Trees lost to fireblight in 2023

Clara frijs, citron de carmes, harrow delight, madame boutant, menie, eldorado, admire joanett, max red bartlett. Will update the post as the year goes on. These were all test trees except harrow delight and eldorado both were said to have good fireblight resistance. Harrow delight has grown good for years with no problems.

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Did they have problems last year? Or were they all healthy and all of a sudden died due to FB in 2023?

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@sockworth

Totally clean last year. This is all happening this year! This is much more agressive than fireblight normally is here. Never saw a strain this aggressive until last year. It kills resistant trees which is pretty strange.

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Sorry to hear, but the test trees served its purpose. Did you purposely introduce fireblight on them, or due to natural pressure?

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@sockworth

Natural pressure from an unknown source.

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Last year i lost a comice, forelle, white doyenne, dana hovey, abate fetel, lincoln, menie, worden seckel, Lantai Jujuli

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I haven’t seen any FB this year yet…knock on tree. It hasn’t been too humid here in SW Virginia in this May. Mostly sub 60F dew point. But looking at wunderground in Kansas City area, there was ample 65F+ dew point days in May, ripe for FB.

I think you higher FB pressure in Eastern Kansas than SW VA. I’m surprised how humid Kansas is this year.

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@sockworth

Kansas is one of the more humid states. It can be a hot bed for fireblight. Everything is a trade off and we needed the moisture. The cost of the moisture has been higher than expected. Saved all the roots so far! There is a benefit to grafting the way i do and years like this it is obvious. Left a small peice of the parent tree as an interstem.

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Yes that’s great to have a “reset” button and a second chance.

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@sockworth
Way easier to field graft at waste high or higher than at ground level.

Sorry about all the losses. We lost all but two pears last year.

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@joleneakamama

Using that strategy of grafting high they never die below the callery or resistant pear trunk. Then i graft them over to something more disease resistant. In that way in 2 or 3 years i should be back in pears. Years ago i lost a pear tree roots and all. Those are very painful losses when i lose roots and all. Hoping your year has been good this year. What pears did you lose? Hope the farm and family are well.

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We lost a lot of young trees that had just been planted. Bartlett, Aurora, and others. Some Bartlett were many years in the ground and died too. Buterra Precose Moretini lived, had to be trimmed, same with a Bosc. The only clean tree with no blight was a Warren that had been going 3 or 4 years…and the danged sheep got that one when they escaped.

I replanted with Blakes Pride, Warren, Moonglow, and some Aurora because I’m stubborn. We’ll see how the benchgrafts fare.

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@joleneakamama

That seems very smart to replant with more disease resistant types.

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We’re nearby in NE Kansas (haven’t met you yet), and have no FB loss this year (but of course nowhere near the number of trees that you have). Almost everything in our orchard is supposed to be FB resistant. But I’m still lamenting my favorite Asian pear I lost the year that FB was really bad and I was seeing it on pear trees all over town. It was taller than our house and most years I harvested enough pears to eat all winter.

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@cottonwood

It really hurts to lose a really good pear.

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I wonder what this is. Do you feel it is fireblight? This is supposed to be magness so it is supposed to be super tolerant of it.

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Tough year here in central Shenandoah Valley for FB as well. Problems with Honeycrisp, Pixie Crunch, Limbertwig, Kindercrisp, Grimes Golden, Ginger Gold, and some Golden Delicious. Strange thing is little problem with Red Rome or Ida Red or our Asian or Bartlet Pears. So far we have been able to avoid cutting down whole trees, but we are spending lots of time pruning back and crossing our fingers. Used Cuprofix with Superior oil in March and Harbour (Streptomycin) since. Will hit with more copper sprays up to green tip next year. Wondering what is going on - noticed some bi-annual trees are clear - darker leaved trees also appear to be clear.

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Here in DFW, there has been a ton of fireblight. Both my neighbors trees and my tree had it. Even some of the ornamental pears had it too.

However, the trees look fine, except for the tips. Will the pears recover? Should we do something to help them along?

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The blight here too is avoiding my pears completely but hitting every apple hard except Sundance, clean as a whistle. I’m cutting back into at least 2 year old wood and leaving a 4 to 8 inch “ugly stub” for removal in winter. Yes, that stub may get blighted at the fresh cut but the wood at the cut is older with more carbs so the blight does not get far beyond the cut. That’s the theory behind Professor Steiner’s Ugly Stub method of blight pruning.

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