Grape Program Background
In 1952 it became apparent that severe virus disease problems existed in California vineyards. In response, USDA plant pathologist Dr. Austin Goheen developed field indexing methods for disease detection and discovered that Disease elimination could be accomplished with thermotherapy. Using these techniques, Dr. Goheen created a large collection of disease-tested grape selections which became the original Foundation materials for the California Grapevine Registration & Certification Program. Foundation Plant Services (FPS) was established as a public service unit at the University of California Davis to maintain and distribute materials from Foundation collections of grapevines as well as several other vegetatively propagated crops.
Over the years, University of California and USDA scientists have improved and refined methods for grapevine disease detection and elimination. New techniques which are determined to be effective, practical and scientifically reliable, and which are recognized by the CDFA Grape Registration & Certification Program, are incorporated into the FPS program and used to further improve the quality of California Foundation grape stock distributed to CDFA Program participants and others.