Getting local fruit varieties into local orchards is a particular challenge in Ontario because breeding work takes place within the Niagara region, where the movement of plant material is limited in an effort to prevent the spread of plum pox virus (PPV). While the industry established a mother block for propagating clean plant material outside the quarantine zone near Windsor, north of Detroit, Michigan, budwood must first go to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s key plant health laboratory in Sidney, British Columbia, on Vancouver Island, for cleanup. “That’s a three- to four-year process, so all of a sudden, if variety […]