Inland Desert Nursery Is Main Source For Washington’s Clean Vines

Inland Desert Nursery, co-owned by brothers Kevin and Jerry Judkins and their father, Tom, cultivates 100 acres of clean grapevines known as “mother blocks” with material sourced from Washington State University’s Clean Plant Center foundation vineyard. (Photo courtesy of Inland Desert Nursery)

Inland Desert Nursery, co-owned by brothers Kevin and Jerry Judkins and their father, Tom, cultivates 100 acres of clean grapevines known as “mother blocks” with material sourced from Washington State University’s Clean Plant Center foundation vineyard. (Photo courtesy of Inland Desert Nursery)

The Judkins family has been in the business of clean grapevines for more than 40 years.

Today, their Inland Desert Nursery, co-owned by brothers Kevin and Jerry and their father, Tom, cultivates 100 acres of clean grapevines known as “mother blocks” with material sourced from the Washington State University Clean Plant Center foundation vineyard. These mother blocks are where 75% of the clean grapevines planted in Washington come from.

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Mother blocks are visually inspected multiple times during a growing season by the Washington Department of Agriculture to confirm their disease-free status, according to Aaron Paul, an environmental specialist in the WSDA plant services program in Pasco. Paul says Washington’s clean plant program and quarantines on imported vines help maintain freedom from viruses and limit the distribution of grape phylloxera within the state, allowing growers to plant certified grapevines directly into the vineyard without the use of grafted rootstocks.

“WSDA is constantly on the lookout at wholesale and retail plant outlets for certification and quarantine compliance,” Paul said. “Plants that are out of compliance with state quarantines are destroyed or returned to their state of origin.”

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Federal funding through the WSDA Specialty Crop Block Grant Program pays for testing of all certified mother blocks in the state, a cost that would have been too great a burden for private vineyard owners.

Chateau Ste. Michelle planted a certified mother block in one of their vineyards with materials from the Clean Plant Center foundation vineyard. They have expanded that first mother block to have more stock available. Any plants not used in their own vineyards are consigned to Inland Desert Nursery.

“Kevin Judkins and Inland Desert have done a great job developing mother blocks and getting [clean material] out to the growers,” says Mike Means, vineyard manager at Chateau Ste. Michelle and the Clean Plant Center foundation block advisory group chairman. “We don’t always have enough to go around, but what we have is quality.”

This year will mark Inland Desert Nursery’s biggest year to date for grapevine sales. They will deliver more than 3,000,000 dormant vines and 600,000 green-grown vines.

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