Best management practices
 

Jim said:
And it's good to "see" you again, Nina. You've
been absent for a while.

Nah, just quiet. And busy. I've been working with the nursery
industry to come up with BMPs- "best management practices" to reduce
the risk of "sudden oak death" infecting nursery plants. BMPs are
usually good common sense; maybe the IBC should come up with an
official bonsai BMP. Here are some possible examples:

-When new plants come in, they should be quarantined from the rest of
the bonsai until it's clear they are disease-free. [The problem would
be deciding how long that would be. For me, it would be until they put
out a flush of new leaves.]

- Collect and appropriately dispose of all plant debris (trimmed
branches, fallen leaves). [The problem would be what constitutes
"appropriately". Burning would be good. Composting would be good as
long as it's a real compost pile that heats up- not just a pile of
garbage]

-Disinfect tools after each use. [You'd have to use your judgement over
whether 'each use' means each cut, or each tree, or each day of
pruning. If I lived in an area with fire blight and I had roseaceous
bonsai, I'd sterilize after each *cut*. If I was pruning out cankers,
I'd sterilize after each cut.]

-Use sterile growing media and clean pots.

-Monitor your yard for diseases or pests that might spread from the
landscape to your bonsai; if control in the landscape isn't possible,
use preventative measures on the bonsai. [Cedar-apple rust or japanese
beetles are two examples where this would be helpful]

-Maintain good records of repotting and cultural practices.


And so on. Feel free to add on.

Nina.

Best management practices
 

Jim pointed out:
But don't get paranoid. (Nina works around sick
trees -- and sometimes deliberately infects them
-- so it's always on her mind.) :-)

So true. So sadly true.

But I should point out that BMPs are suggestions, and generally
nurseries get certified if they do some percentage of the BMPs, like
80%. If the practice has no application to you, you don't need to do
it. If you live in an area with no fire blight, there's no point
worrying about it. And if your trees are healthy and happy, you're
probably doing everything right!

Nina.

Today I killed 4 viburnums and put their ripped up corpses on selective
media. Tomorrow I'll kill some lilacs. My significant other called me
the Josef Mengele of the plant world.