Nursery & Seed Inspection

field of yellow flowers

The Department staff inspect production nurseries for pests injurious to plants and for freedom from weeds; assist nursery personnel with pest identification; and inspect incoming shipments of nursery stock for pests, proper labeling and condition. Inspectors also issue shipping permits, nursery stock certificates and other required documentation to facilitate movement of nursery stock in trade.

Staff inspectors check agricultural, vegetable, grass, and flower seed at retail and wholesale outlets throughout the County to ensure compliance with the California Seed Law. Seed must be labeled correctly as to purity, germination, percentage, kind or variety and contaminants. On request, inspectors take official samples of seed for submission to the California Department of Food and Agriculture Seed Laboratory for analysis. The results are then compared to the label on the seed container that was sampled to verify that the labeling truly represents the commodity. Seed lots are also inspected for possible insects of quarantine significance, noxious weeds, and noxious seeds.

If you have questions about the Nursery or Seed program and you would like to contact a staff member, please contact Molly Mathews

Nursery

Seed

Harvest, Mill & Warehouse Inspections

Phytosanitary Field Inspections Seed Production for Export

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and County Agricultural Commissioner’s maintain a program for the field inspection of mother plants to meet most of the seed import requirements of other countries. The United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Inspection Service (USDA-APHIS) has overall responsibility for regulating the export of commodities to other countries. APHIS accredits qualified individuals to issue phytosanitary certificates. The import requirements must be met as stated in import permits, the USDA Phytosanitary Certificate Issuance and Tracking (PCIT) database, or official communications from the country authorities.

Many microorganisms that cause plant disease are of concern to countries and states. Field inspections involve inspection of field crops for apparent signs or symptoms of plant disease. Inspection and collection of symptomatic plant tissues coupled with supportive pest diagnostics provide a more complete method of detection. Crops can be inspected for several pests of quarantine and regulatory importance at the same time. A list of pests is provided for each crop. This list consists of the pests of concern to other countries with a possible seed pathway in the associated crop.

Field inspectors are trained to generally inspect for all plant disease and specifically trained to inspect for the organisms in the lists. Any signs or symptoms of plant disease which may be caused by a regulated pest are collected and sent to the CDFA Plant Pest Diagnostics (PPD) lab for pathogen diagnosis.

Yolo County

Nursery & Seed Inspection

Visit our Phytosanitary Field Inspections Page for more information.