Crops

The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development continues to support the growth and international competitiveness of all crop industries in Western Australia.

With a 2400 kilometre span from its tropical north to its temperate south, WA supports a broad range of cropping industries from rain-fed winter cereals through to irrigated horticultural crops.

In the 2012/13 year the WA cropping industries exported a total of $3.9 billion which comprised: $3.1 billion of cereals, $859 million of pulses, pastures and oilseeds, $142 million of horticultural crops. The major contributors to these exports were wheat ($2.7 billion), canola ($756 million), barley ($377 million), lupins ($42 million), carrots at $48 million, oats ($12 million), and strawberries at $5.5 million.

Articles

  • Phosphorus fertiliser application to potato crops should aim to maximise profits and also minimise the overuse of phosphorus to reduce environmental impacts and health risks.

  • The life of the lettuce crop is considered in three phases — establishment, rapid growth and maturation — and each phase has specific fertiliser requirements.

  • This page describes the characteristics of a good potting mix and outlines some of the common ingredients, as well as detailing simple tests for aeration and water-holding capacity.

  • Over-application of fertiliser nutrients can cause growth and quality problems in vegetable crops.

  • Manganese deficiency is most often seen on well drained neutral or calcareous soils but heavy fertiliser usage can induce it in other soils, particularly after heavy applications of lime.

  • It is difficult to provide prescriptive guidelines for strawberry irrigation given the wide range of planting configurations and irrigation layouts.

  • Patches of pale stunted wilted plants

    Oats are very susceptible to manganese (Mn) deficiency, which produces a condition called 'grey speck'.

  • Oat plants showing symptoms of acute phosphorous deficiency including necosis moving down from old leaf tip

    Nearly all soils in Western Australia are phosphorus deficient in their natural state but the continual use of phosphorus fertiliser means acute deficiency in broadacre crops is rare, with the exce

  • CSBP oat nutrition trial showing oat crop with symptoms of potassium deficiency

    Potassium is required for photosynthesis, transport of sugars, enzyme activation and controlling water balance within plant cells.

  • The life of the cabbage crop is considered in three phases — establishment, rapid growth and maturation — and each phase has specific fertiliser requirements.

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