What makes a vine “clean”?

First "Clean" means that the vine does not carry disabling diseases at the time of planting.

That means vines are free from viruses, fungal and bacterial pathogens that cannot be cured once the vine is infected. The fungal and bacterial pathogens can be controlled by growing the vines in the proper climate, using sterile nursery protocols, and taking preventative measures to keep them healthy. Sunridge Nursery is located in the Southern San Joaquin Valley, which has a dry desert climate conducive to growing without as much risk of these organisms infecting their grapevines. The virus issue is a bigger challenge, because the health of the stock material is critical to preventing the spread of a virus. That is why the best vine you can possibly plant is a California Certified vine with a pedigree that is traceable back to a known mother vine.

California Certification refers to a Clean Stock Program that was set up with the cooperation of nurseries, the California University system, the California Dept. of Food and Ag., (CDFA), and the grapevine industry.

This program has written rules, is administered by CDFA, and the site of all grapevine source mother vines and all program activities are at Foundation Plant Services, (FPS), at U.C. Davis. The source vines are submitted to FPS, tested for at least two years, and once they are deemed "clean" two vines are planted in their Foundation Block. Nurseries are required to have CDFA do a site survey to gain site approval before acquiring the FPS foundation vines to start a Registered and Certified Increase Block. Only first generation cuttings from a nurseries' registered increase block can be called "Certified." Both the rootstock and the budwood must be sourced from a registered block to qualify as certified.

Sunridge Nurseries is committed to selling only California Certified Grapevines. This commitment by Sunridge Nurseries is our way of ensuring that we are part of the solution and positively impacting the industry. With Sunridge a grower does not have to settle for "Clean." Our customers can plant California Certified grapevines that also have a known pedigree with the backing of CDFA, and FPS. This is not only a benefit to the grower but it is in the best interest of the entire industry.

A grapevine grown in a test tube does not make it any better. It is just another means of propagating a vine that is planted out into a field to be another increase block. The vines you receive come from cuttings grown outdoors, in a field, and are the same as all other nursery increase blocks. It is the nurseries sterile practices that are important, and the fact that Sunridge Increase Blocks are Registered and Certified that are critical. Come see our facilities so you can get the feel of cleanliness and understand what "sterile nursery practices" really are. You will see that we offer a product that provides the best of both worlds - Certified Source Material grown in a facility that is State-of-the-Art.

"Clean" is commitment that we have made to our customers and the industry.

Sunridge Nurseries has replaced older increase blocks with the latest, most extensively tested material available, which FPS has dubbed as the "Protocol 2010" grapevine stock material. It has been shoot-tip cultured at FPS and verified that it is virus free using both RT-PCR and TaqMan qPCR methods to screen for viruses. FPS has also compared this material with original clones, to verify that they have not been altered during the treatments, before releasing them to nurseries.

We have taken our commitment to clean vines even further.

We purchased nearly 1000 acres of isolated virgin property. This property will be used to exclusively for the planting of Protocol 2010 material. This material is free from Grapevine Leaf roll viruses and Red Blotch virus. This is the indisputably the cleanest material available to date in the industry.

441 Vineland Road
Bakersfield, California 93307
+1 (661) 363-8463