentations – The science and economics

• 9.00 AM Session 1 (45 min): Introductions / “Setting the scene & defining the problem” – Greg Seymour (AOA CEO)/ “Lifting grove productivity and OliveCare® grove best practice checklists” – Peter McFarlane  (OliveCare® Administrator)
• 9.45 AM Session 2 (75 Min): “Understanding the role of soil carbon, soil water and soil biology” with John Barton (Charton & Bang, Research & Development):
  • What is soil carbon and where does it come from
  • Soil carbon and soil water
  • Collecting more water
  • Holding more water
  • Giving more water
  • Reducing losses
  • Economic benefits
  • The importance of building soil and tree health for IPDM
  • Composting training course and consultancy services
• 11.00 AM Break for refreshments at Wollundry Grove cellar door (15 Minutes)
• 11.15 PM Session 3 (75 Min): “Application of remote sensing to grove operations including monitoring tree health” with Remote Sensing Project Team (Craig Shepherd (UNE) and Joel McKechnie):
  • an update of the irrigation trial, sensors and results thus far
  • the imagery work (tree health, water stress, relationships to productivity
  • national mapping
• 12.30 PM (45 Min): Lunch break at Wollundry Grove cellar door

PM: In the field at Wollundry Grove

• 1.15 PM Session 4 (45 Min) Service Providers (TBA) Mini-presentations / demonstrations / useful take home lessons on monitoring / measurement / testing – including:
  • Soil testing – chemistry and physical properties
  • Leaf analysis and tree nutrition
  • Measuring microbial activity in soil
  • Soil moisture monitoring
  • On-farm weather stations
  • Tree health – monitoring soil-born pathogens & other fungal diseases and pests of olives with Associate Professor Robert Spooner-Hart (University of Western Sydney)
• 2.00 PM Session 5 (75 Min): Grove innovations and issues – “considerations for managing an olive grove, olive grove redevelopment and management to improve soil and tree health and grove productivity”, with Bruce Spinks (Wollundry Grove):
  • Effective allocation of limited water resources
  • Canopy rejuvenation, maintenance pruning, tree training
  • Mulching
  • Use of kaolin based sprays to produce highly reflective films
  • Overcoming water repellent  (hydrophobic) soils
  • Inspection of a soil profile trench
  • Soil testing pH / organic carbon / nutrient levels and developing a tree nutrition program
  • Dealing with pest and disease problems
• 3.15 PM Break for refreshments: (15 Minutes)
• 3.30 PM Session 6 (75 Min): Composting – making and using with John Barton (Charton & Bang, Research & Development)
• 4.45 PM Field day feedback and evaluation (15 Min)
• 5.00 PM Field day concludes followed by refreshments until 6.00 pm at Wollundry Grove cellar door

Registrations close 3 August 2020

This project has been funded by Hort Innovation, using the Hort Innovation olive research and development levy, co-investment from the Australian Olive Association and contributions from the Australian Government.