Hello Sarah,
I would suggest you hook up with a plant breeder
and participate in a participatory plant breeding project. In this case
the plant breeder would send material to several growers who would contribute
time and land to the project. I'm not sure who all is working on cherry
plums but I suspect Bob Bors may be and Brian Smith in Northern Wisconsin is
working on all kinds of hardy prunus. I would think also that NAFEX as an
organization could ask for material - for exemple if 3 or 4 nafex members
were interested in testing cherry plums under different conditions using
the same protocoles and data taking methods.
All the best,
Kristine, NE Québec, foot or so of wet snow on the
ground -exceptionally mild winter, spring
coming on way too fast
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 6:35
PM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Availability of
grafting wood from governmentrepositories
Hi David,
I just heard about the change in policy from
an email forwarded by a friend told she wasn't getting anything this
year! I'm completely annoyed. I agree that we should support the
nurseries out there and I have/do, but most of the stuff in Canada's clonal
genebank isn't available anywhere else. For instance, I bought a ton of
rootstock last year so I could graft their entire cherry plum
collection. I have an entire box full of printed catalogues and a long
list of bookmarked nurseries, but I already have every cherry plum
commercially available. On the other hand, CCG has the entire greek
alphabet series and now they won't let me have them! Seriously,
how many people in Canada want cherry plum material? And I'm using
Cherry plums just as an example: I loaded up on pear rootstock too planning to
graft some varieties this spring, thankfully I grafted about 75 kinds apples
last year.
Could you please send me the address (email or otherwise)
where you protested? I would like to add a letter of complaint too.
Do you have any information on what I would have to do to be
recognized as a "bona fide researcher or breeder" to get this exemption?
I like to tell people (a bit tongue in cheek) that I own/operate a 'husband
funded private research station' and plan to get into breeding red fleshed
desert apples, but I need the start-up materials to do that! If I could
get an exemption, I'd be happy to request materials for others!!!
Sarah zone 3 Edmonton, AB
I have recently
encountered an issue with the provision of grafting wood from the Canadian
Germplasm Repository. They have determined that I am neither a "bona fide
researcher nor a breeder", and hence am not entitled to obtain grafting
wood from the Repository (the equivalent of the National Plant Germplasm
System in the States). Obviously this determination applies to virtually
all the Canadian NAFEX members, (other than the staff of the dwindling
number of govt research stations and multinational agribusiness employees.) I
have registered my objection to this interpretation, which represents a
substantial change from the practice to date. But to bolster my argument I
need information from other jurisdictions. Am I correct in my belief that
ordinary citizens of the US can request material from the various
repositories maintained by the NPGS? And that my cousins in the UK can get
wood from Brogdale or Long Ashton? And so on for Holland, France, India, etc.?
Note that the issue here has nothing to do with disease transmission,
quarantine, prohibition of importation of specfic material into specific
states, etc. Rather it hinges specifically on the perceived mandate of the
Repository, which is restricted to "bona fide researchers". And amateur
growers are not, in their eyes. (I note that the NPGS also state that
"Germplasm is available in small quantities for research purposes" ;
obviously if my belief that people outside academic centres and government
labs can nevertheless access materials in the States is correct, the crux
of the issue hinges on the definition of a "researcher". (I think NAFEX
members, and all the train of amateur fruit growers who preceded us have done
far more legitimate real world research than all the white coated lab
types.)
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