Technical Library

Big Leaf Nursery Podcast Part 1 - Listen on-line

Big Leaf Wholesale Nurseries is located at North Arm on the Sunshine Coast, and is operated by Kieran Studders and Greg and Jackie Phillpott, with a staff of 10. In the first of two podcasts Kieran shares his experiences with moving the nursery to another site, and the improvements that have been made in irrigation and production efficiency.

https://www.ngiq.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/Big-Leaf-Wholesale-Nursery-Part-1.mp3

Portable Weight Based Scheduling Unit’

Improving the scheduling of an efficient irrigation system provides the best opportunity to achieve savings in total water use without adversely affecting plant growth. Historically growers have selected run times for an irrigation zone or block using their experience. The Portable Weight Based Scheduling Tool has been developed to enable the changes in water content occurring within a container to be seen by recording the weight of the container. This information can then be presented in a form where the changes in moisture in the growing media can be displayed on a graph.

Managing Water Storages Water Quality Case Study

This video describes how using a biological water clarifier was used to improve water quality in a nursery water storage. The storage contained increasing levels of algae, plankton and surface floating weeds, leading to costly management and maintenance activities, crop production issues and an unpleasant odour. Ten weeks into the treatment, the water turbidity had significantly improved, algal blooms had disappeared, and the previous unpleasant odour was no longer evident.

Managing Water Storages Water Quality

The effective management of water quality in storages needs to be flexible, and quickly react to changes in water quality. This video explains strategies that can employed in managing water quality in water storages.

Irrigation Scheduling in Containerised Nursery Production

The management of irrigation in a production nursery directly affects plant growth and profitability. Excessive irrigation can waste water, energy and labour, can leach nutrients, and reduce growing media aeration. Insufficient irrigation can stress the crop, affecting plant quality and reducing crop uniformity. Irrigation scheduling refers to how long, how often and when an irrigation system is operated to replenish the amount of water lost from a container since the last irrigation event.

Selecting Sprinklers for Nursery Production

The selection of an appropriate sprinkler is a crucial part of having an irrigation system that operates to Nursery Industry Best Management Practice. The following video explains considerations that need to be taken into account when selecting an appropriate sprinkler for an overhead irrigation system.

Calibrating Meters

pH and Electrical Conductivity meters are extremely useful pieces of equipment used to measure and monitor basic chemical characteristics of water and growing media. Regular and correct calibration of this equipment is necessary to ensure the results are as accurate as possible. The following video describes the basic procedures for calibrating pH and EC meters.

BMP Growing Benches

Constructing growing benches to the standard recognised and encouraged under the nursery industry best management practice program, NIASA, provides a range of significant benefits to assist in the production of quality containerised nursery stock.

BMP Growing Beds

Constructing growing beds to the standard recognised and encouraged under the nursery industry best management practice program, NIASA, provides significant benefits in the production of quality containerised nursery stock.

Drip Irrigation

Drip irrigation is an efficient system for applying water to nursery container production and has the potential to outperform overhead irrigation systems in achieving optimum plant growth and quality, while minimising water use.