Name of Business: SUNBURST Plant Disease Clinic Inc.

Type of Business: Plant disease Clinic     

Hours: Monday to Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Location: 677 East Olive Avenue

Contact Information: 667-4442

Business Specialty: Seed and plant health

The Central Valley is one of the leading agricultural areas in the nation, and Turlock is home to a leading plant disease clinic that assists in keeping these crops healthy.

Sunburst Plant Disease Clinic was established in 1997 by Thomas T. Yamashita as a full service agricultural laboratory and over the years Yamashita has developed methods used today to characterize samples and create his grower specific programs.

Shannon Gois, Administrative Assistant for Sunburst, shares that the laboratory was built over many years of hard work.

“Our goals are and always will be to help farmers in Central California continue to excel and provide healthy food for the rest of the world,” she said.

Their major focus is the troubleshooting of various pathological, entomological and physiological problems in agriculture.

“Pathogens and pests can cause widespread damage to crops quickly,” said Gois. “It is in the best interest of the growers to be proactive when they notice the plants failing.”

Gois explained that they often find that minerals in the soil are tied up and unavailable for uptake by the plant which leaves the crop predisposed to many types of pathogens and pests.

Although located centrally, Sunburst works consistently with growers all over California, Oregon, Nevada, Idaho and Washington and throughout the United States and Mexico.

“Our goal is to improve the quality of life for mankind by providing grower compatible solutions to a wide range of debilitating, economically-impacting problems in agriculture and the environment,” said Gois. “Customer interests, welfare and the progress of the agricultural industry are our primary concerns; we love what we do.”