Accreditation

Heritage Fruit Trees is now accredited to send bare-rooted plants to NSW, QLD, SA, ACT, TAS and of course, throughout Victoria. This includes trees, shrubs and berry varieties.

Unfortunately this does not include WA. Perhaps that should be Fortress WA! It is virtually as difficult to send our products to the wild, wild west as it is to import them into Australia. Indications are this will change – fingers crossed.

We receive many enquiries from WA suggesting that, unlike other states, there are no sources of heritage fruit trees. If anyone knows of any please let us know so we can pass on the details when asked.

Many believe that nurseries only need accreditation to send material to WA and Tassie. In fact there are many circumstances where accreditation is required, and can be difficult or impossible to gain, to send plants around mainland Australia.

Important considerations revolve around particular pests including Grape Phylloxera, Western Flower Thrip, and Potato Cyst Nematode among others. Nurseries located close to outbreaks of these pests or within exclusion zones can have difficulty in gaining accreditation to export plants and in some cases buy them in. In some circumstances compulsory and costly testing and monitoring programs can make interstate plant sales prohibitively expensive.

Plants grown in soil, even though it is washed off before dispatch, may not be considered safe in some circumstances. Our decision to grow in professionally produced, sterilised, soilless potting mix was a big plus during the audit process leading to accreditation as was the properly constructed hard stand area  - meaning pots do not come in contact with soil.