ATGA Conference and AGM – Pest and disease project presentation and field activity
Members of the truffle pest and disease project Alan Davey, Celeste Linde, Stewart Learmonth and Anne Mitchell attended the Australian Truffle Growers Association 2015 Conference and AGM at Queanbeyan NSW.
Anne and Stewart delivered a joint PowerPoint presentation describing the background to the project and an update on progress in some of the initial activities. Any grower who wishes to view the presentation can request a PDF version by contacting Stewart Learmonth via email at stewart.learmonth@agric.wa.gov.au.
As well as the presentation, members of the project team who attended the conference participated in a field activity at the truffle orchard managed by Wayne Haslem. The field activity was introduced by Alan Davey who also included a brief description of the project and the principles involved with Integrated Pest Management, which will be followed as the pest and diseases project rolls out and also demonstrated a microscope attachment that plugs into the USB port of a computer. In this regard, Anne mentioned the availability of an accessory for i-Phones that allowed close-up photographs of pests. Detailed description of pests and diseases identified in some of the oak and hazelnut trees and some options for their management were described and discussed by Celeste, Anne and Stewart in collaboration with growers present.