Rules for trading plants into California?

Does anyone know the rules? I don't want any Iris Borers or Japanese Beetles, Dutch Elm Disease, or Medfly (again) - but trading seems like fun.

Maybe we could make a California trading list?

Here's a link to some information which applies to commerce and private citizens whether the plant material is shipped commercially, by US Mail, Fed Ex, etc., by truck or brought in via your private vehicle. In other words if it crosses the state line in any manner:
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/pe/

BRINGING REGULATED PLANTS, FRUITS AND VEGETABLES INTO CALIFORNIA
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/pe/summary.htm

California Plant Quarantine Manual: Links to the Full Text of California's State and County Plant Quarantine Regulations and Summaries of Federal Quarantines
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/phpps/pe/pqm.htm

Thanks so much. I love that there's somebody here who knows what you need, almost no matter what it is. I appreciate you Happenstance.

An inter-California trade group sounds fun. Good idea!

Karen :~D

I appreciate you too Karen. It's a fun thing to do this morning. I have no idea to begin. Any ideas?

I appreciate you both! It's so fun to make plant buddies! :~D

As for inter-CA trading....perhaps just start a new thread in the California Gardening forum? I'm sure those interested in participating will hop on!

Karen

P.S. Doss, I will be calling that client in Palo Alto tomorrow, will let you know if I will be coming out your way!

Great Karen, I've been thinking of you. I hope that it works out.

I'm glad there is someone who cares about these things. I just cringe when I hear people in other forums who are trading plants overseas. I'd say that 90% of my gardening problems come from insects that were transported here by accident. There is some disease - I think it was dengue fever - that is now established in CA and it got here with plants imported from another country. That's what I read in the newspaper a few weeks back.

Dengue fever - I sure don't want that. I just looked and it doesn't look like I can trade iris seedlings with a friend in Arizona. But they have some soil disease. And nothing with roots either. But it's worth it. The last thing that I want is something like the heliocoptors dropping Malathion on my yard during the medfly epidemic. My mother used to give us lectures every time we were eating all of our 'agricultural' products at the border. Mostly about the agricultural economy base of California. But then, a lot of people thought that I was an uptight backpacker carrying out my garbage.

Anyway, bless the doggies smelling packages at the border.

Agreed! I even take it a step further.....I refuse to buy produce from Chile or Mexico or wherever. I live in a wonderful agricultural area, but even when I didn't I would ONLY buy California (or at lease US) grown produce! I won't support other countries when our farmers and orchardists here need us! Besides I've heard so many gross hygene-related "field practices" related to produce from other countries. They probably do it on purpose if they know it's coming here! YIKES!!!!!

K

K - I drool everytime I think of Modesto peaches in the summer. Nothing beats them. And you can't get them anywhere but those roadside stands.

I do feel the same way about foreign produce - I have one exception. I will buy cherries from Chile at Christmas. Since they are grown on trees, and they certainly aren't in competition with the cherry growers here, I do it. I absolutely love to have Cherries at Christmas. But I agree that the field stories are pretty scary.

Yes, a big EEEWWW on that one! You're right about Modesto peaches, and Bing Cherries from Santa Clara, Artichokes from Castroville....boy, we live in the BEST place! You want to hear something else great? My cherries here are just about finishing here when the cherries in Santa Clara are just coming in.....oooohhhh...prolonged cherry season!!!

I lived in Costa Mesa for 4 years about 15 years ago. Had a boyfriend who came with me to the Bay Area "to meet Mom & Dad" in July. I said, "OH! Let's go get some cherries!" He (born and raised in Huntington Beach) said, "Cherries? Yuck!" I looked at him like he was NUTZ!!!! THEN I drove him to a cherry stand in Santa Clara and MADE him eat one......Ha....I couldn't get the bag away from him! Cherries are only good where they're grown and fresh-picked from the trees!

:~D

Something to keep in mind with inter-California trades is sudden oak death disease. It can be spread in contaminated soil. http://www.suddenoakdeath.org/

Good reminder Kelli. I think that I'll just give up on trades - certainly outside California unless it's seeds.

And Karen, I sure am jealous of your fruit but I don't think that I could survive your summers. I'm a heat sissy.. I still don't think that Santa Clara cherries are as good as yours though. And really, I've never tasted stone fruit as good as from the Modesto area. Sigh.

We just cheat the heat Doss....air conditioned car...house...mall...office...we just run quick between! LOL It was 95 today....and it's only MAY!!

K

I don't know if you ever order from plant delights nursery. Kind of pricey but good quality. Anyway, I think that the fall 2003 tshirt is somehow relevant here.
http://www.plantdelights.com/Catalog/tshirts.html

Karen, You are a true and brave heat dodger.

Doss, those shirts are a crack up! "Heat dodger"? I like that, but it's more like "sweating middle-aged woman"...LOL!

Kelli....I wash off all the soil and wrap the roots in clean, moist spaghnam moss and a baggie. They travel very nicely that way too! No soil creeps!

:~D