We have great news to share with you– there are now grapevines in the new Foundation Greenhouse! This was a two-day, all-FPS effort to re-pot and relocate 1,308 plants, representing 654 clonal families. That is just one third of the priority core collection, so there is a long way to go!
Many more plants are in the propagation pipeline, and will be added to the core collection as they are advanced to larger pots. Moving plants to the greenhouse is just one step in the process of building the indoor core foundation collection. Each plant must undergo final disease testing and DNA ID so that it can be re-registered as G1 material for the CDFA Grapevine Registration & Certification program.
We could not have made it this far without industry support. Funding for greenhouse construction and plant propagation has been provided by California Department of Food and Agriculture Fruit Tree, Nut Tree, and Grapevine Improvement Advisory Board, California Grape Rootstock Improvement Commission, California Grape Rootstock Research Foundation, US National Clean Plant Network, and CDFA California Pierce's Disease/Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter Board, and we send them our greatest thanks as this milestone is reached.
Next in the project is Phase 2: a screenhouse that will double the indoor collection capacity. Keep an eye on our Twitter page for more updates!
