This event has been postponed until further notice

Sunday 3 May 2020 – Lentara Grove, 2670 W Tamar Hwy, Exeter, TAS.

Field Day Hosts – Martin & Sophie Grace, Owners of Lentara Grove

PROGRAM

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

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 the processing shed (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 (TBA):
  • 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 the processing shed

PM: In the field at Lentara 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: “Olive grove redevelopment and management to improve soil and tree health and grove productivity” with Martin Grace (Lentara Grove):
  • Establishing new trees – grove design, placement of irrigation lines, wind and staking, tree training
  • Canopy management – maintenance pruning , options for canopy rejuvenation – looking at mechanic pruning to reduce tree size
  • Mulching use chicken manure and slashing of the inter-row – looking at encouraging beneficials in other crops – grapes and pomegranates
  • Drainage issues – ‘Wet feet’ – use of spoon drains – more an issue for machinery access
  • Inspection of a soil profile trench
  • Soil testing pH (tends to be acidic soils) / organic carbon / nutrient levels and developing a tree nutrition program – use dolomite
  • Dealing with pest and disease problems – have peacock spot (use Cu and considering using a systemic fungicide) some scale, and lately mild OLB on one variety – considering using Pyganic (pyrethrum)
• 3.15 PM Break for refreshments at the processing shed (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 the Lentara Grove processing shed

Registrations close 27 April 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.