A local tomato-growing company is in the process of incinerating all the plants inside one of its greenhouses after they were found to be infected with a plant disease.
Tomato plants at a Wholesum Harvest greenhouse in Amado, which were imported from Mexico, tested positive for the tomato brown rugose fruit virus, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
“This virus can cause severe fruit loss in tomatoes, peppers and eggplants,” Michael Wallace, the state plant health director, told the NI on Wednesday. “When the disease is detected in a greenhouse, the only option is to destroy the plants and disinfect the facility.”
He added that the virus is transmitted in seeds and spreads easily when healthy plants come in contact with contaminated plants, tools and hands. However, he said that the disease is not harmful to humans or animals, and it mainly affects the plant’s production potential.
As of Wednesday, APHIS officials were still trying to trace the infected plants to their place of origin to determine whether the disease may also be present in the source facility.
Wholesum Harvest has two other farms in Mexico, one in Imuris, Sonora and another in Culiacan, Sinaloa, as well as a warehouse facility in Nogales.
During the County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Emergency Management Director Ray Sayre said a test burn for the plants was scheduled at noon that day.
Supervisor Manuel Ruiz asked for confirmation that the Tubac Fire Department would be on site during the incinerations, citing concerns about the various fires blazing in the western United States.
“We don’t want to create our own situation,” Ruiz said.
Sayre added: “I was quite concerned about the air quality and adding more particulates to the atmosphere right now, for sure, so we’ll keep an eye on that.”
If the test burn was successful, Sayre said, the rest of the plants would be incinerated over the course of several days before moving on to the disinfection of the facility.
He added that the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality had issued an air quality permit for the burning, which is scheduled to run until Sept. 26.
A staff member at Wholesum Harvest did not respond to questions about how this incident might affect the company, and instead directed any questions to the APHIS.
“Once APHIS’ work is complete, the grower will be able to replant with fresh tomato plantlets,” Wallace said.
September 18, 2020 at 07:09AM
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Local grower incinerates diseased tomato plants | Local News Stories | nogalesinternational.com - Nogales International
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