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Title: Sweet news for growers: 'Stone fruit' ban is lifted

Sweet news for some Pennsylvania growers: 'Stone fruit' ban is lifted
Friday, December 01, 2006
BY CHARLES THOMPSON     of The Patriot-News (Harrisburg, Pa.)
For years, Adams County was among the biggest peach-producing counties in the country.
But the Adams County peach was threatened with extinction by the 1999 onset of the plum pox virus. The disease, which spreads rapidly, saps the production of trees producing "stone fruits," such as peaches, nectarines, apricots and plums.

To contain the virus, the state Department of Agriculture ordered the destruction of 1,599 acres, or approximately 225,000 trees.

Now, the Adams County peach might reclaim its place in midstate summertime culture.
The state Department of Agriculture yesterday announced it is lifting an orchard-destroying, no-replanting quarantine on 200 square miles in Adams, Cumberland and York counties. It clears the way for orchard owners to replant 'stone fruit' trees.

Most of the infected acres that had to be destroyed were in Adams County, which was typically Pennsylvania's top county for peach production and one of the top 20 nationally.

To growers and other agriculture-related businesses that had to weather the government-ordered destruction of orchards, that was cause for celebration.

"This is definitely good news," said David Rice, whose family operates a fresh fruit wholesale business supplying grocers and restaurants throughout the East Coast.

Rice said his Gardners-based business shipped 220,000 bushels of stone fruits in a good year before the emergence of plum pox. Last year's production was down to 75,000 bushels.

It might take years for Adams to regain its position as one of the nation's leading peach-producing counties, Rice said. It takes five years before a newly planted field produces a significant crop.

Adams County produced 7,430 tons of peaches in 2005, compared with 14,983 tons in 1999, according to state figures.
Rice said he expects many growers will jump back into the peach market. But other growers last night said they would proceed cautiously.

The quarantine is lifted in York Springs and Huntingon and Latimore townships, a portion of Tyrone Twp. in Adams County, Dickinson Twp. in Cumberland County and Franklin Twp. in York County.

That's about two-thirds of the quarantine zone. In those areas, testing has turned up no new plum pox cases for three straight years, officials said.

Department of Agriculture spokeswoman Nancy Richwine said the areas where the quarantine was lifted constitute much of the original "hot zone" where plum pox, previously seen only in Europe and Chile, was detected in 1999.

Infected fruit presents no health hazard to humans, and the virus does not kill trees. But it disfigures the fruit, limiting its sale value, and within a few seasons, the virus chokes off all production.

Infected trees cannot be treated.
The virus is new, so to prevent it from spreading, state and federal officials adopted an eradication strategy in which area orchards were continually tested for signs of the virus and destroyed if any trees were infected.

The quarantine remains in effect for about 93 square miles of land in Butler, Franklin, Menallen and Tyrone townships in Adams County; South Middleton Twp. in Cumberland County; and Monaghan Twp. in York County.

"There's a lot less virus out there now than there was in the spring of 2000," when the eradication program began, said Karl Valley, chief of the Department of Agriculture's Plant Protection Division.

Valley said the area coming out of the quarantine includes about 1,000 acres of the affected orchards.
Rice said many growers have replanted their peach fields with other crops, such as apples, Adams County's largest fruit crop.

But, he said, "I think people will be glad to have the option of planting peaches again."
CHARLES THOMPSON: 705-5724 or cthompson@patriot-news.com
©2006 The Patriot-News

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