(1) All nursery stock being grown for Blue Tag Certification shall be produced on certified rootstocks. Clonal rootstocks used in the production of Montana Certified Blue Tag Nursery Stock must originate from registered stool-beds. Certified rootstock may be produced in any one of the following manners:

(a) rootstock grown from seed produced on registered trees;

(b) clonal rootstock produced from registered stool-beds;

(c) rootstock originating from other approved certification programs; or

(d) rootstock from seed of U.S. origin having been tested and found to have a transmissible virus content that does not exceed 5%.

(2) Nursery stock being grown for certification shall be at least 50 feet from nonregistered known or potential host plants in the field, under protected cultivation, or in the wild, and at least 20 feet from other noncertified nursery stock, and shall be kept clean cultivated or in an approved, controlled ground cover. Such nursery stock shall be designated as to rootstock, top-stock, and interstock sources. There shall be no rebudding or regrafting of nursery row stock unless such stock is reworked with scions from the original registered scion-tree.

(3) Certified seed shall have been produced on registered mother trees, or grown from commercial seed having been tested and found to have a transmissible virus content of ilarviruses that does not exceed 5%.

(4) A Blue Tag shall designate trees produced from registered scion-source trees and which have been propagated on rootstock produced from registered seed sources or stool-bed trees; or which are self-rooted.

(5) All nursery stock meeting the requirements of this program when sold shall have the variety, interstock, and rootstock designated where applicable as follows:

(i) variety/interstock/rootstock; and

(ii) Blue Tag Certificate.