rootstock

The workers at Wonderful Nurseries’ sprawling complex in Wasco tend to wine and table grapevines and nut tree rootstocks.

In the vineyard, these include using more disease and drought resistant grapes and rootstock, which require fewer chemical sprays and less water.

Virtually all of our vines are planted on their own roots, while all of California is grafted onto rootstock that is resistant to a terrible pest called phylloxera.

Once scientists realized that the American vines were resistant to the pest, they used grafting to combine the Vitis vinifera scions — pinot noir, cabernet sauvignon, champagne — with the American, phylloxera-resistant rootstock.

The team tested how much 'torture' pistachio and walnut rootstock can withstand by placing them under drought stress.