Looks like my 10 year old orchard is getting hit hard by fire blight this spring. Wasn’t much of an issue in years past. But bad now.
Try and salvage or remove and replace with resistant ones ?
At least it’s a good experiment demo for people in my area
Thanks
What is GG? Cortland is notorious disease magnet around here.
Grand gala. Also susceptible. Probably should have attached this to the previous “dreaded fire blight” discussion
Here in west central Georgia fireblight has been minimal so far. My strategy has been.
All my FG3 and 4 trees got a load of fire blight this year.
I planted later bloomers in 2020… hoping to escape late frost issues…
This year I did… but then my later bloomers were blooming when it was warmer and wet… fire blight got all over them.
About to give up on apples here.
TNHunter
I’m probably going to remove ~10 (candy crisp, pink lady, cortland, grand gala) of the more susceptible trees and replace with the most resistant trees I can get.
My original trees were all stark brothers. Where are you getting yours?
What is growing best for you?
My freedom enterprise goldrush are doing well
What is FG 3 and 4?
Before you quit apples you might try Sundance, Keepsake, Black Limbertwig.
Galarina and ruby rush did better than most. Dayton really suffered and it usually deoes pretty good.
Enterprise, Pristine, and Trailman all are super resistant
@hambone FG = flowering group.
I have a flowering crab that starts blooming very early and blooms for extended time… it produces tiny inedible fruit. I think it covers FG1 and 2.
My old Early Mc… was a FG 2 apple.
It bloomed quite early … which is probably why it escaped FB for 20+ years.
My FG 3 amd 4 trees (later bloomers) were Gold Rush, Akane, Hudson Golden Gem and Novamac.
They all got a big load of FB this year… actively blooming when it was warmer and wet.
I have found a tree in my country at a friends house … that they have completely neglected… it has not been pruned in years… never been sprayed, they just let it grow and do nothing to it… but it produces nice clean fruit and got no FB this year.
The apple starts off green but when ripe late summer… has some yellow with a red blush. It could be Pristine?
I am going to try one more apple… this one…
If it fails here… I will not try anymore.
Ps… on my flowering crab… I do have grafts of red royal limbertwig, myers royal limbertwig, black limbertwig and chestnut crab.
Perhaps I get some apples from it someday.
TNHunter
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@Phlogopite … i have a Novamac which per Purdue papers… is very resistent to FB Scab CAR Rots…
It is a FG4 tree.
It got a load of FB this year same as my other FG3 and 4 trees did.
I have removed 20+ fruit spurs from it and several scaffold branch tips and other shoots.
It still has a few apples on it and they are still sizing up and looking good.
I have my doubts about it surviving though.
The centeal leader had FB and i removed it all the way down to my top two scaffold branches and it still had a brown streak in the wood.
I will not remove any more… so if it lives… it is going to have to prove to be resistent.
It is an espellar… so only has 4 scaffold branches.
TNHunter
I’ll admit I was shocked when you had issues with that strain, these three seem to be on a different level though. Trailman in particular is a freak of all freaks, hardy to -50° but still grows in the south, extremely disease resistant on all fronts and produces tons of delicious dual use apples…the only “flaw” is that the apples are 1.5-2", not the end of the world.
Based on the kinds of varieties you like this one is right up your alley, bulletproof
Also: it’s worth noting mature trees have significantly less Fireblight pressure than very young trees so that could contribute to the lack of FB on the tree your neighbor has
@Phlogopite … are you growing trailman in z9b ?
I just read on fedco site a warning that it might be tastless below z6.
???
I am in z7b now.
I am not opposes to crabapples at all… a 1.5 to 2 inch apple is sure better than no apple.
I dont spray… never will… outside of possible occasional spinosad… capt jack deadbug brew.
I can do things like traps or bug zappers for CM…
If this tree my friend has turns out to be Priistine (FG4)… i will need at least a FG3 crab to pollinate it well.
No I haven’t seen that, that’s unfortunate if true. Maybe some forum members growing it that far south can chime in. Lucky_P says it tastes good for him in KY but he is still technically Z6, I still wouldn’t give up hope
@Phlogopite … found a site pomiferous.com that says trailman crab is in pollination group D.
If A is similar to FG1… then D should be similar to FG4.
That same site says it is very resistent to FB… and yes… so is Novamac… but that did not seem to help me much.
I will check with the southeastern group and see if anyone there can confirm the flavor issue.
Thanks
You’ve probably checked this out, but I wonder if your blight is over-wintering near your orchard- e.g. on Bradford Pears, a situation I had here and my blight all of a sudden tapered off once the Bradfords were gone.
I have no bradfords on my 30 acres now… did in the past… but it split in a storm and I took it out.
I have several callery around my place… and when they start blooming I take them out… or I transplant them and graft pears on them. I have done 3 like that.
My neighbor 1/2 mile up the road has his long driveway lined with douglas pears. Not much I can do about that and the natural wind direction is from his place to mine.
