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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Re: chestnuts

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  • From: list@ginda.us
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>, breen@fedcoseeds.com
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Re: chestnuts
  • Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 11:03:08 -0400


On Jun 19, 2004, at 12:28 PM, Heron Breen wrote:


Ginda and others, I think the most important lesson from the Chestnut is one of
our perspective. That perspective is one of Nature not knowing enough, not being
perfect, and at the same time our economy pushing her threshholds beyond any
realistic expectation.

Another lesson is to beware of importing plants from areas that have different pathogens. When I started planting my garden, I bought some plants from the west coast. Over time I bought fewer, as i noticed that the trip was difficult, and I needed to plant west-coast plants out-of-synch with the best weather for planting here in the east. Since learning about Sudden Oak Death, I have stopped buying stuff from west of the rockies - despite some trouble finding the blueberry cultivars I wanted to try. SOD can be carried on all sorts of stuff, specifically including blueberry. I only learned of this because a west-coast vendor indicated it couldn't ship blueberry to one of the east-coast states, and I decided to look up why not. A single state has imposed a quarantine on plants from SOD-infected states. Too little, too late, since nursery giant Monrovia accidentally shipped infected material to most of the east coast a year prior to the quarantine.

SOD also infects rhododendron, camellia, maple, chestnut, beech, horse chestnut, Douglas Fir, viburnim, lilac, and lots of other stuff. And no one really knows what else. (It doesn't kill many of these - mostly it's a minor but annoying leaf/stem blight, but those sick leaves can kill oaks.)

( http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/comtf/html/about_sudden_oak_death.html has a fairly current list)

And who knows what other pathogens are lurking out there, harmless in their native habitat, with adapted hosts, but ready to kill when they are transported to relatives of their native hosts.

Ginda





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