USDA Quarantine Requires New Soil-Analysis Lab for California AGGRAND Customers
California AGGRAND customers are required to change soil-analysis laboratories because of a federal quarantine of California soil and plant materials.
The USDA implemented the quarantine to combat the spread of a highly contagious pathogen, Phytophthora ramorum, which causes sudden oak death (SOD). The quarantine means that soils/plant materials cannot travel out of the affected area. According to the USDA, a number of counties in California are infected. (http://www.aphis.usda.gov/plant_health/plant_pest_info/pram/)
Midwest Laboratories, located in Nebraska, cannot accept or analyze soil samples from these quarantined California counties. AGGRAND recommends California customers use the highly respected, full-service Denele Analytical for soil and plant material analyses. (http://www.denelelabs.com/)
Since the early 1990s, oaks and tanoaks have been dying in the coastal counties of California. Since then, other types of plants have been found to be infected or associated with SOD, leaf blight or dieback. Phytophthora ramorum is the pathogen that causes these diseases. Sudden Oak Death was first reported in 1995 in Mill Valley (Marin County) on tanoak.
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