Book boxwood blight testing before April 27

Landscape Ontario is pleased to offer a voluntary sample and testing program for those growers that wish to verify the status of their boxwood inventory related to Cylindrocladium buxicola. The following outlines the organizational details of this program.

A qualified university student will provide sample collection services. This student will be trained by OMAFRA's Jen Llewellyn to actively look for symptomatic plants and to send branch samples to the U of G Plant Diagnostics Laboratory, in accordance with their specifications.
It will be up to the nursery to determine the number of samples taken, however, the suggested sample rate is 1/2,000 plants.
The results of the PCR diagnostics testing will be returned directly to the nursery grower. Other agencies, including Landscape Ontario, CNLA and OMAFRA will not be notified of the results.
In the event of a positive find of C. buxicola, and given that this is not a regulated pest, the level of eradication to be undertaken, is at the discretion of the grower. Until further research findings become available, Landscape Ontario concurs with the recommendations listed in the ANLA’s Best Management Guide (posted at www.boxwoodblight.org)
Landscape Ontario encourages any grower with a positive find of C. buxicola to provide notice to their customers within 48 hours of learning of the positive find.
Communicating the results received from the U of G Plant Diagnostics Laboratory is at the discretion of the grower. Landscape Ontario will post a list of nurseries that wish to make this information available on a voluntary basis on its website.

To expedite this project in a timely and cost-effective manner, Landscape Ontario will organize the collection process. All nurseries that wish to participate should download, fill out this form and forward to Kathleen at the LO office by Friday, April 27, 2012. Kathleen can be reached by email at kpugliese@landscapeontario.com, by fax at 905-875-3942 or by telephone at 800-265-5656, ext. 2309.

Nurseries will be notified by Landscape Ontario of the date that the collection person will be at their premises. There will be no cost to the grower to have samples collected and sent to the lab. This service is being provided by Landscape Ontario and OMAFRA. The costs of PCR testing will be billed directly to the grower.