North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Christopher Mauchline" <mauch1@aol.com>]

Hélène,

Here's a web link to an article about Plum Pox(Sharka) now also in 
Canada (imported from PA before the disease was known to be here).  
There are two contact address/numbers at the end of the article:
http://sharka.cas.psu.edu/news_canada.htm

Chris Mauchline
SE PA, zone 6

--- In nafex@egroups.com, "H. Dessureault" <inter.verbis@a...> wrote:
> Donna, 
> Thank you for the warning. I was not aware that a virus disease 
could spread through a seed. I will definitely keep this in mind and 
look into it. The danger is not immediate as I am far away from 
neighbours but I do have a collection of plum trees, and lots of wild 
choke cherries and other wild prunus. My friend knows where the seeds 
came from and his family are beekeepers and knowledgeable fruit 
growers, so it is probably safe as the original tree from what I 
heard is old, big and healthy. I have seen a picture.
> I'm keeping your note and will check with Canadian Agriculture.
> Hélène Dessureault
> -----Message d'origine-----
> De : Kieran or Donna <redherring@t...>
> À : nafex@egroups.com <nafex@egroups.com>
> Date : vendredi 1 décembre 2000 09:05
> Objet : Fw: [nafex] cherry pits from Tchecoslovaquia
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Helene, 
>     We need to have a serious discussion about your cherry trees.  
There is a really bad virus in Europe that can be carried in the pits 
of all stone fruits.  It's called Plumpox or Sharka, and It recently 
got loose in Pennsylvania. As a results hundreds, perhaps thousands 
of trees have been cut down, including wild trees like chokecherry, 
and nurserymen there have to go through through special inspections 
and quarentines.  If the Sharka outbreak there is not controlled, 
growing stones fruits in the eastern U.S. will become even more 
difficult than it already is.  It is illegal to bring pits of 
stonefruits into the U.S., and probably the same is true of Canada.  
Making a mistake can be very costly for many many people.  You have a 
couple of choices.  You can do nothing and hope that you, and your 
neighbors, are lucky.  You might get in big trouble a few years down 
the road if you are wrong.  You can just admit it, and watch while a 
govt man pulls up your tree and takes it off to be burned.  Or you 
can attempt to take a middle road.  Sharka is carried on pruning 
tools, do not prune the tree and then use those tools on any other 
stone fruit.  I have not heard that the virus could spread via aphids 
or insects except when it blooms.  Once your tree blooms, bees will 
carry the pollen to other trees in the area, and that is how the 
disease spreads.  If you can quietly ask about the possibility of 
having the tree inspected, you might get away with it.  If you do, 
and it gets a clean bill of health, I might be interested in some 
seeds myself.  I never heard of a black sour cherry.   Donna TN z6
> 
> P.S.  How many of the rest of you caught this one?  I hear one of 
these stories every year or two, sometimes before the act, sometimes 
after.  If everyone in NAFEX was watching for this kind of thing, 
maybe we could keep diseases from spreading so badly.  Hey, would 
that be a good article for Pomona?  Quarantine areas, and the 
particular diseases behind them?  One of the oldest stories of this 
kind I have heard was that there was a local farm that had apple 
trees from France, they must have imported scions.  This probably 
happened in the 20's-40's, probably wasn't even a law against it 
then.  
> 
> eGroups Sponsor 
>             
>             Travel Over to Lowestfare.com!


-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/0/_/423498/_/975690729/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->