NCPN Newsletters

The Benefits of Clean Planting Stock

Healthy planting stock is key to the cost-effective production of horticultural crops such as fruit trees, berries, and grapevines. Healthy plants are easier to propagate, require fewer chemical inputs, and produce higher crop yields and better crop quality than diseased plants. Healthy planting stock is necessary for U.S. agriculture to remain internationally competitive and economically viable. Clean plant programs across the country support U.S. agriculture by providing healthy planting stock to get nurseries and growers off to a good start and allow them to continue to produce the highest quality product possible. In this issue of the NCPN Network News, we hear from our end users to better understand how important clean plant programs are to their success.

NCPN Grape News

Grapes,NCPN Network News, Spring 2017

Rick Hamman, Viticulture Manager, Hogue Ranches, Prosser Washington “The National Clean Plant Network is a valuable resource for our wine industry of Washington and other areas of the PNW and the nation. Virus-clean grapevine material from the Clean Plant Center Northwest (CPCNW) has given the Washington wine industry a future and direction in battling the most significant disease...

NCPN Berries News

Berries, NCPN Network News, Spring 2017

John R Clark, Distinguished Professor, University of Arkansas “Back in the early to mid-2000s, two major developments occurred that impacted blackberry production, particularly in the South and California. The first was the identification of several new viruses present in blackberries, including blackberry yellow vein associated virus, followed by a number of others along with numerous virus combinations in subsequent years. The second development was a substantial increase in planting...

NCPN Citrus News

Citrus, NCPN Network News, Spring 2017

Aaron Dillon, Four Winds Growers, Watsonville California “Four Wind Growers is a four-generation old family-owned citrus nursery based in Watsonville, California, with additional growing grounds in winters, CA. In 1946, a curious soon-to-be...

NCPN Roses News

NCPN Network News Winter 2017 Roses

Next time you are at an NCPN meeting and hear a friendly voice in a lilting French accent, it likely belongs to Jacques Ferare, an industry representative to the NCPN-Roses Tier 2 Committee. He is Vice President for Licensing and Rose Program Director at Star Roses and Plants in West Grove, Pa. A native of Nice, France, Jacques graduated from Colorado State University with a M.S. in...

NCPN Fruit Tree News

Fruit Trees, NCPN Network News, Spring 2017

Phil Baugher, President, Adams County Nursery Inc., Aspers Pennsylvania “In 1999, plum pox virus was discovered for the first time in North America. This discovery was within ten miles of our warehousing and shipping facility and within six miles from one of our farming operations. In the three years that followed, over 1500 acres of bearing peach, nectarine, plum and apricot orchards were...

NCPN Hops News

Hops, NCPN Network News, Spring 2017

Jason Perrault, Select Botanicals, Toppenish Washington “At Select Botanicals Group and Hop Breeding Company we have utilized the NCPN extensively as a trusted source of up-to-date information, clean public plant material, and as a path towards developing and maintaining clean stocks of our varieties and germplasm. We've seen first-hand the impact widespread infection by virus and viroids...

NCPN Sweet Potato News

Sweetpotato, NCPN Network News, Spring 2017

Matthew Garber, Garber Farms, Iota Louisiana “Garber Farms grows over 1,000 acres of sweet potatoes annually. Our average yields over the past 10 years has steadily increased to around 675 bushels per acre. The Foundation seed program provided by LSU has been the core input of our production practices. Its ability to provide Garber Farms with a viral-and disease-free clean plant product...