I’m in that weird alternate reality with no fireblight so far. Last year had several strikes on pears. This year, I have some trees with black leaves, but it is not fireblight. The leaves are from a late frost that nipped leaves as they were expanding.
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Watch the site of the cut very closely in the morning for any oozing over the next couple of weeks The FB often runs far ahead of visible symptoms and I’ve seen 12” not be far enough in 1 yr old wood.
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My pears came through mostly unscathed too. Just a few strikes on Harrow sweet. I think they bloomed before the blight hit.
Hudsons is G890, Pink Lady, Rubinette, and Chenango Strawberry are G969, Fuji/Honeycrisp are unknown, maybe M111, and Tropical Sweet is Malus Domestica seedling rootstock.
The Pink Lady got the most with 4 branch tips cut off, I think there was 2-3 on the chenango strawberry. The main real common factor was that the pink lady, chenango, and honeycrisp all bloomed last, and it was the only rainstorm we got for the past several months, also didn’t help that the initial rain was intermingled with sun.
Edit: also worth noting I did do copper at bloom - but didn’t do the 2-3 I usually do prior throughout winter.
Will do, I ordered the fertilome strep spray just in case.
Spraying copper and dormant oil in fall and early spring after several years of bad infections on Shinsui and Kosui, and devastating (psychologically) deer damage last year when they got in and ate ALL my blooms and some new growth, broken branches 6’ up. Flowers and promise of a new year are back! I also got a nuisance deer permit;)
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I sprayed copper/oil at bud break on my pears this spring.
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I’m thinking not all these were fireblight, but seems like at least These with the hook and red sap are
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I think all of that is FB, unfortunately. Looks like we are both getting nailed this year. Ive found that spraying streptomycin on the blooms 24 hours ahead of rain usually works really well. I sprayed this year from a bag of strep that is 8 years old. Im wondering if it goes bad after a period of time. It seems like i get more FB e ery year despite spraying. Or there is resistance that has developed. Im surrounded by callery pears that are loaded with FB a lot of years. Seems doubtful that three sprayed trees in an ocean of unsprayed innocculum has resulted in the development of resistance but maybe it’s possible?
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I think our last rain was 10 days ago, i may try and prevent drip on them for a bit since it seems like dry roots helps halt it
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Hard to tell. Did you have a bad freeze recently? If there is no golden ooze then I’d say not FB.
I can’t answer for streptomycin, but I can tell you with 100 percent certainty that tetracycline loses effectiveness after about 6 or 7 years if stored at room temperature. I keep some tetracycline in my freezer in a sealed glass jar in a ziploc bag. If the jar is broken, the glass is still inside the ziploc keeping messes out of the freezer. If kept frozen, it stays effective for at least 20 years.
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Clark’s crab, grafted to another 2 year old crabapple last year, odd thing is a second one grafted to MM111 40 feet away shows no signs of it….yet.
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We have still had no rain here… but many days in the 80s with lows in 60s.
I checked my apples and pears yesterday… no sign of FB.
My Novamac is still blooming some and has some fruit set on earlier blossoms.
If we do get a good rain soon… I expect the FB to show up as usual.
TNHunter
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I wonder if one graft flowered and the other did not? Flowers are the main way for the bacteria to enter the tissue. But FB can be hard to figure so it wouldn’t be surprising either way.
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I think I’m sticking with small jars of the fertilome stuff from here on out so I finish it off and buy new product more often. The 2 lb bag of strep I have been using has become darker in color and more clump over the years so I’m guessing it has taken on moisture from the atmosphere which probably isn’t good. It has been in its original bag closed with a clothes pin in an exterior closet that gets very hot and humid in summer and cold in winter. Probably not the best storage game plan.
They both flowered, the affected graft had many more blossoms though. I left one limb on the rootstock crab and it showed no signs, but it also had fewer blooms.
My kieffer got fireblight. I sprayed the blossoms with fertilome fireblight spray but it looks like I got it through new growth later. I thought my kieffer was going to be the safe one…