447133.2 Nursery Hygiene
Do not let sloppy nursery hygiene ruin your investment in clean plants and soil fumigation. Soilborne pathogenic fungi, bacteria, and nematodes are carried into the nursery and spread within it by dirty feet, implements, and machines; moving surface water; blowing soil; and infested or infected plants.
- Insist on clean stock. Do not order or accept stock likely to be infested with nematodes, crown gall bacteria, the Verticillium wilt pathogen, or similar organisms.
- Stabilize all open soil and maintain windbreaks. Cover dirt roads with gravel or oil.
- Require equipment moving between nursery blocks to pass through a central area where soil is washed off. The equipment can be parked on a bed of cobblestones, and the soil particles will be carried down through the cobbles. A steel grating over a pit is a better arrangement for a permanent wash-down area. If not possible to clean equipment between blocks, make sure to work in any infected or infested blocks last, and clean equipment at the end of the day.
- Clean boots and hand tools as you do other equipment.
- When roguing diseased plants or pruning diseased parts of plants, bag and dispose of, destroy or bury the discards.
- Do not allow surface water to run from one nursery block to another. Divert it into ditches or culverts.
- Remember that irrigation water can carry pests and pathogens. Select a clean source and keep it clean.
- Allow no direct traffic from outdoor areas to indoor propagation areas. Use properly maintained foot baths containing a germicidal agent at entrances if possible.
- When collecting cuttings in the field, inspect stock plants carefully, and avoid any plants showing disease symptoms or abnormalities. For many leaf diseases, inspect stock plants late in the growing season before cuttings are actually taken, when leaf diseases are most apparent.