Operating for over 30 years, Boomaroo Nurseries is a wholesale supplier of vegetable seedlings to the fresh produce industry and potted greenlife products to the nursery and garden industry. It has recently expanded its range to include Certified Organic seedlings as well as beneficial host plants that complement Integrated Pest Management programs. Vegetables Australia reports.

Boomaroo Nurseries has long been invested in optimising plant health – both in-nursery and for its growers on-farm – as well as pursuing the highest possible standards in sustainability.

It has been now over 12 months since the operation launched Boomaroo Organics out of its Lara and Southbrook nurseries, supplying Certified Organic seedlings across all crop categories to growers along the eastern seaboard.

From humble beginnings, Boomaroo now supplies to organic producers in the Lockyer and Granite Belt regions, Mornington Peninsula, Gippsland, Mildura, Swan Hill and the Murraylands, to name a few, and continues to receive positive feedback and strong grower interest.

Initially focusing on its core crops – celery, leafy veg, brassicas, alliums and tomatoes – the operation has responded to grower requests with an expanded organics range including additional fruiting crops such as watermelon, capsicum and pumpkin as well as Asian vegetable varieties.

Beneficial planter boxes at Boomaroo’s Southbrook nursery in Queensland – its own little breeding farm for beneficial insects.

Focus on plant health

However, it isn’t only organic product lines that have proven popular with growers. Boomaroo is seeing increased interest in a more holistic approach to primary production, reducing reliance on the heavy use of chemicals and promoting natural processes to support plant health.

As such, the operation has remained focused on solutions that provide ongoing benefits to on-farm crop management through its plant health programs. One such initiative, providing value to organic and conventional growers, is its beneficial host plant program.

The benefits to pest control and chemical input reduction through the introduction of beneficial predatory insects – also known as Integrated Pest Management (IPM) – have long been known. Beneficial host plantings alongside crops further support IPM by providing a natural farm environment that attracts and sustains a wider range of beneficial predators, who in-turn feast on unwanted and harmful pests.

Traditionally planted at row ends on farm, the host plantings also act like yellow sticky trap pest indicators – with damaging aphids and thrips attracted to host planting flowers and the beneficial predators they house – before attacking valuable vegetable crops nearby.

Boomaroo’s beneficial host plant offering includes marigolds and alyssum, as well as a range of flowering herbs, which are all grown organically.

This program is further supported by its adoption of softer chemistry applications in lieu of commercial insecticides in-nursery, even on conventional crops – resulting in a clean, healthy plant and encouraging beneficials such as lady beetles, parasitic wasps, lacewings, damsel bugs, black-headed mirid and big-eyed bugs to take up residence.

Although the operation has already seen a strong uptake from organic and conventional growers, the benefits couldn’t be clearer than at its own nurseries. Planters of marigolds and alyssum have been stationed with great effect, complementing the use of sticky traps and pheromones also deployed throughout the nurseries.

Through Boomaroo, growers can now meet their seedling and host beneficial plant needs in one convenient delivery.

For more information about its organics offering, plant health programs such as beneficial host plantings or sustainable chemistry applications, please contact your local Boomaroo Territory Manager or email sales@boomaroo.com.

Find out more

Please visit the Boomaroo website.

Cover image: Trays of alyssum ready for delivery to growers.