Tissue culture company begins selling plants directly to growers

When Yongjian Chang built North American Plants in 1998, the company had 800 square feet of lab space to propagate plants through a process known as tissue culture — essentially cloning them to meet nursery demand for ornamental trees and shrubs.

It’s come a long way in the years since, with five expansions bringing lab space to some 23,000 square feet and a switch in 2006 to focus on berries and rootstocks for tree fruit and nuts.

Today, North American Plants produces 3 million blueberry, blackberry and raspberry plants and 10 million rootstocks for tree fruit and nuts annually.

Increasing demand for disease-resistant rootstocks, particularly in the apple industry, has the company poised for another change: selling directly to
growers who want to reduce the wait time and get trees in the ground sooner.

For the first time, North American set up shop during December’s Washington State Tree Fruit Association’s Northwest Hort Expo in Wenatchee, Washington, to explain the process to growers and to take orders.

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