Update on No Spray Apple in Humid Zone 7

General Fruit Growing
1

We have not sprayed anything on our 600 seven year old dwarf apple trees since we plan to remove them and substitute something easier to grow. Even with a very wet and warm bloom period several varieties have had less fireblight than expected

Old Fashion Winesap 0-1 Strikes per tree

Goldrush 0-1 Strike per tree

Stayman 0-1 Strikes per tree

Granny Smith 0-1 Strike per tree

Fuji 3-5 Strikes per tree

Pink Lady 5-10 Strikes per tree

Golden Delicious 10 or more Strikes per tree

All varieties are showing some PC damage. The real test will be how much summer rot the Apples develop, especially if we have a wet summer. So far it’s looking like I’m going to have a lot of pig food and perhaps even some apples good enough to eat

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2

Thank you for the update!

I feel there has to be multiple golden delicious’s as the old golden delicious is all over here and you never really see any fireblight on them and they are much tastier than the new strain.

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Thanks for the update. It will be interesting to see how much summer rot you have this year.

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I wonder how much, if any, that your spray from last year has helped these trees build up some resistance for this year.

It would be interesting to find out next year or the year after next how these trees wiould do.

5

Interesting question.

Don’t believe any positive tree resistance carried over from the Streptomycin I sprayed last year.

Most likely the opposite. Perhaps some Streptomycin resistant bacteria from my many sprays over multiple years.

It’s not discussed much, but Strep resistant Fireblight bacteria is a big problem in some major apple growing areas.

Due to its heavy use for a lot of years, strep resistant fireblight bacteria is common in the PNW and they have to use other types of antibiotics like Oxytetracycline since Streptomycin no longer works. It is becoming more common in New York too.

We tried not to overuse strep when we sprayed it, but when the Maryblyt computer model predicted an infection event for my area we sprayed it.

We are a lot more relaxed since we don’t have to worry about it anymore.

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6

I have had Ferti-lome streptomycin for 6-7 years now. It is still on a shelf. Read about antibiotic resistance and never want to use it.

I have only a few trees. I try to avoid planting and grafting FB susceptible varieties as much as possible.

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