It was a busy first half of 2021 for Lockyer Valley Growers Inc, with organisers gearing up for the 2021 Lockyer Valley Growers Expo. The event will be held over two days in early June prior to the Hort Connections conference and trade show. Meanwhile, Lockyer Valley’s Vietnamese growers attended a grower seminar that was aimed at addressing extension needs, with the focus on pest management and results from resistance testing in the region.

Save the date for the Lockyer Valley Growers Expo

The Lockyer Valley Growers Inc. would like to invite growers and industry members to save the date for the Lockyer Valley Growers Expo, which is set to take place over two days from Sunday 6 June to Monday 7 June 2021.

The 2021 Lockyer Valley Growers Expo follows on from the 2016 expo, which attracted over 1,500 visitors over two days and showcased the latest in vegetable varieties, as well as machinery and technology displays. This year’s event is expected to include vegetable variety trials from 10 international seed companies, along with machinery and technology displays and access to industry service providers.

In addition, an expo networking event is planned for the evening of Sunday 6 June for growers and industry. This event coincides with Hort Connections – which is being held from 7-9 June 2021 at the Brisbane Convention Centre – and will include optional pre-conference tours to the expo.

Bookings are currently not being taken, but any general enquiries can be directed to the organising committee at projectmanager@lockyervalleygrowers.com.au or by phoning Zara Hall on 0456 956 340.

Vietnamese grower news

A Vietnamese grower seminar was recently held to address priority regional extension needs that include pest management. Guest presenter Duong Nguyen from the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries spoke to seminar participants in Vietnamese language and shared resistance testing results from the region.

Preliminary results indicate resistance in western flower thrips to Spinetoram (Success neo) from four collections from southern Queensland in greenhouse grown cucumber and eggplant had levels of 90 per cent, 10 per cent, 0 per cent and 0 per cent resistance respectively.

Duong Nguyen explained the ‘three spray’ strategy for thrips management and shared practical advice to manage resistance in thrips including removal of flowering weeds, especially flowering white clover, to reduce breeding populations of thrips around the perimeters of protected structures.

Participants who attended the grower seminar were able to take home gift packs that included predatory mites and flowering plants to provide a nectar source for beneficial species. These seminar packs were kindly gifted by Clinton McGrath from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Queensland, Bugs for Bugs and Pohlmans.

Thank you to VegNET – Western Australia Regional Development Officer Truyen Vo from vegetablesWA for translating event invitations into Vietnamese. Cám ơn.

Find out more

Please contact VegNET – Southern Queensland Regional Development Officer Zara Hall on 0456 956 340 or at ido@lockyervalleygrowers.com.au.

VegNET – Southern Queensland is a strategic levy investment under the Hort Innovation Vegetable Fund.

This project has been funded by Hort Innovation using the vegetable research and development levy and contributions from the Australian Government.

Project Number: VG19010

Cover image: The 2021 Lockyer Valley Growers Expo follows on from the 2016 expo, which attracted over 2,000 visitors over two days and showcased the latest in vegetable varieties as well as machinery and technology displays.