I’m wondering how effective Apogee is as an exclusive fireblight control. From what I’ve read in controlled inoculated trials it decreases shootblight significantly, but I don’t know how well it would work in the field by itself.
Any thoughts?
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I’d not heard of this plant growth regulator before, so I found this label at CDMS:
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Apogee seems to help with FB control. I spray twice, but I also spray streptomycin when the model predicts high chance FB infection. I don’t believe you could count on Apogee alone especially if conditions for fireblight were high. I did see some research done in Winchester, but I can not locate it at the moment.
A very late application of copper and oil has potential for improved FB control, but I’m afraid of fruit russet the apple production manuals warn about. Anyone have experience with a very late (perhaps tight cluser) dose of oil/copper for better FB control? I follow the book and never spray after 1/4 inch green.
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Years ago, applying copper was my initial attempt at controlling fireblight on pears in my semi-arid climate with extremely high FB pressure. It was enough for Hood pear but FlordaHome and other pears failed, along with some other Rosaceae. After a couple years of failure on a few plants I added agrimycin to my routine. This worked on a few of the problem plants but did not quite control it on FlordaHome nor the asian pears.
A friend in SW Ia loves the stuff for FB in apples. He gets very few strikes any more. He claims its from slower shoot elongation. His words.
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Thanks for the responses. Some of the fruit newsletters suggest using Apogee for shoot strikes. The last couple years shoot strikes have been horrible. I’d never seen that many shoot strikes when I had just a few apple trees, but the disease showed up much more vehemently when I started growing more trees.
One thing I don’t quite understand is how the shoot strikes are infected. I am aware that fireblight enters through the flowers, but apparently it lays dormant in the wood and waits for the shoots to elongate before killing them? Am I understanding that correctly?
Yes, this is especially the case with the ornamental pear tree species that host the disease here in southern California.
Shoot blight comes from a lot of places but often from existing FB cankers even after dormant oil/copper. Hail, high wind or even a hard freeze is said to make the shoots more susceptible to FB. I had good FB control during bloom this year but still got hit with some shoot blight later in the season which required me to seriously cut the leadrs on a few trees .
I have concerns about applying a growth hormone like Apogee which inhibits new growth to the trees that I am also throwing nitrogen and water to in order to accelerate their growth. I do it anyway to help manage the FB.
I saw a study where Cueva copper and Double Nickel mixed together and rotated with anti-biotic was as effective as multiple antibiotic applications. Organic growers use Liquid Lime Sulfur with Fish Oil in place of the anti-biotics, but I really hate Lime Sulfur!
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Thank you.
Blueberry,
I know you are on a spindle system with limited vigor trees, but I have the opposite problem. Most of my trees are semi-dwarf or full vigor rootstocks. I’m trying to keep my apples low (like peaches) but it requires so much pruning it’s difficult to get spurs to form everywhere. I think you all have convinced me to give Apogee a try.
I also wonder if Apogee would allow for earlier spur formation on young full vigor trees?
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I got curious and found this source of information.
Penn State » Extension » Plants and Pests » Tree Fruit Production » News » 2014 » Disease Update: The Fire Blight Saga Continues.
Contains dosage information for a number of approaches. Also contained this gem: Double Nickel appeared to offset the negative effect of the Cueva for fruit russetting, compared to Cueva alone.
Thank you for that link! The information about potato leaf-hopper transmitting the infection was most interesting.
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The page was removed, but a copy of it exists in the WayBack Machine. Use with caution since the information is nine years old and I don’t know the reason PSU removed it.
Some more current info on Apogee for shoot blight.
Skip to bottom for FB
No doubt that it works on shoot blight but it could slow the growth on young dwarf trees where a lower rate is suggested.
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