A clean start for healthy crops

Photo courtesy of Sunridge Nurseries

Every propagator understands the responsibility of supplying clean starter material to their customers. After all, it lays the foundation for growing a clean and profitable crop. And then there are those propagators who view it as much more than a responsibility — for them, it becomes a company philosophy; a guiding principle; a lifelong dedication pursued with unparalleled passion.

One such nursery is Sunridge Nurseries in Bakersfield, California. Founded in 1977 by Glen and Terrie Stoller with the vision to bring to the market the finest grape stock available in the world, Sunridge has become the largest supplier of grapevines in the country.

Sunridge Nurseries’ primary business is the propagation and grafting of grape nursery stock to wine, table and raisin grape growers throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico and South America.

Sunridge Nurseries sells California Certified Grapevines, which refers to a Clean Stock Program that was set up with the cooperation of nurseries, the California University system, the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the grapevine industry. That means vines are propagated from foundation material that is free from viruses, fungal and bacterial pathogens.

This makes using sterile nursery protocols and taking preventative measures to keep the plants healthy imperative. Sunridge invested in a growing area that is ultra clean, and it relies on products from Pace 49 for cleaning and disinfecting, as well as throughout its propagation protocols.

Sunridge switched to Pace 49 products in 2020, prior to which they’d been using sodium hypochlorite for sanitation purposes.

“We were looking for a product that had a longer residual activity than the sodium hypochlorite,” explains Michael Vietti, Director of Quality at Sunridge. “After doing some research and reading a paper on the use of DDAC in nurseries in Australia, we decided to run some trials with Pace 49’s 4th generation quaternary ammonia. We trialed different ppm rates and time of exposure to our dormant propagation material that are soaked in water, to see if it would kill pathogens in the water and possibly surface-disinfect the propagation material of any fungal and/or bacterial pathogens. We found that the Pace 49 DDAC product had no negative effects at 150 ppm a.i. for a two-hour soak on our propagation material and protects against botrytis and molds during the callusing process. We also reduced the duration of the soak treatment, which improved our process efficiency.”

Integrating Pace 49 DDAC (didecyl dimethyl ammonium chloride) into the system provided greater protection against pathogen problems during the callusing process and improved the growth of the vines in the greenhouse. Aside from soaking of propagation material prior to grafting in a Pace DDAC solution, Sunridge has also used PACE Strip-It PRO and KleenGrow on cooling pads throughout the nursery. And at the end of the work day, Sunridge mops all of their stainless steel work stations, grafting blades, clippers, callusing trays and any other surfaces grafted vines may touch with Pace KleenGrow.

KleenGrow is a multi-use EPA registered product that provides safe and effective broad-spectrum control of waterborne pathogens and algae in irrigation water, plant pathogens on greenhouse plants, and diseases, viruses and algae on hard surfaces. Pace KleenGrow offers powerful, residual disease control for up to 14 days on crops and 30 days on hard surfaces.

Michael Vietti is pleased with the results he’s seen since switching to Pace 49 products.

“I have shared this very same information with other nursery personnel and strongly encourage them to look into the Pace 49 products. In the long run, we need to work together in our industry to provide the cleanest, pathogen-free vines to the industry.”

Vietti’s sentiment echoes the vision and mission of Sunridge Nurseries.

“Quality is our number one priority,” states founder Glen Stoller on the Sunridge website, “with service a close second. A grower may plant just one vineyard in his lifetime, and I want to make sure that everything is done right. His success is our success.”

The team at Pace 49 couldn’t agree more with Sunridge’s philosophy.

“We are plant health advocates who pride ourselves in providing growers solutions for disease control and prevention in every step of the growing process,” states Judy McWhorter, vice president & national sales manager for Pace 49. Joe Kupillas, technical sales specialist for Pace 49, agrees: “It’s an honor playing a small part in the success of such a fantastic company as Sunridge Nurseries.”