Location: Horticultural Crops Disease and Pest Management Research Unit
Project Number: 2072-22000-046-043-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Jun 1, 2023
End Date: Sep 30, 2024
Objective:
1. Identification of "high risk" strawberry viruses by region in the continental United States by collecting strawberry samples from nurseries (G2, G3, and G4 blocks) in each of the strawberry growing region in the U.S.
2. Developing evidence-based information on how to best monitor for and develop Best Management Practices to exclude viruses and other targeted pathogens during plant production in nurseries
Approach:
Strawberry leaf samples will be collected from nurseries (G2, G3 and G4 blocks) in each region and assayed for all known strawberry viruses (Martin et al., 2006 and the references below) in three seasons. In addition, samples will be collected from commercial fields and native rosaceous plants to determine which viruses are present in the field and surrounding flora. This will inform us of the potential risks that need to be accounted for in nurseries. The sampling will be primarily from nurseries but follow up sample collections from production fields of various ages and also from native plants will follow particularly if we find-high risk or unusual viruses in nurseries for a given region.
Develop map of continental U.S. with high-risk strawberry virus pathogens by region, provide the information to State Departments of Agriculture and nurseries, and add information to the Specialty Crops Pathogen Database so it is updateable as future information is developed.
