Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/603228
46 DECEMBER 2015 Good Fruit Grower www.goodfruit.com of sour cherries and plums have also increased. Since 2009, plantings of apricots, nectarines, and prune plums have all increased. The plantings, however, are on smaller acreages. Figures from Statistics Canada indicate the area planted to stone fruits has dropped from 10,122 acres in 2007 to 7,533 acres in 2014 (data are not available prior to 2007; data since have depended on an industry-wide GPS mapping initiative). The shift in acreage points to a much-needed renewal of the Ontario stone fruit industry driven as much by disease as the loss of local processing capacity. While production is down about 25 percent from a decade ago, it has stabilized at about 30,000 tons a year. However, orchards are more productive, making more efficient use of the land base. A single acre now yields fruit that sells for twice as much as it did a decade ago. Tregunno said the shift, whether to wine grapes or new varieties of stone fruit, has helped stabilize pro- duction and created exciting opportunities for the years ahead. "There are quite a few growers who have diversified their operations by growing some wine grapes, then there are some who have completely switched over," he said, noting that while his farm primarily has tree fruits, grapes account for a quarter of its production. "We grow wine grapes also, but we've actually purchased some farms and shifted them into tender fruit, too." Yet without complete eradication, ongoing vigilance is required to ensure plum pox virus doesn't lead to another massive pull-out of trees. "We were disappointed they didn't follow through. They got 90 percent through on the program, then they stopped," Tregunno said. Canada spent $193 million on eradication and control efforts through March 2011, the point by which it initially expected to eradicate the disease. However, the concentration of orchards in the Niagara region made it impossible—without imposing a cure worse than the disease—to establish the wide buffers that helped Pennsylvania declare the virus's eradication. "We would eradicate the disease but at the detriment to the industry, which we don't want," federal plant pro- tection specialist Eric Wieringa told Good Fruit Grower in 2010. Instead, controlling the disease became the focus. The industry developed a Prunus certification program to test propagative material for PPV and other viruses, and new peach varieties such as Veeblush and Virtue (both developed by the University of Guelph) were sought for replanting orchards. Since 2011, an additional Can.$17 million has been budgeted to develop regulations and best management practices to control the disease. Beginning in 2016, these regulations will complement monitoring and management to prevent the spread of the virus. Activities will include sampling PPV-susceptible trees both inside and outside the perimeter of the Niagara region to determine if the disease is spreading; monitoring the Niagara quarantine area to ensure that no susceptible trees or plants are being propagated; and monitoring the quarantine area to ensure that suscepti- ble trees or plants are not moved from the area (PPV is associated primarily with the sharing of infected plant material, so the movement of fresh fruit isn't restricted). While no commercial growers have reported the disease, Tregunno suspects some of the fresh market varieties that growers have embraced may not exhibit symptoms. However, the disease remains a risk, given the number of trees in residential areas (where the only infected tree has been found since 2011) as well as its presence in neighboring New York state, where a nine- year control effort remains ongoing. Michael Kauzlaric, a researcher with the Vineland Research and Innovation Centre engaged in outreach to stone fruit growers, agrees that the disease remains a