Virus removal process

The virus removal process is straight forward but time consuming. Here is the process:

Year 1) Graft infected wood onto a potted rootstock

Year 2) Place growing tree into controlled heated environment to keep the tree at a constant 38C temperature for 8 days.

Year 2 + 1 or 2 months) take fresh budwood and graft onto virus free rootstock. (In the professional procedure, the fresh budwood is collected right after the heat treatment and then grown in-vitro via micro-culture. The reason is that fresh growth is usually virus free. So the combined heat treatment plus immediate fresh growth collection ensures a high rate of success of virus removal.)

Year 3) Let graft grow out and observe to make sure the virus was successfully inactivated by grafting indicator variety.

If the virus was not successfully inactivated, repeat procedure. This procedure is worth it if you have an old unique heirloom and you want to make it available to everyone.