Recent Washington State grower experiences of finding disease in a vineyard planted with certified stock have highlighted the weaknesses of state plant health certification programs and the need for program improvement. “We thought we had something clean, and we were going down the road thinking we had some nice, clean stock,” said Rick Hamman, viticulturist for Hogue Ranches in Prosser. But when the certified budwood from California turned out to be infected with at least two diseases, it became a learning process for the company. He believes that as an industry, Washington needs to know more about out-of-state certification programs—how […]