Since 2011, clonal verification trials have been added to our selection protocols of mother plants. This protocol includes genetic conformity assesment and fruit yield evaluation. Virus detection ( ELISA, RT-PCR et Indexing) is not only done to the mother plant stage, but also to the elite stage just before nursery planting.

As early 2013 Luc Lareault nursery destroyed on a volontary basis a portion of it’s yield to create a rupture in it’s supply, and start with plant material verified and tested. We increased the isolation radius of the nursery of many kilometers with a volontary destruction agreement of fruit growing locations, neighborhing the nursery. Also, we increased our isolation distances between the different stages of plants to implement security.

Phytosanitary controls of vectors were doubled in frequency for systemic products and foliar products. Monitoring of pests has been reviewed and increased to three visits per week, with a special care in fall and spring seasons.

We introduced in our production protocol, two virus tests for SMYEV (Strawberry mild yellow edge virus) and SMOV (Strawberry mottle virus). Tests were added at the end of each propagation cycle : foundation block and certified. That means that your plants are tested twice before shipping. Each test is performed by two independant laboratories (MAPAQ and Private laboratory).

Our thresholds levels have been established following discussions and meetings with Canadian and American research scientists. We have compare our methods with Californian and European nurseries to elaborate a protocol that minimizes the risk for fruit growers who respect the state of the art fruit production methods.