New Zealand: Growing the good bugs, feeding the bad
Source: HD.com
New Zealand: Growing the good bugs, feeding the bad Most growers try to get rid of pests, but at a former tomato greenhouse near Karaka, Chris Thompson and his team need them to thrive. He picks up a leaf of a tobacco plant grown for its "pest magnet" qualities, and finds greenhouse whitefly swarming on its underside.
While most growers would be grimacing, Thompson has a smile on his face - these tiny bugs and their eggs are fodder for some of the beneficial insects his firm Bioforce rears and sends to growers and gardeners around New Zealand. "As a beneficial insect farmer, we have to produce both the pest and the good bug because many of the good bugs will only eat that pest." "Billions" of the bad (including aphids, spider mites, and psyllids) and the good are bred in a series of insect rooms.
Keeping the wolves out of the sheep is actually the most challenging part of your job," he told Country Life on a tour of the insect farm. They are then despatched to growers around the country and as far as Singapore.
Why this matters: For operators, this is a water-management story. The useful signal is that direct substrate measurements can help cut drain loss materially without giving up yield or fruit quality, which is exactly the kind of controllable efficiency gain a facility can build on.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does substrate sensing matter in free-drain strawberry systems?
Because drain percentage tells a grower what already happened, while substrate moisture and EC data show root-zone conditions directly. That makes it easier to cut water loss without guessing.
What is the operator takeaway from this trial?
If the thresholds are understood well enough, growers can reduce drain water materially while protecting yield and fruit quality, which makes sensing an operational tool instead of a reporting tool.
