Irrigation Australia and UPL Australia are seeking an irrigation channel partner to assist in the final trial of a world leading aquatic weed control herbicide project.
Scientists at Victoria’s Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources are leading the project with irrigation companies and UPL to collect data on the effectiveness of the herbicide endothall.
The project has been running since 2010, with several green-house and irrigation channel trials already completed.
Previous trials have shown that endothall provides excellent control of key aquatic weeds: ribbon weed, floating pondweed, elodea, sagittiaria (arrowhead) and milfoil.
Irrigation Australia is looking for a partner that fulfils the following criteria.
- A flowing water channel of at least 500m
- A contained water trial site of at least 200m
- Capacity to hold treated water for 21-60 days before returning to the main system
- No access to treated channel by livestock
- Channel infested with Ribbon weed, floating pond weed, elodea, and milfoil or filamentous algae. Any combinations of these weeds will be considered.
- Ideal water temperatures above 15 degrees
- A control site preferably on the same channel or a close by spur, with the same or similar weed densities and species as the treated site
- Work to be done under IAL held permit.
To complete the data package, the project needs to undertake additional trials in irrigation channels to provide data from a greater number of sites around Australia.
