Vegenotes is a technical publication that is released alongside Vegetables Australia magazine. Each edition presents the main findings of two R&D projects to give growers both technical and practical information to encourage better uptake of research outcomes.

Vegenotes 75 has a focus on protected cropping and innovations in glass technology that are helping to improve the efficiency of greenhouses.

We speak to post-doctoral researcher Dr Sachin Chavan from the Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment at Western Sydney University. Dr Chavan is part of a team of researchers who are testing the performance of various crops grown under low thermal emissivity (low-e) glass coating to determine how to reduce internal heat load and energy costs without affecting crop quality or yields.

Research and operations to trial innovative glass and photovoltaic technologies in protected cropping (project VG16070) is ongoing. Its aim is to deliver a reliable and comprehensive evaluation guide to using these innovative technologies, so that Australian growers can ultimately reduce energy expenses.

The second story in this publication turns back the clock to the early-to-mid 2000s. Australian vegetable crops – maximising returns from water (VG04010) was completed in 2006, and delivered a series of reports (covering six states, with an additional national snapshot and one technical report) detailing water use in the major vegetable production regions and associated river catchments.

Mark Hickey, a former district horticulturalist at Yanco Agricultural Institute, New South Wales Department of Primary Industries, speaks about this project and what it aimed to achieve. One of those aims was to identify irrigation technologies most suited to different crops grown in vegetable growing regions in Australia. While there was some success (and a follow-up project borne out of VG04010), the uptake of irrigation technologies and management practices by the Australian vegetable industry remains relatively slow, with further investigation needed to identify the specific barriers to adoption.

Want to read more? Edition 75 has been released with the Summer 2019/20 edition of Vegetables Australia, so keep an eye for it in your mailboxes. It can also be found online.

If you’re not already receiving Vegenotes, you can subscribe to receive future editions of the publication for free by emailing communications@ausveg.com.au.

This post appeared in the AUSVEG Weekly Update published 17/12/2019. Subscribe to the Update using our online form to receive the latest industry news in your inbox every week!