North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Donna &/or Kieran" <holycow@cookeville.com>]

Has anyone heard whether they figured out who brought in the source of plum pox?  I have told several people over the years not to plant any stone fruit seed from Europe, most people don't know this.  Someone in Italy offered peach seeds in SSE one year, she had no idea there was a problem and assured me she wouldn't send any to the US now that she knew.  It COULD be that someone who happened to be in a major commercial orchard area innocently planted some seeds from Europe, but I'd suspect that someone who knew better brought in something they shouldn't have to try to get a novel new crop.  Unfortunately the whole fruit producing community for many miles around had to pay for their mistake, and will be paying for years to come.   

    So many seeds are safe to import and plant, but I don't know a good way to make sure the public knows what they shouldn't grow.   Once someone from AZ called me to ask some questions about citrus and said he had brought in seeds from the citron he'd grown up with in Africa.  I froze, and started explaining to him about citrus Greening.  He said the tree he got seeds from was perfectly healthy, then suddenly the line went dead.  I am sure he realised that I could figure out a way to track him down and turn him in if he said much more.  No Greening has turned up in AZ since then, but I doubt the guy has gone around warning others!    Donna