NURSERY / 06
PLANT HEALTH:
A NURSERYMAN’S PERSPECTIVE John Murphy reflects on the implications, concerns and also the opportunities for plant health in Ireland
T
he year 2020 is the International Year of Plant Health but unfortunately, it has been overshadowed by Covid and has been under-reported. It is also ironic that in the year the industry highlights plant health Ireland had our first outbreak of Oak Processionary Moth (OPM) on imported Belgium Oak. On December 12, 2019, European plant health laws came into operation with much stricter controls on traceability. Instead of only a few species requiring plant passports, the new regulations require every plant to be passported from the original grower to the end-user and these records must be held for three years. Other changes included the requirement for everyone involved
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OAK PROCESSIONARY MOTH TRAP ON THE NURSERY. AN INITIATIVE OF THE HORTICULTURE AND PLANT HEALTH DIVISION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
in plant trade to register with the department and follow the new regulations. This includes, among others: online traders, local authorities and landscape designers who import plants. Prior to these regulations anyone could call up an overseas nursery, buy a truck full of plants and get them delivered directly to site with no plant health concerns. Yet despite these new laws, this is still happening. I am aware of at least two landscape designers who are not registered and continue to purchase plants directly from abroad; this is now a crime and puts our environment at risk.
HORTICULTURECONNECTED / www.horticultureconnected.ie / Winter 2020
