Start clean: Canada’s grapevine clean plant program

Start clean: Canada’s grapevine clean plant program Debra Inglis and Sudarsana Poojari provide an update on Canada’s grapevine clean plant program, run in partnership with Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute, industry’s Canadian Grapevine Certification Network, with support from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. Grapevines around the world can carry viruses and diseases, which, in turn, can negatively impact fruit quality and yield, and the resultant wine quality. (1) It is critical that growers have access to clean (virus-free) planting material, as once infected with a virus, there is no curing the vine. At present, Canada lacks a large-scale domestic supply of certified clean plant material (rootstock and grafted vines) and heavily relies on France and the United States to source vines and rootstock. A domestic source of propagated clean grapevines will provide Canada independence from reliance on foreign plant material and offer domestic biosecurity to Canada’s $11.6 billion CAD grape and wine industry, (2) improving risk management and long-term sustainability in an era of globalization. Research and infrastructure investments at Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute (CCOVI) will increase Canada’s capacity to host novel rootstocks suitable for Canadian grape growing conditions, introduce disease-resistant cultivars into the national grapevine repository, and ensure the required quantities of certified plant material are available to grapevine nurseries, grape growers, and custom propagators.