This is such sad news, but the South is such difficult territory. Last year we lost one branch of a Korean Giant and a few shoots of Potomac pear to fire blight, but otherwise it was leafspots and more leafspots from all the rain. This year is looking much better so far...

Georgia Green, have you tried spraying agrimycin? What I do is follow the Cougarblight model: three or more days of 75F+ highs and rain coming means its time to spray agrimycin. Also I do a delayed dormant copper. And, take out the most fireblight susceptible varieties. I had it very badly about three years ago and every year it gets a little better now that I am working on it. Last winter I removed the 10% or so most problematic trees including all of my quinces. So far this year no blight but its still a bit early for me, May is my bad month usually.

Scott

No, I didn't spray anything for fireblight. The only thing I sprayed was immunox on the apples and once and done on the trees that produced some fruit. With so many wild bradford pear seedlings blight pressure on pears will always be high. When it comes to handling blight with my trees I understand that they will get it and I am trying to see which ones will handle it the best and still survive and make fruit while still handling the disease pressure. Thanks for the info on when to spray for this in case there is tree I ever become to attached to.

Because of your warm temps, you will likely not see fireblight once spring turns to summer. It's strictly a springtime phenom for us.

On cutting out strikes do you normally cut them out now or wait till the winter when the tree is dormant. In the past on the few bigger trees I have waited and cut it out in the winter. On these younger trees that bloomed alot and had alot of growth last year it is like an express lane on the branch, so I have cut most out already. Thanks, Doyle

If you don't cut them out on young trees they can kill the whole tree sometimes. Blossom or tip strikes you may be OK waiting on but strikes on branches I would remove pronto. Also remove all suckers by the root, I lost several trees when the sucker got a tip strike and the blight reached the root and killed it.

Scott

Most of my apple trees haven't lasted but a few years due to fire blight despite my best efforts to spray regularly and then also to immediately prune away any disease. Fifty miles north in Blue Bidge they grow some of the best apples...but the environment/weather is very different. I have learned to enjoy the lovely apple tree pictures in the fruit catalogs, but to only purchase what others have successfully grown locally.

Of course if you put your orchard inside a greenhouse like fruitnut anything is possible.

Rather than fight the bacterial infections with chemicals whenever breakouts occur, or digging up vulnerable pear trees, would you consider grafting away the problem? That is what I did with several mature pears that were suckers for the f/b bacteria. The f/b resistant varieties that now grow on top of the older branches are doing very well. That allows me to have the freedom to work on the other perplexities when trying to grow fruit, and there are a lot of them. If you are a grafter and would like to start soon on such a project, I still have some prime budwood in the ref. and would send some.

Copingwithclay or garedneck what pears or apples have done well for you? I am trying to grow my fruit tree in the same manner you are. I have grafted a few fruit trees with rootstocks I have purchased or with wild pear seedlings that pop up around the house and have had some success but that is the extent of my grafting experience.

Tennosui is an Asian pear with Tennessee pear seed origin and Hosui pear pollen. That is the one that most of my repearing has involved. Also, Acres Home, Meadows, Southern Queen, and Southern King are being used. All have f/b resistance.

Is there any quince that has fire blight resistance?

Campbell, that is a very good question. I have never heard of a fireblight resistant quince variety available. Apparently some were bred in Bulgaria and I see that the ARS has two Bulgarian varieties in their collection from that program. Maybe they are worth trying.

I had some standard varieties, Pineapple, Smyrna and Aromatnaya. The latter one died of fireblight and the former two were getting strikes all summer and infecting my apples nearby. So this winter I took all the quinces out. Even a highly resistant variety of fruit will likely get infected if there is a tree covered with fireblight right next to it. So far this summer I have no fireblight on those nearby apples.

Another important tool against fireblight that has not yet been mentioned is to make sure the trees are in plenty of sun and are pruned to be very open - look at the ground below the trees when the sun is overhead, you should see 1/4th or more of that ground sunny.

Scott

I agree with scott about opening up your trees. I have a 4
year old Maxine pear that has been plagued with fireblight
this year. Every day, this spring, I've had to prune out
diseased limbs. I finally spread all of the branches to
make the tree more open, and the fireblight has completely stopped. This may just be coincidence, but I don't think so. I have four other pear trees, and this was the only one that was not pruned to be open, and the only one that had fireblight.

Can anyone tell me if the antibiotic spray for fireblight is systemic? On the label it says not to spray if fruit is present. This is May and I have pears and it's this time that fireblight usually shows up. I have to keep spraying or else!

I have a friend with several large pear trees in central SC (z 7/8) and one ("Magness"? Pineapple"?) gets firelight each typical year. It gets a lot but it is all just the last ~1/2 foot of each branch's growth. He just ignores it. It would be hard to spray that high and almost impossible to trim that out in any event.

Who else just ignores FB in selections where the older wood is resistant?

None of my apple/pear trees are over 4 years old and most have only set fruit the last two years, so it is too early to claim any have done well yet. My experience leads me to believe apple trees in this area will be more work than the results are worth. On the other hand peaches, plumbs, plumcots, nectarines, blackberries, etc. are well worth the effort.

My uncle who lives behind me has several red and golden delicious, granny smith and kieffer pears that are over 15 years old and does nothing to them. They all produce a ton of fruit ever year with tons of fly speck and sooty blotch on them.

Just John, the agrimycin commercial label says apply up to 30 days before harvest for pears and up to 50 for apples. Then it says for home growers don't apply after you see fruit. Not sure why the difference. I have probably sprayed it after seeing fruit, but the most important time to spray is at pre-blossom and petal fall, thats when you can nip it in the bud. This year I got more serious about fireblight control and with only one copper and one agrimycin spray timed to the Cougarblight model I have thus far seen nothing. Of course while I was focused on dealing with my deer and fireblight, the plum curculio got ahead of me.

Scott

same here, Scott. PC has wiped out my entire apple crop this year. I am so bummed. I sprayed for FB and CAR. The timing on those sprays was perfect. But I totally neglected PC. Now I have to wait until next year. But I will be ready. I'm trying to look at the bright side and telling myself that at least the trees can spend all their energy growing nice, strong scaffolds this year.

Thanks Scott, sorry to hear about the PC. Haven't seen any here....yet. I was just wondering if the agrimycin was effective as being systemic like the car spray is. Or does it protect from the outside of the leaves. I guess what I'm trying to figure out is, do I need to saturate every part of the pear/appletrees for outside protection.

I'm pretty sure agrimycin is not systemic.

Of course the minute I post above that I have not seen any FB this year I find my first strike.. at least it was only one small strike.

Thomis, sorry to hear about your PC problems, they can sneak up like that one day and POW. Every year I make a note to start protection earlier the next year and every year I am too busy then and miss it. I had protection down pretty early this year, just not renewed enough so some varieties will be overthinned.

Scott

Where can I buy Agrimycin? I looked all over the place at Lowes and the guy directed me to some basic herbicide that did not say Agrimycin.

Find a good farm and garden store (forget Lowes except for common fertilizer).

Look for streptomycin, not just one brand name. Here is the most common brand in a small container for home yard orchardists.

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/fire-blight-spray.html

In Maryland I would think you would have no problem finding it locally.

Sorry, Tennessee. But still the same.

copingwithclay,
i have been fighting with FB this year and am likely going to have to drastically prune back my tree. i was wondering if you still have any scions available (?shinko, maybe, as it is supposed to be resistant- or whatever you think is best) as i was already learning about grafing since my tree is a partially self-fertile tree and doesn't produce that much fruit.
if you had any branches i could try to graft, i would be greatly appreciative.
ev
everette13(at)gmail.com

http://www.caf.wvu.edu/kearneysville/articles/FB-MANAGE00.html

If any are interested in a very excellent discussion on FB check this out.

Has anyone had fireblight on a supposedly resistant variety, or a highly-suspectible variety that didn't get blighted? God bless.

I am steeling myself for the ugly losses. I am trying ~35 different varieties of pear that have at least some suspicion of being able to prosper (survive?) with limited care in the south. I know a number probably won't.