Skip to main content Skip to navigation

New Pome and Stone Fruit Varieties

The Clean Plant Center Northwest is the lead National Clean Plant Network center for the production of virus-tested Pome and Stone fruit varieties for the protection of U.S agriculture from known and potential pests and diseases. Every year the CPCNW receives material from foreign and domestic growers, nurseries and plant breeders, and conducts diagnostics for viruses and virus-like organisms, performs virus elimination to remove pathogens detected, and propagates the clean, G1-level plants in our screenhouse-based foundation collection to prevent reinfection.

Submission Process

The submission process for growers, nurseries, and plant breeders wishing to submit new varieties into the clean plant program for the production of virus-tested, G1-level plants is as follows:

Introduction Requests

The CPCNW receives requests for new material for the year’s intake from September 1st through to January 31st. To make a requests, please complete the variety introduction agreement, and submit it via email to cpcnw@wsu.edu.

There are limited spaces available for new material, therefore each customer or company is guaranteed a maximum of four (4) submissions per year. A company may make additional requests over and above the maximum, but acceptance will not be guaranteed.

After February 1st the CPCNW will compile the received request forms and assign spaces to companies based on availability. If there are additional spaces available for that year’s intake, customers will be invited to submit additional requests.

If there are more requests than available spaces, submissions will be assigned space based on the following ranking:

1. Public, non-patented varieties

2. Proprietary varieties from U.S. state or federal breeding programs

3. Proprietary varieties submitted by a U.S. registered company or entity

4. Proprietary varieties submitted by a foreign, non-U.S. registered company or entity

Sending Propagative Material to the CPCNW

In February the CPCNW will notify the customers that their submissions have been accepted, and begin the process of receiving propagative material for those varieties to begin the clean plant process. There are specific steps to follow for the dispatch of material that is U.S. domestic versus foreign in origin, see below:

U.S. Domestic Propagative Material: Once notified that their submissions have been accepted, customers may ship their material to the CPCNW. The CPCNW will receive dormant budwood, green cuttings (in spring only), or tissue cultured explants from U.S. domestic sources. For budwood or green cuttings, please send four (4) budsticks of at least 10-12 inches in length with 10-15 buds per stick. For Tissue cultured plants, please send a minimum of four (4) tissue culture vials. Each shipment must include the variety introduction packing list, and if necessary, a phytosanitary certificate from the state of origin. Material should be shipped via overnight courier to: Clean Plant Center Northwest, 24105 N. Bunn Rd., Prosser, WA 99350.

Foreign Propagative Material: For material sourced from foreign (non-U.S.) sources, customers will be notified that their submissions have been accepted, and also be sent the appropriate import permit and documentation by the CPCNW to allow the material in question into U.S. quarantine. As per the permit conditions, the CPCNW can only receive dormant budwood or tissue cultured explants from foreign (non-U.S.) sources. For dormant budwood please send four (4) budsticks of at least 10-12 inches in length with 10-15 buds per stick. For Tissue cultured plants, please send a minimum of four (4) tissue culture vials. Each shipment must include the variety introduction packing list, import permit, and a phytosanitary certificate from the country of origin. Finally, the package must have the green-and-yellow import sticker on display on the outside of the container as per the packing instructions. Material should be shipped via courier to: National Plant Germplasm Inspection Station, USDA-APHIS-PPQ, Bldg. 580, BARC-EAST, Powder Mill Road, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA.

Receipt by the CPCNW

After propagative material from either U.S. domestic or foreign sources has been received by the CPCNW it will be inspected and the customer notified. If the material is in viable condition to proceed it will be propagated on an appropriate virus-tested rootstock, or in the case of tissue cultured plants, subcultured into clean media. Once propagation is judged to be successful, at approximately 2-3 months after arrival and initiation, the customer will be invoiced and the clean plant process will commence.

Retention in the CPCNW Foundation Collection

Once the clean plant process is completed, and plants have been determined to be free of known and potential viruses and virus-like organisms, the variety owner has the option of having the clean plants returned to them, or retaining them in the CPCNW foundation collection. Foundation varieties are held in contained conditions in screenhouses to prevent reinfection, and are tested on a rotational basis to ensure that the plants remain pathogen-free. This retention qualifies the plant as ‘G1’ and eligible for participation in a state-managed certification program; varieties returned to the owner do not. Public varieties are automatically entered into the foundation collection upon completion.

Fee Structure and Payment (all prices in USD)

The process of diagnosing and eliminating known and potential pathogens from plant material is expensive and time consuming, and while the CPCNW is supported in part by funding from the National Clean Plant Network (NCPN), fees are assessed on variety owners, on a per accession basis, to defray the costs of performing these activities. Given that NPCN funding is sourced from the U.S. Federal Government, via the Farm Bill, fees are assessed based on the nature of ownership of the varieties submitted. Current fee schedule.