Validating water disinfestation systems in nursery production (NY21002)

Project summary

This project evaluated and compared the effectiveness of current and alternative irrigation water disinfestation methods so that guidelines on their use could be provided to the Australian nursery industry.

Water quality was a key issue, as many production nurseries irrigated with water sourced either from open water systems or recycled and reused. This introduced significant risk from fungal and bacterial plant diseases that were spread in infested irrigation water. A variety of different disinfection systems were used within the industry, but a high level of uncertainty existed around the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of current and alternative irrigation water disinfection practices, some of which were new technologies.

This project supported the Australian production nursery industry in cost-effectively managing these risks through three key areas of research:

• A review of the available mainstream, alternative, and emerging water disinfection methods used by the nursery industry, and a gap analysis to identify methods where evaluation of efficacy was required.

• Evaluation and comparison of the efficacy and crop safety of the water disinfection methods identified in the gap analysis, providing detailed information on contact time, dose response, residual concentration, cost, and benefit.

• Collaboration with Greenlife Industry Australia to update the Nursery Industry Water Management Best Practice Guidelines and NIASA Best Management Practice Guidelines.