Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/718029
62 WINES&VINES September 2016 GRAPEGROWING WINE EAST KEY POINTS Grapevines can suffer from numerous viral infec- tions, and getting clean vines to growers has been a complex process that takes years to accomplish. The 2008 Farm Bill established the National Clean Plant Network, a program that created a network of clean plant centers. These centers index, test and sometimes provide "tissue cul- ture therapy" before vines are planted in a foun- dation block. Those blocks then supply certified budwood to nurseries. Nurseries then set up "mother blocks" from the budwood, and vines in those blocks are in- spected and tested again. New York has created a vine-certification program with requirements for mother blocks and a rigorous inspection and testing program for the vines. I n August 2005, I visited with a grower who had lost more than 1,000 vines in the sub-zero temperatures of January 2004, which killed an estimated 298 acres of vinifera cultivars in the Finger Lakes, about 20% of the acreage at that time. (See "Estimate of Crop and Wine Losses in the Finger Lakes," Martinson & White, 2004.) He replaced the vines promptly, but close to half of the Cabernet Franc replants—some still in grow tubes—were showing symptoms of grapevine leafroll virus infection. Subsequent testing confirmed that diagnosis. This episode heightened my awareness of the economic importance of virus testing and elimination in nursery stock. For the grower, winter injury had imposed a four-year loss of production, but the cost of replacing lea- froll-infected replants led to an additional two to three years of crop loss—a totally avoidable loss if certified vines had been available. Clean, virus-tested vines are now making their way to mother blocks in New York nurseries, and New York-certified vines will arrive in the marketplace in the next three to five years. They will offer growers a clean start and dramatically reduce losses from grapevine leafroll disease, tomato ringspot virus, grapevine red blotch disease and other viral pathogens. Their availability is the result of a pipeline that was created with establishment of the National Clean Plant Network (NCPN) in the 2008 Farm Bill. The NCPN has provided sup- port that has enabled university-based clean plant centers, state government agencies and the USDA to work together to produce and distribute virus-tested planting material to nurseries and producers. Clean Plants for the Future National Clean Plant Network and new procedures will reduce risk of nursery-transmitted viral pathogens By Tim Martinson REBECCA ARNN