Two treatments for P. ramorum infested nursery soil

Research at the National Ornamental Research Site at Dominican University of California (NORS-DUC) has provided two Green technology P. ramorum soil remediation deliverables that have been approved by the USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service on a case by case basis for use in destroying P. ramorum in the soil substrate at contaminated nurseries.  Both technologies (steaming and the use of a biological control agent) have been successfully tested at a contaminated retail nursery and a contaminated wholesale nursery (ships interstate) in CA.  Follow-up sampling for the pathogen at both nurseries was negative, allowing each site to be released from the P. ramorum federal quarantine.

Technology transfer of these NORS-DUC successes to a wider national nursery audience is underway in a proposed multi-state Farm Bill proposal spearheaded by the Oregon Department of Agriculture, Washington State Department of Agriculture, WA State University and CA Department of Food and Agriculture.

From the December COMTF newsletter