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Physical Facilities
The overall physical facilities of the CCPP consist of approximately 7,000 square feet of greenhouse and 72,000 square feet of screenhouse, 1,000 square feet of office space, about 1,000 square feet of laboratory space and 14.5 acres of land for the Foundation-Evaluation Block.
Riverside Quarantine Facility
The CCPP Quarantine Facility, located in Riverside, CA, on University of California property, is composed of approximately, 1,000 square feet of office space, 9,000 square feet of screenhouse, 6,000 square feet of greenhouse and 1,000 square feet of laboratory space. The laboratory space used for this program is part of the space allocated to the CCPP Director by the University of California, Department of Plant Pathology, Riverside, CA.
Quarantine Greenhouse
The quarantine greenhouse has three separate sections where heating and cooling is individually controlled so that each section can be maintained at a different temperature. Hot air heat from natural gas fired furnaces is distributed by fans and large flexible plastic tubes. The greenhouse is cooled by drawing air into the greenhouse through water saturated paper "cool cells" and exhausting the internal air by multi-speed fans. All external entrances have double doors with a vestibule between the doors to protect against the entrance of insect pests. Only one of the doors is opened at a time to prevent an open unobstructed entrance into the greenhouse. Likewise, all exit ports to the outside, for example exhaust fan openings and intake openings for the "cool cells" are covered either with insect proof filters or screens or have solid self closing louvers.
Quarantine Screenhouse
The quarantine screenhouse is a wooden frame structure covered with 32 mesh mylar insect screen. The screenhouse is also composed of several separate sections two of which are used to hold the citrus virus and viroid disease bank. This bank is very important for positive controls used during virus indexing. One other section houses a number of reserve trees of the most important commercial varieties as well as propagations and re-propagations that will ultimately be placed in the Protected Foundation Block or the Foundation-Evaluation Block. The remaining sections of the screenhouse are used to maintain the large collection of newly imported varieties that must be held in quarantine while they are undergoing testing and clean up therapy. As with the greenhouse, external entrances have double doors to protect against intrusion by insects when someone enters.
Foundation Block
The CCPP Foundation Block of registered budwood source trees is located at the University of California Lindcove Research and Extension Center in Exeter, CA. This protected block is housed in a steel framed three double bubble truss 50,000 square foot screenhouse with a minimum height of 14 feet and covered with 32 mesh mylar screen. Again as with the Riverside greenhouse and screenhouse, external entrances have double doors to protect against intrusion by insects when someone enters. Varieties in greatest demand by the California citrus industry are planted directly in the ground in the screenhouse while those varieties with fewer requests for budwood are maintained in containers that are placed on risers. When new citrus varieties are released from quarantine, trees can be propagated under quarantine and then moved under a special CDFA permit to Lindcove where they are placed in this protected Foundation Block. The Foundation Block trees are routinely and extensively tested for all the known bud-transmitted diseases and the registered with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. To maintain the trees as registered budwood sources, the trees must be continuously tested for disease on a yearly basis. Disease testing is done by seedling assay except for tristeza which may also be tested by the enzyme linked immunosorbant assay (ELISA), the viroids by sequential polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (sPAGE) and/or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and stubborn disease which is diagnosed following culture of the causative agent, Spiroplasma citri.
 Dr. Georgios Vidalakis, CCPP Director Cooperative Extension Specialist, UCR |
 John Bash, Project Supervisor Staff Research Associate, UCR |
 Greg Greer Staff Research Associate, UCR |
 James Diaz Staff Research Associate, UCR |
 Ramon Serna Sr, Nurseryman, UCR |
 Raul Gonzales Staff Research Associate, LREC |
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University of California, Riverside Citrus Clonal Protection Program Facilities |
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At the same time that trees are planted in the Foundation Block, a group of four trees is also planted in the Foundation-Evaluation Block. This 14.5 acre field planting is also located in the San Joaquin Valley at the Lindcove Research and Extension Center because this is a prime citrus growing area and the CCPP can obtain valuable performance data for each new variety. On a routine basis, field trees are also propagated from the registered budwood source trees in the Foundation Block and are planted in this Evaluation Block so that growth performance and fruit quality may be evaluated. This is necessary to insure that budwood from our source trees results in the production of quality field trees producing fruit that is the highest quality and true to type. The future of this program depends on the success of these procedures for variety maintenance. All the farming operations in this block are performed by one person or by others under his direct and continuing supervision. The trees are maintained in vigorous healthy condition by routine and regular insect pest control and fertilization. Any trees showing disease symptoms, abnormal growth characteristics or testing positive for disease, are removed from the block and the soil fumigated prior to a new tree being replanted.