Home

Products

Research

Company

Contact

Greenhouse IPM

In 2004, Biological Services began construction of a state of the art greenhouse facility to rear beneficial organisms and grow a range of greenhouse crops. Construction of the new facility is now complete. Half of the greenhouse is divided into cells that are used to rear beneficial insects and mites, while the other half is used to grow different varieties of hydroponic tomatoes.

Mark Burgess has joined the Biological Services team and is managing the greenhouse facility and tomato production. Mark and his family have immigrated to Australia from South Africa where they grew greenhouse roses.

The first tomatoes were picked in June 2005 and are being sold through local IGA supermarkets and at local farmers markets. Demand is continuing to increase as consumers learn about the superior quality and taste that can be achieved with hydroponic tomatoes.

Although we are rearing millions of whitefly in the same facility, we have not had a whitefly problem in the tomatoes due to weekly releases of Encarsia formosa. We are also releasing a number of predatory mites onto the tomatoes. Predatory mites usually do not survive long enough to be effective on tomato plants due to the hairs and toxic plant exudates. We will continue to release the predators onto the plants in the hope that some may be resistant to the toxic exudates, and will be able to aid in the biological control of tomato russet mite.

We have also grown a wide range of other crops on a small scale to learn more about the interactions of beneficial species and the pests they control on different crops. So far we have grown capsicums, chillies, cucumbers, eggplant, basil, coriander, lettuce, strawberries, and grapevines. We have let some pests build to damaging levels before starting releases of beneficial species in order to get a better understanding of the population dynamics involved.

Initial hydroponic tomato crop

Greenhouse manager, Mark Burgess

Encarsia card in eggplant