The Vine Industry Nursery Accreditation Scheme (VINAS) is administered by the Vine Industry Nursery Association (VINA) and has been developed as a focus on quality assurance in the production of vine planting material through the provision of a procedures manual.
The accreditation program provides minimum standard operating procedures, controls and documentation for vine nurseries that propagate planting material to best practice standards developed by the Vine Industry Nursery Association. The documentation provides an accurate trail of propagation material through all nursery procedures - from receival of purchased cuttings through to dispatch of finished product to customer.
Accreditation is bestowed to a nursery that has been successfully audited annually by an independent quality assurance auditor appointed by VINA.
In Australia, Certified grape vine material can only be supplied by an Accredited Nursery.
What is an Accredited Nursery?
An Accredited Nursery is one which follows Quality Assurance protocols and has standard operating procedures, controls and documented methods of operations in accordance with VINA guidelines for the production of vine planting material. The nursery is audited annually under the Vine Industry Nursery Accreditation Scheme by an independent quality assurance auditor.
Who can be accredited under the VINAS Scheme?
Accreditation is available to all financial VINA nursery members. VINA also provides an audit service to organisations that supply propagation material to nurseries.
What is a Certified vine?
Certified grapevines are derived from pathogen tested, clonally selected primary sources. The certification process specifies conditions to prevent and detect subsequent infection of nursery plants by regulated pests, ensures clonal integrity, and permits tracing the certified grapevines to the originally selected and tested plants.
Why should I purchase Certified grape vines?
Using certified grapevine nursery stock is a powerful and effective tool to control infectious agents including viruses. It enables vineyards to economically and sustainably maintain grape quality and productivity.
Is there a risk in planting uncertified vines?
In the past, the absence of certification standards has often resulted in disease problems for growers and nurserymen. Infected propagation material is largely responsible for the spread of diseases among and within viticultural regions.
What is a virus?
Virus refers to minute infectious particles which can only be seen using powerful electron microscopes. They are parasites of plants, animals and micro-organisms such as fungi, bacteria and microplasmas.
How do viruses spread?
Humans can be a major distributor of viruses if infected propagation material or grafting material is used in horticultural practices. Sucking insects such as aphids, leafhoppers, treehoppers, whiteflies, mealybugs, scales and thrips all have the potential to transmit viruses to grapevines. Nematodes have the ability to transmit soil borne viral diseases.
How many viruses affect grape vines?
The International Council for the study of Virus and Virus-like diseases of the Grapevine (ICVG), recognises over 70 infectious agents (viruses, viroids and phytoplasmas) of grapevines, many of which can be highly detrimental to this crop, having a negative impact on plant vigour and longevity, as well as on the quality and quantity of the yield.
