The biggest vectors for SOD here are not oaks, they are Umbellularia and Lithocarpus (laurel family and beech family respectively). We (Master Gardeners) do a lot of work on SOD around here and I have never heard of this happening, but that might be because CA law is stricter about inspecting plants that come in from out of state.

Let us know what happens.

Sara

Camellias and rhododendrons can also be asymptomatic carriers of that form of phytophthora. Frankly, some nursery owners - I'm not going to name names but it isn't the Prags of Forestfarm - are far too dismissive and flippant about the risks. My understanding is that a large PNW wholesaler of rhodies & BLEs was shut down a few years ago because they let the situation get out of hand, and their entire nursery had to be plowed under and sterilized or something. (a second hand acct. so take w/a grain of salt) We don't know what will happen if it gets east of CA & the Rockies. It could be a complete ecological disaster, or it could be relatively benign. If even one infected plant is found at a nursery, the protocol has become to test all plants that left that nursery in the year of arrival of the diseased one. I'm pretty sure states are strongly coerced to participate by the federal government but are willingly going along, because of the huge risk posed to agriculture.
You almost certainly have nothing to worry about. Like 99.9% odds. I've had to send samples to MD 3 times...they requested 10 leaves of each rhododendron, which is hard on a small plant but they recovered. I have been terrified of what will happen to my garden if they do find it, so I've curtailed the number of orders I place from the PNW. (however, I did order from F.f. this spring, so I'm anticipating receiving a letter, unless the plants I ordered are not considered significant vectors by the state of MD. One of them was an Abies.) I believe the latest report I read about a year ago (the feds have a SOD newsletter) said no SOD had actually ever made it on a mail order plant a region outside the west coast.

Broadly speaking, phytophthoras are a terrifying long term threat on the horizon for ornamental gardeners. The fact Larix kaempferis are being killed in the UK, when a) phytophthora ramorum-like organisms were never known to attack conifers before and b) its suspected origin is east asian anyhow, so a japanese larix *should* be tolerant: raising the possibility of some kind of european/asian hybrid super phytophthora having evolved in the UK.

As to California, if you are already in a quarantine area, well, of course, you wouldn't be aware of plants being required to be tested. The assumption is already that they could be infected, it's only upon leaving those areas they would have to be tested. They do have various controls in place and I would very confidently order from a mail order California nursery like Digging Dog, because they are scrutinizing them very carefully to make sure they don't export SOD. But, yes, CA is absolutely zealous about protecting their agriculture, and stops most incoming traffic, even private cars with no obvious plants inside, to inpsect them. But SOD is already there so that's not the focus of concern, it's more things like citrus fruit, live plants that could have citrus pests, etc.

Minor correction:
I think it has been found on plants that were shipped to states other than the Pacific ones, but the plants were not planted and were able to be destroyed in time, so it isn't thought to have escaped here, yet.

Private message me as I have some insight that might be useful. I am a professor of forest pathology and state forest health extension specialist. I would be glad to give you some advice on this.

Thanks everyone.

Email sent, salicaceae

Myself and another regular on the tree forum also received letters from the Arkansas plant board. An inspector has already been to my house and taken samples from a beech, dogwood, and gingko I ordered from a different major vendor in the same area of the country at the same time as your order, cearbhaill.

I should know the results of the samples late this week or early next week according to the paper.

John

Edit: and I planted the beech in the middle of my quercus stellata/falcata forest upon arrival in April...

This post was edited by j0nd03 on Mon, Jun 24, 13 at 10:32

"I ordered from a different major vendor in the same area of the country at the same time as your order"

I hope it isn't the same one who has already had several incidents; they'd been put on notice a couple years ago and I got the impression if there was another boo-boo the place was going to be shut down or forced to majorly overhaul operations. But as I said in speaking to them on the phone I got the impression they were completely brushing off the seriousness of it, so it might not a complete if they've had their 4th or 5th incident or whatever it would be by now.

What I worry is a couple bad apples getting the feds so paranoid that they undertake major steps to curtain retail mail order between the west & east coasts...while of course letting major wholesalers continue such plant movements. Which wouldn't quite be the end of the world, but it would still suck. Obviously someone producing rhodies under totally sterile conditions, like Briggs, has nothing to worry about (and is nothing to worry about), but you can only purchase their plants on the east coast if a local nursery (or Rarefind) bothers to import the variety you want from the PNW.

I got the same call from our Nebraska Dept of Plant Health & Quarantine. They came yesterday and inspected my little tri-color beech and called it healthy. Said to keep an eye on it and left. It was painless.

I ordered from FF last fall- I wonder if I will get a visit too! If it's anything like the visit from the La Dept of Ag I got last year it will only be quite humorous. I got something from the west coast, not FF, and a very elderly man knocked on the door and asked me about it. I said yes, I had received whatever it was, and asked him if he wanted to see them. No, he said, just check them for snails that's all! Then he proceeded to stagger back to his car. Rather strange I thought. I think he had had a few too many. We do things differently down here.

I feel much better about how my state plant board handled this threat than the previous two posts. Good grief! Talk about not giving a rat's behind. They didn't even take samples to test? I hope you are not paying taxes for those agencies.

Who is the other vendor?

I can't remember exactly because I had ordered from several different places. I think I got only conifers from FF. Maybe Cistus, Colvos Creek or Greer, west coast somewhere- anyway I did not find any snails from any of them. Perhaps there was a mollusc outbreak somewhere, it was a weird encounter. And yes, we do pay taxes, god only knows where it goes, this is La. after all, we're not known for efficiency.

This post was edited by fairfield8619 on Fri, Jun 28, 13 at 0:05

I am the other poster that John mentioned that have been contacted by the Arkansas State Plant Board. After talking to some people, from what I understand, it seems this originated from a single west coast grower of a particular group of plants, that then shipped to various retail outlets. It is these plants that are the source of contamination. Various agencies are now chasing down plants that shipped from retail outlets that received these contaminated plants.So in the particular case, it is not the retail nurseries that are at fault. Also in the particular case, the state Agencies are happy that plants were shipped to individuals, as they can be traced (as has happened to those here), where as had it been a large shipment to a big box chain, there would have been absolutely no chance of tracing down the plants for control purposes.

Now I'm sure my explanation is not completely to the letter accurate, but the overall general outline. I do not know the name of the grower, nor the name of the retail outlets (but I do not hold them accountable in this case).

As for the disease itself, it appears that summer moisture is critical to it's spread. But nobody knows for certain at this point just where factors will align for it to be a serious problem.

Arktrees.

HAPPY DANCE!!!!!!

MINE ARE CLEAN!!!!

Arktrees

It seems that everytime some new pest or disease appears the authorities step into action but it seems things still spread anyway. It certainly slows it down but eventually it happpens. I'm not saying to throw our hands up and let everything just spread willy nilly, you have to try, but eventually it does. I think citrus greening will be everywhere eventually despite the attempts to stop it. I wouldn't know what to do.

I keep wondering, what's the United Kingdom Dept. of Entomology, and why does it want to inspect your plants??

I don't think our Government even has a Department of Entomology?

No the bugs are generally found in the FBI and CIA!

On Wednesday, the Arkansas State Plant Board inspected a Sequoia sempervirens that I purchased from Forest Farm in January.

Patrick