Plant health and biosecurity
From a plant health point of view the UK has the advantage of being an island, but large volumes of plants are still imported by garden centres and growers from abroad. Keepers Nursery has a strong belief in safeguarding Britain’s plant biosecurity, we have and will continue to have a first- hand interest and responsibility in keeping Britain’s plants safe from harmful invasive pests and diseases.
Traceability
Our nursery is a relatively low risk gateway for invasive pests due to the low frequency of plant imports and long growing and observation periods along with our high level of individual plant traceability.
Unlike many UK plant growers we grow 99% of the fruit trees we produce ourselves, here at our nursery in Kent. This means we have complete control over all aspects of the plants we produce.
Furthermore we do not produce plants in batches, instead our nursery management system uniquely identifies each individual tree of the thousands we grow each year, from the moment it is grafted.
We do not supply garden centres or other retailers, so, almost all our trees are supplied direct to the end customer.
In summary we have complete traceability of each tree we produce, from the point it is grafted to delivery to the end customer. This means that as a grower we are uniquely placed to be able to assure customers of the quality and phytosanitary status of each tree we supply.
Site security
The nursery is effectively a small closed system for the majority of the season which prevents introduction of new pests and diseases. We monitor the area around the nursery for risks of potential outbreaks, in order to limit accidental introductions of pests and disease into our nursery.
The site is closed to the public during the growing season and there is never any public access to areas containing nursery trees. Customers can collect trees from the nursery by appointment only in the winter period.
We own and maintain our own tractors and nursery equipment and do not share any equipment with other fruit tree nurseries. Trees are grown in our own soil and irrigated for the first season from mains water to reduce risk of introducing new water-borne pests and disease.
All plant care and nursery work is done by the highly experienced nursery manager and we do not hire in workers to maintain and monitor the nursery plants. The nursery manager lives on site and actively monitors the trees on a weekly basis, and records are made and kept for many years for monitoring and educating ourselves on improving our practices. The nursery manager keeps up to date with the latest DEFRA guidelines each season to ensure we are able to monitor for the latest threats.
Defra inspections
Keepers Nursery is fully compliant with our legal obligations as outlined by DEFRA, all plants are sold with UK plant passports which come as a result of several DEFRA inspections over the period which our trees are grown in the nursery.
The rootstocks we use for grafting are planted with individual reference numbers and kept in the nursery for at least 20 months prior to sale during which time they are observed and inspected routinely by the nursery manager for any symptoms of both common established and new invasive pests and disease on the DEFRA plant health portal notifiable list.
We work with our agronomists from AGRII to best treat most common symptoms of ill health, any plants found with serious symptoms of ill health are destroyed and anything new, concerning or unusual is reported to DEFRA.
The nursery also contains a very large mother tree collection which we use for plant propagation; these trees are regularly monitored..
Plant Healthy
This is a new UK-specific certification scheme for retailers, garden centres, and plant growers. It is supported by Defra and the RHS, and aims to help improve UK biosecurity by making all those involved in the production and sale of plants more aware of the importance of plant health.
We are certified as a Plant Healthy supplier.