A group of vegetable growers implementing biodiverse planting into their farm systems for pest management benefits are sowing the seeds for a second season of learning.
Members of the grower group are helping extend knowledge gained from the A Lighter Touch-Vegetables New Zealand-Onions New Zealand biodiversity project by providing regional insights from other vegetable growing regions.
With members located in Northland, Gisborne, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu-Horowhenua and Nelson-Tasman, the grower group is a key component of sharing knowledge with other growers from the biodiversity project which is located at the Pukekohe Research and Demonstration Farm.
Last season was the group’s first foray into biodiversity planting, with support from project technical lead Olivia Prouse, and Vegetables New Zealand research, development and extension manager Daniel Sutton.
This season, the group will be supported to share their experiences with other growers in their regions through a series of “open-paddock” events, planned for March 2026.
Daniel Sutton discusses the mobile insectary pods planted with natives at the LandWISE research site.
By incorporating biodiversity into the farm system through native perennial planting, annual flowering species, cover crops and mobile insectary pods, the goal is to enhance beneficial populations, leading to fewer insect pests in crops, and less insecticides required.
Karen Silva, from market garden Appleby Fresh near Nelson, says they are building two more mobile insectary pods this season to complement the four pods they established last year.
This season’s annual flower strips have already been sown, and last year’s strip has self-seeded and is producing colourful flowers to attract and provide food for beneficial predators. Karen has designated a non-cropping area for permanent perennial planting this season to further boost biodiversity.
Dargaville kumara grower Luke Posthuma is going to repeat his use of annual flower strips running through the paddock, although this year he will trial planting the strips further apart to see if the beneficials still move throughout the block with the greater distance between strips.
He is also going to trial the flower strips in a more challenging pest environment of a light sandy soil which dries out through summer, circumstances which usually lead to the worst pest pressure.
Kumara grower Luke Posthuma. Credit: Arjune Dahya.
Luke has done some native planting on his farm with support from Kaipara Moana Remediation and Growing Change (more on this here). He’s hoping to realise the benefits of this planting in providing shelter and food for beneficial insects and mites to over-winter.
Horowhenua grower Andres Cruz, of Woodhaven Gardens, is going to trial using flower strips more extensively and with different crops this year. They are also establishing native shrubs to attract more beneficial insects.
The strips will used alongside lettuce, broccoli, daikon radish and either leeks or beetroot. Andres, like the other grower champions, says doing really good ground preparation work is important to ensure good germination of the strips.
Woodhaven Gardens annual strips last season. Credit: Andres Cruz.
LandWISE Sustainable Systems Project Manager Olivia Webster has plans for their Hawke’s Bay research farm, including planting annuals on fence lines and along the driveway.
The intention is to plant low growing species alyssum and dwarf calendula under the irrigator cable and then at five metre intervals plant a native low growing species, to see how it works in combination with the flowering strips.
Olivia Webster weeding a moveable pod at LandWISE. Credit: LandWISE.
The timing of planting the farm’s flowering strips is weather dependent, Olivia says, as lack of rain in Hawke’s Bay has left the ground very hard and dry.
Gisborne based vegetable grower Calvin Gedye.
In addition to planting flowering strips alongside the farm fence lines, Gisborne vegetable grower Calvin Gedye is planning to plant a trap crop around a sweet corn crop, replicating the trial being undertaken at the Pukekohe Demonstration and Research Farm as a management technique for green vegetable bug.
Further information on the planned open paddock workshops will be shared in the ALT newsletter in the new year.
Read more about the biodiversity project here.
