NSW DPI horticulturalists Greig Ireland (left) and Phil Wilk were able to use soil moisture information from tensiometers to advise the Dhariwal family on improving their irrigation system.

New growers in the booming north coast blueberry industry are improving their irrigation efficiency through involvement in a NSW DPI project.

Irrigation management practices are being adopted such as:

using tensiometers to monitor soil moisture and irrigating to meet plant needs,

breaking rows into shorter lengths to enable effective irrigation without overwatering, and

dividing large existing irrigation blocks.

One grower recently ordered twelve sets of tensiometers after seeing the value of the soil moisture probes for understanding how water moves through the orchard and how the irrigation system is performing.

Blueberries are now the fourth major horticultural crop in terms of farmgate value on the NSW North Coast after nurseries, bananas and macadamias.

There has been a rapid expansion of new blueberry orchards in the Coffs Harbour and Woolgoolga areas and many of the new orchards are on lands previously occupied by bananas.

Expansion on old banana lands has brought new challenges in resource management that have previously not been major issues for blueberry producers.

Major producers in the Alstonville and Corindi areas have been growing blueberries for many years on relatively flat land with slopes of less than 10 per cent.

Many new industry entrants are replacing bananas with blueberries on lands with very steep slopes of between 10 and 20pc.

The steeper lands are more challenging for managing watering and fertigation.

Present techniques of irrigating are inadequate as the upper end of a row is often dry while the lower end is being over-irrigated, causing waterlogging.

Growers often irrigate to meet the needs of the dryer plants at the top. This can lead to the death of roots, followed by disease, poorer plant growth and smaller berries in the lower ends of rows, as well as excessive nutrients flowing into natural waterways.

The Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority has engaged NSW DPI to develop a best management practice manual for blueberry growers to help them manage blueberry orchards on steep lands more effectively.

A field day is being planned for April to show techniques and strategies used on the demonstration site to other local blueberry producers as a working example of applying best management practices for sustainable blueberry production.

The Best Management Practices in Blueberries project will also run Waterwise water management courses starting in April for any interested growers.

Courses will be free for growers to attend, and will run one day per week, over four consecutive weeks.

There is a maximum number of 15 participants for this course but additional courses can be run if needed.

Contact NSW DPI horticulturists Phillip Wilk (02) 6626 2450 or Greig Ireland (02) 6650 3132, or Stephanie Alt, Project Officer, (02) 6626 1294.