[quote="Fred Z":3p6td288]It's listed in the Southmeadow catalog, but try calling first. I have no idea how old this link is.

[url:3p6td288]http://www.southmeadowfruitgardens.com/FruitTreeOrder.html[/url:3p6td288]

Good luck.[/quote:3p6td288]

Better check out the business rating for Southmeadow Fruit Gardens before you send ANY money to them. LINK HERE

8 positives
2 neutrals
58 negatives

[quote="Fred Z":3re7qbkh]Plumfun,
Thanks for the heads up. I knew the link was maybe 5 or more years old, and I hadn't had any history with them.

John,
You may be able to get scion wood from the National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Oregon (link below). It's too late for requests this year, but maybe next year? The only negative I see is that the Buerre Superfin stock is still virus infected. I don't really know what the ramifications of that are (maybe some one with more knowledge can weigh in), but I figure I would only request virus tested stock. They seem to be working on eliminating the virus infections of the stock.

[url:3re7qbkh]http://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/catalogs/pyrcult.html[/url:3re7qbkh][/quote:3re7qbkh]

There are a number of pears that are virally infected. I know of no information that indicates they are trying to clean it up either. Anybody have evidence they are cleaning pear cultivars up?

[quote="Fred Z":44uv558p]
Maybe I misread the website, but on this page: [url:44uv558p]http://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/path.html[/url:44uv558p] it says:
"Plants found to be infected with viruses are subjected to "heat therapy" where they are grown for several weeks at temperatures around 38C. Meristems less than 1mm in length are dissected from new shoots that grow during the heat therapy. These meristems are grown in vitro, eventually regenerated into plants, and retested to determine whether the virus was successfully eliminated."

What is the effect of introducing a virus infected benchgraft into the orchard?[/quote:44uv558p]

That is the information I was missing! Good to know Corvallis actively cleans things up. I do know that UCDavis does nothing at all to clean fig mosaic virus out of their colleciton. They are all infected. The plants that come from their scionwood usually have chorotic, mishapen leaves, an indication of viral infection.

The worst case virus's can cause dysfuntion in plant metabolism with chloroplast malfunction or other metabolic dysfunction that leads to sickly yellow plants, non-fruit production etc. And with some virus's it can make the scion and rootstock reject each other. Other virus's can persist for the life of the plant, with only a small drop in vigor or fruit production. Not all virus's are created equal, and not all plant genetics react exactly the same to any one virus. Some are resistant, others not.