Welcome to Five Acre Nursery

Five Acre Nursery is a family owned and run company, producing pre-ordered tree and vegetable seedlings since 1978. Located in Manjimup, Western Australia in the pristine growing region of the South West.  We have held full nursery accreditation since August 1997.

Experience

Trees
Five Acre Nursery has supplied tree seedlings a wide range of companies, government departments, Landcare organisations and private clients.

Experience includes;

  • Supply of Bluegum (Eucalyptus globulus), to most plantation Forestry companies operating in the South West of Western Australia.
  • Supply of over 1 million native seedlings direct to farmers and Landcare organisations for the revegetation and reclamation of riparian zones.
  • Supply of host seedlings, Acacia acuminata, for various Sandalwood projects
  • Supply of Melaleuca uncinata (Broom bush) for a project looking at utilising the trees for brushwood fencing.
  • Supply of endemic species for the Main Roads Department for roadside revegetation and beautification.
  • Five Acre Nursery was the main supplier of seedlings for the revegetation of the Forrest Highway Project.
  • Supply of seedlings from locally sourced seed for rehabilitation of the Harvey Dam Project
  • Supply of seedlings from locally sourced seed for the Warren Catchment Council for rehabilitation of the Donnelly, Perup and Warren rivers and their tributaries

Vegetables

  • Supply of an extensive range of summer vegetables to local growers for supply of product to the domestic market.
  • Supply of cauliflower seedlings to local growers.

Other

  • Growing of seedlings for horticultural crops.

Delivery of Service

Five Acre Nursery employs five full time staff with over 50 years of combined experience of growing tree and vegetable seedlings. During peak periods local casuals are employed under direct supervision of our experience team members. We employ local casuals as required and have a group that return for each tree season. All our staff have passed relevant training courses in chemical handling and machinery operations as required for nursery accreditation.

The Nursery uses an Eldar-Gal control system of which has had a recent upgrade. This computerised system automatically controls many aspects of the operation including;

  • Irrigation
  • Fertigation
  • Greenhouse Climate

Tree seedlings are grown in either of the following tray types;

  • Y72 cell Col-max – 50cc media per cell
  • 40 cell Hico – 93cc media per cell
  • 512 cell miniplug – 5cc media per cell (used to transplant seedlings into Y72 or 40 cell)

Vegetable seedlings are raised in the following;

  • 198 cell – 34 cc media
  • Various punnet trays determined by seedling type. Sizes available on request.

Sowing of seed

All seedlings are raised in composted pine bark sourced from an accredited supplier with nutrients added on site to suit the crop being grown. The media is steam sterilised to 60 degrees Celsius, in the required tray type, to remove any pathogens or weed seed present prior to sowing.

Seed is sown either directly into the tray type required or via miniplug for transplant using seeding machines supplied from KW Automation modified to suit our operational requirements.

Pre-treatment of seed may be required to increase germination or improve the uniformity of germination. Five Acre Nursery has the ability to imbibe, heat treat or provide heating, via hotbeds, to seed to accommodate any pre-treatment requirement.

Growing Seedlings

After sowing seedlings are placed in to the nursery growing areas either in the controlled environment greenhouses or outdoors under 50% shade cloth. The growing areas have a 50mm blue metal covering with a 3 degree gradient to remove excess water from the site with raised steel benching throughout.

Seedlings and the environment they are grown in needs to change during growth phases. Removal of the shade cloth during the cooler months (April – November), and relocating seedlings from the greenhouses to outdoors will ensure a hardened healthy seedling ready for transplant.

Seedlings are monitored regularly for water requirements which is applied via micro sprinklers with limited effect from wind, due to the windbreak structure around the growing areas, giving almost perfect coverage to all seedlings.

An abundance of excellent quality water is sourced from two bores located on site. Water is pumped from the bores to ground storage for settling prior to use.

Fertiliser is either applied via the irrigation system or by hand depending on requirements. Fertiliser is applied at regular intervals throughout the growing stage and manipulated to ensure a healthy hardened seedling at time of dispatch.

Disease and pest management is vital for the production of a healthy seedling and the crop is regularly checked for symptoms. A preventative fungicide programme is in place with an emphasis on resistance management and applications to industry standards.

Dispatch of Seedlings

Prior to dispatch tree seedlings are graded to remove any inferior seedlings and ensure each tray has at least a 95% stocking. Any other seedling treatments i.e. socking/sleeving is done at this stage also. Other treatments may include;

  • Fertiliser application
  • Quality Assurance Assessment
  • Fungicide / Insecticide application

Tree seedlings can be delivered either by contract cartage or via our system where we can deliver up to 150,000 per load.

Vegetable seedlings are loaded into enclosed frames designed for collection by the customer using either a tray back ute or truck.