This is my first year dealing with FB. It hit almost every apple I’m growing in varying degrees. Ironically Crimson Crisp didnt take a hit at all. I’m still very new to the whole spray schedule so I didn’t do a copper based spray early. Next year I’m certainly not going to miss that. Has anyone noted suppression effects of bio fungicide products/ yeast based suppression? I’ve seen a few mentions of using active vinegar solutions too. I’m hoping with preemptive action and preventative measures I can avoid decimating my trees in the future.
D747 will hopefully give me an edge in the prevention.
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Sorry you lost your Ida. That bad fireblight year I had was five years back…the two moonglow pears were the worst, one died the next year and the other languished a couple more years until I cut it down. The others all survived fine. I got one bad fireblight hit on one tree this year, it is either an orient or pineapple pear, so I cut the whole top out of it and the rest is doing fine and is covered with fruit. Variety is important but luck and timing still seem to be a factor. Maybe time for you to try another Ida! I’ll cross my fingers for luck.
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Does this appear to be a fire light canker? It is in the location where I removed a branch either because it had fireblight or blossom blast. I can’t remember. I haven’t had fireblight in the past three years but this year it has shown up on my Sierra Beauty and a little bit on my Waltana as well.
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It does look like fireblight. Would carve that chunk out asap using a knife. If it was me after I carved it I would char the wood in that spot using a small flame. If it’s not done soon the fireblight will likely become systemic and kill the tree. The tree will attempt to recover on its own.
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Now that you found your source of fireblight you got to graft over everything but the trunk asap. I’ve done it many times. Graft a very resistant variety on top. Grafted over seedling Bartlett that were riddled with fireblight but you would never know now. Would recommend you try to tbud them with buds from your most resistant tree. You could use indoor paint to paint the parent trunk if it’s not fully barked up yet. That will help with sunburn and other things while your new tree is getting established.
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@clarkinks I’ve cut down two pear trees. I’ve severely trimmed my other pears and apples. I went down in the pasture today to see what can be done about this HUGE callery pear that has fireblight. I took these photos and don’t really know what some of them are. What are the orange things.
And this is the size of the tree.
And about 25-30 ft tall.
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Looks like Cedar Apple Rust galls:astonished:
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That looks like quince rust. Would cut that big old callery back to a trunk with a chainsaw and then graft your most resistant pear to it. Would paint the trunk completely with indoor paint with a little bit of copper mixed in.
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There are FIVE large trunks to this tree. It’s circumference is at least 15-18 foot. It is massive!! About the best we could do is try to burn it down and I think that is an endeavor in futility. For one thing it’s awfully close to our woods (and we keep a burn ban much of the time) and for another I don’t see it burning without a lot of encouragement but if we did get it alight no telling what the consequences would be. I think it’s a job more suited to younger people. 
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Would chain saw all the trunks but one and graft it about 5 feet up. Just did a smaller version of it today.
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Oh no😢…
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Walked through the orchard today and saw fireblight that has come up quickly in one small Asian pear. Looks like someone stuck the branches in India ink and it got pulled up into the leaves. Have never seen the bacteria droplets clinging like this. It was getting ready to rain and I was so glad I noticed the branches before the leaves really started to show much of anything.
Took the cut almost to the trunk and sprayed liberally with streptomycin. The droplets could have fallen as I cut.
I’m confident I can beat this if I stay on top of it.
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What variety pear got the blight?
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I’m guessing a tree this big has probably experienced and fought off fireblight before? Don’t get me wrong, I have a healthy fear of fireblight and I’ve see it kill fruiting size trees in two years on more than one occasion, but that tree is massive and has to have been around at least a couple decades.
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That’s what I think too. It looks like it has grown from several suckers that just aged together to make this MASSIVE tree. Although it has fireblight all over it it also has lots of new grow. It’s more of a project than my husband and I can handle and if next year it gets my other pear trees then so be it. 
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I like your attitude. I’m starting to back away from some of the larger jobs.
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My pears were Ayers and Moonglow.
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