After more than two decades of orcharding, fireblight has finally hit, so the fireblight is no longer a theoretically challenge. A neighbor two miles away experienced fireblight for the first time in a long time last year, so I wasn’t surprised, I guess, and I sprayed with copper during dormant oil season.
Reviewing the comments on this thread and elsewhere, I have learned:
Cutting out the problem
A. Do it immediately
B. Wait until fall
Sanitizing pruners
A. Do it after every cut
B. Do it between trees
C. Don’t do it at all
D. Don’t bother unless you spend 20-30 seconds cleaning the pruners
E. Use alcohol, since it is better for the trees
F. Use bleach, since it is more effective than alcohol
When to spray
A. Spraying is only effective as a preventative when done in the spring
B. Spraying after fire light is observed can help stop the spread
Strep sprays
A. An agricultural strep spray is the most effective spray
B. Strep sprays are no longer effective for most now resistant fireblight strains
C. It requires a license to spray strep
D. Strep sprays are available from Amazon, so it must not require a license
E. Copper is the more effective, anyway
There are lots more seemingly contradictory bits of advice, but that’s enough for now. What’s a feller to do?
The best thing to do for now is amputation of infected branch. Break off some 6 inches extra when you do when you can. Dispose of those branches that are infected. The problem is with fireblight its not the same strands. It sounds like contradictory advise but it’s not when 1 person says spray with antibiotics and the other says don’t. Some fireblight is resistant other is not.
#1: I cut it out right away. I have a long season and I’ve seen it migrate a long way over the summer and get into the trunk.
#2: dunno
#3: once the bacteria is inside the wood, spraying strep does not do anything. The bacteria is protected inside. Spray only when the flowers are open and rain or heavy dew is expected.
#4: fertilome FB spray (strep) is an over the counter type of protect for gardeners. Strep has been VERY effective in my garden but I’m not in an apple producing area where I’d guess there are more resistant strains
My experiences are very similar to @barry, which isn’t surprising since we have very similar climates and growing conditions. I’d add that pruning back into 2nd year or older wood tends to work better for me, that the “right away” part is critical, and that very susceptible varieties are losers no matter what I do. Hot dry weather is the best treatment.
Any suggestions about this tree? I’ve taken about a third of the branches off it this summer. The fire blight keeps coming back.
Right now, the bottom two scaffold branches are not affected but a lot of the rest of the tree has had it. I was trying to leave the scaffolds branches because I’ve trained it fairly flat because it’s on the edge of my property. The tree looked ok last week but lots of black leaves when i got home today. Took these pictures before pruning.
I’m considering replacing the tree this fall after things go dormant. I have another pear that’s in it’s second summer that would do better in this location than where it is. That one isn’t showing any damage so far. Could be because it’s growing a lot slower…
If my records are right, the one that’s got the fire blight is Northbrite. I also have an Emery and So Sweet that i planted at the same time (5 years ago). This is the first I’ve had fire blight. The other two also have had it but i pruned them harder at the start. It’s come back a bit on the Emery and I don’t see it at all on the So Sweet now. I think that if I had taken more off this tree when i first found it, then i might have gotten rid of all of it.
The one that i could replace it with (for free) would be a Moonglow that i planted in a sub-optimal spot in 2021.
I also have a Shinseiki that i planted in the spring of 21 fight beside this with no blight on it.
I try to cut 2 feet below visible symptoms, cutting into older wood and leaving a 4 to 7 inch “ugly stub” for removal only when dormant. In other words, I do not cut flush to next branch or trunk, but instead make a heading cut that leaves a stub that acts as a buffer to keep any reinfection of the cut away from the next branch or trunk.
Reinfection of the cut can come from airborne blight, blight on the bark surface and blight on pruners. If you’ve cut low enough and with a big enough stub, that reinfection won’t hurt the tree if removed in winter.
This is the Ugly Stub method devised by the late Prof. Steiner of U of Maryland and endorsed by Penn State and other luminaries.
It looks like this variety is just too susceptible for your location.
Many are not believers in fireblight. This is what happens when you grow the wrong tree. The tree in this case was green jade. The tree was hit and killed to the ground in the same day which is very rare. It appears the ohxf rootstock is very resistant indeed as it sent a new shoot up from the ground. This was a 15’ pear with fruit on it. That’s not a big deal to me but to someone with one pear tree its devastating.
Yes and the most susceptible pear i grow is feet away and looks excessively healthy with a full crop of pears on it. Fireblight is a mystery it hits a supposed resistant variety but passes up a tree it should have killed. The rootstocks are different ohxf versus callery. Maybe luck is a factor but still doesnt make any sense. As you plant pears keep that image in your mind. It’s a reminder to me to stick with what i know works.
I cut out what looked to be a fireblight hit well above this section earlier this year. I left an ugly stub for later removal but if I’m right this whole limb will need to go. I’ll see about getting a better picture to post later.
This tree gets a fair amount of shade in the off seasons so sunscald seems unlikely.
I have been ignoring this tree because it’s kind of off by itself and produced many apples last year without my intervention. Last week I finally took a look at it and I thought there were branches that looked like they had fireblight:
I was going to do the ugly stub thing, since we’re supposed to have a short dry spell of approx 3 days- and in this area, that’s all we’re going to get.
However, this morning I went to look at the tree and decide what to take off and got worried I should take the whole tree out so it doesn’t spread disease.
Several branches and limbs have spots that look like the fireblight pictures.
The base of the trunk has this bad look to it with an orange hue:
I’m sure neglect has made it a disease magnet and cleaning it up would help, but with 50+ other trees to deal with I’d rather cut it down if it’s going to spread disease this summer. Of course I’d rather keep the tree if it’s something I can treat and clean up- but I’m fearing it’s not.
Does it look like fireblight? or is this tree salvageable?
I would like to see others thoughts about this being fireblight. It is a pretty big tree and it must have some natural resistance to FB to live as long as it has. If it is a good producer of quality fruit I would start by removing the damaged wood especially on those limbs.
