Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/670981
May 2016 WINES&VINES 21 WINE INDUSTRY NEWS Premier Quality from North america's leadiNg ViNe Nursery leaders raise the bar in everything they do and that's why Vintage Nurseries continues to set the industry standards for vine cleanliness, improved irrigation methods and product selection. in the last year alone, Vintage has begun work on a new, state-of-the-art greenhouse facility, changed from wood to eco-friendly recycled plastic storage bins and callous boxes, and introduced new sanitization techniques. from our 2010 Protocol mother blocks, to our advanced testing lab, the innovative new Vintage root sock and more, Vintage Nurseries strives to provide the cleanest, healthiest vines in the industry. it's how we lead. it's how we grow. Eco-friEndly plastic storagE bins plastic callous boxEs for VinE clEanlinEss VintagE nursEriEs' adVancEd nEw tEsting lab Serving the Wine, table grape, and raiSin induStrieS 800.499.9019 VintageNurseries.com wasco 661.758.4777 santa rosa 707.542.5510 paso roblEs 805.237.8914 A lbany, N.Y.—The New York Depart- ment of Agriculture and Markets (NYDAM) used the fourth webinar in the series "Clean Plants for the Future of the Eastern Wine and Grape Industry" to an- nounce a new, state-of-the-art certification program for grapevines sold by several nurs- eries in the state. Margaret Kelly, assistant director in NY- DAM's Division of Plant Industry, said the new program would resurrect the previously voluntary program for the production of vi- rus-tested plant materials that was in place many years ago. Kelly noted that the Depart- ment of Agriculture started to work with nurseries to bring the program back "because there is such a demand in New York and across the country." The new grapevine-certification program will require nurseries to screen vines for viruses that currently cause growers to lose money, with specific focus on tomato ringspot, tobacco ringspot, fanleaf virus, leafroll-associated vi- ruses and red blotch virus. Kelly stated, "We intend to test one in four mother blocks every year using ELISA (en- zyme-linked immune-sorbent assay) and PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests. No other state tests 25% of the vines in the mother block each year....We think it's very important to get this done right. Not only do we want to know, the nurseries certainly do." The New York State Agricultural Experi- ment Station in Geneva, N.Y., will be in- volved with the testing procedures, and state horticultural inspectors will be doing third- party inspections. Dr. Marc Fuchs, associate professor of plant pathology and plant-microbe biology at Cornell University, told Wines & Vines that Kelly has been working to revitalize this program for a number of years. Fuchs said that the nurseries began to work closely with the U.S. Depart- ment of Agriculture on this project four or five years ago. He noted, "It takes years to create supplies to meet the demand for clean vines." He also commented that growers would have to stay vigilant against pests and diseases entering their vineyards that could re-infect the vines. Eric Amberg of Grafted Grapevine Nursery in Clifton Springs, N.Y.; Dennis Rak of Double A Vineyards in Fredonia, N.Y., and Fred Mer- werth of Hermann Wiemer Nursery in Dundee, N.Y., participated in the webinar and described the work they have done in the past five to six years to prepare for the certification program. Additional acreage has been purchased, tested and prepared for planting, and virus-free vines have been acquired from clean-plant centers at Washington State University, the University of California, Davis, and Missouri State Uni- versity. Some certified vines may be ready for sale in New York as soon as 2018. —Linda Jones McKee Seeking Clean Vines for N.Y. Vineyards Tomato ringspot (seen on a Vidal Blanc cluster) is one of the diseases that several New York nurseries will test for as part of a new clean-plant initiative.