This. Get some other gardeners together, and get a group by going, and for international , that’s actually good. Try importing stuff yourself from other countries, and just having someone else navigate the process is worth it.
I will say that bringing seeds in, is easier than bringing in scionwood, and generally don’t carry the same risk of disease. Most exotic fruits are started from seed for that reason. And again, if the fruit doesn’t have a related plant or industry in the receiving country, there’s no chance generally of disease impacts.
1 Like
I am stepping away from this conversation… and others related to the subject… i think its ok to talk about these things once they are on US soil and someone is selling them or sharing them but the discussions get heated on the backstories.
On the movie i posted the mangos are grafted…and the guy who grafts them is insanely talented. He flies them in from the jungle to his orchard in California and then they become available to folks who like to grow Mangoes…thats how it works.
Some folks are doing it with persimmons and other fruits as well… and its the reason we are able to grow them.
Likely a pear or peach or something will become available to folks of this group…because of a fruit hunter.
Amethyst- my purple raspberry…was released by the USDA a very long time ago…and then was lost. One man found it again… and now it is in Canada and they dont sell to US citizens.
I currently have many very nice cultivars of blackberry… but they are not USDA releases…so its obviously not supporting US agriculture… and folks here frown on that.
Those people who don’t want to deal with the hassle of legally importing plants are the reason so many pests and pathogens get in.
4 Likes
Kris, I understand your point, but you seem to have convinced yourself in an either/or fallacy (which arbitrarily excludes additional options)
It’s either we have completely unrestricted trade of plant materials from nations around the world, or no fruit exploring. But, we can have both fruit exploring and do it safely.
As mentioned I was a member of North American Fruit Explorers, and both hobbyists and professionals brought plant materials through APHIS.
Certainly, ancients and forefathers had no forethought of consequences from moving plants or animals across oceans and around the world on a whim. Past generations had little knowledge of ecological science. The world had to learn from mistakes. I don’t blame those past generations, for they were ignorant. But had they had the wisdom we know now some of these ecological disasters may have been avoided.
We might still have the fascinating Dodo birds of Mauritius (which were destroyed by sailors bringing dogs, pigs, macaques, etc. to the island).
In 1859, European rabbits were introduced in Australia for sport hunting. The 150 million wild rabbits of Australia today have caused “a collapse of indigenous plants and the native animal species that eat them” and soil erosion from excessive grazing of rabbits.
The starlings brought to the U.S. can be traced back to one man. In 1890, Eugene Schieffelin released 5 dozen starlings in New York central park because a group he belonged to wanted to release every bird mentioned in the works of Shakespeare to the U.S. Starlings transmit swine TGE (transmissible gastro enteritis) and have cost millions to pig farmers. They transmit West Nile virus, and other pathogens which affect humans, without themselves showing any symptoms. They poop all around agricultural buildings which spread avian diseases to poultry farms. They consume large amounts of wheat in the U.S. They kick bluebird, woodpeckers and flickers out of their own nests.
Burmese pythons in Florida are one of the latest ecological disasters, which were brought here because they make “cool” pets. Some escaped captivity in Florida, some were intentionally released by idiots.
There are pages and pages of examples of just invasive species disasters, which could be listed. But the point is, humankind has a sad history of spreading invasive plants/invasive animals and plant diseases/ plant insect pests wherever they travel.
It’s because of this that we have a national inspection service. To try to avoid those same historical disasters.
Here are some of the following pests I personally deal with:
Oriental fruit moth didn’t exist in the U.S. until 1913 when it was introduced in the U.S. from flowering cherry trees brought from abroad. Peaches existed without OFM for about 250 years (being brought to the U.S. by Spanish monks in the mid 1500s).
Japanese beetles were introduced from nursery stock from Japan for the World’s fair in 1916.
Codling moth was brought to the U.S. in the 1700s. It spread slowly across the U.S. During the civil war period, most of the Midwest still did not have to contend with this pest. Today it is ubiquitous across the U.S.
Pear psylla was introduced in the U.S. in the 1800s.
Pear blister mite was introduced in the U.S. from Europe sometime before 1900.
SWD introduced in the U.S. about a decade ago.
Of course Sharka virus hasn’t affected me directly, introduced to the U.S. in the 1990s, and successfully eradicated, but may yet affect me in the future.
Similarly European cherry fruit fly, which was found for the first time in the U.S. in 2017 will eventually make it’s way to the Midwest. A serious pest causing visible maggots in ripening cherries.
I could keep going, but these pests require multiple applications of pesticides to control. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration that the cost to farmers and consumers in the past century has been staggering, from lost crops and pesticide usage.
Certainly, not all imported diseases and insect pests are the result of people bringing in live plant materials or fruit from prohibited countries, but many are the result of that. That is the whole point of APHIS, to stop the madness.
That person has no respect from me. Anyone who has the resources to take an expedition to some jungle in the tropics and fly the material back to his orchard in California, certainly has the resources to work through APHIS. I’m not against fruit exploring, but this guy just doesn’t give a damn about any ruinous consequences resulting from his reckless behavior. Some diseases and insects can affect many different types of fruit and ornamental plants. He has no idea what diseases or insects he could be bringing back.
9 Likes
Mark,
Thanks for the reminder.
In the Northeast, we have not quite recovered from the destruction of Asian Long-horned beetles wiping out hardwood trees here. They were accidentally brought here and discovered in 1996. Their path of destruction is heading south now.
Not long ago, red lily beetles/lLily leaf beetle population exploded. They destroyed lilies everywhere in this region, too. They were supposed to hitch a ride from importation of bulbs in the 1940’s.
2 Likes
@swincher thanks for the mention of fruitwood nursery. I have been drooling on my keyboard. There are many plum varieties I would love to try, but they are unobtainable in Canada. This is one of the few US sources that says yes we will ship north of the 49th for a fee. I am a farmer by trade so I fully understand the impact of imported diseases, pests and weeds. It appears many of the fees are static regardless of the size of your order. So once I have my ducks in a row I will try to place a large(for me) order.
3 Likes
I haven’t tried to import anything (yet!), but I’m getting some avocado trees inspected today for a phytosanitary certificate via APHIS, for export to a member of my cold-hardy avocado breeding project on Vancouver Island, BC. While it’s a little confusing to figure out all the details of the application, it’s not that expensive in the grand scheme of things (about as much as you’d pay for a mail order tree of this size), and the inspector was very helpful in terms of explaining what the form needed in each part.
There’s really no excuse for anyone to evade this process.
4 Likes
Maybe we need a dedicated thread for people to share personal experience and advice for legally importing & exporting plant material so it can become familiar and normalized. I agree it can be intimidating, but it doesn’t need to be.
7 Likes
I live within 10 (or so) miles from Canada.
When I go to the nursery, about 50% of the bedding plants have labels stating grown in Canada.
I used to be able to cross the border and get a phyto certificate right at the nurseries. This is no longer the case.
reality is that many vectors spreading insects and diseases are easily able to cross the lake