Hi Joe-
Just to confirm, when you say "smoked", you mean it has a black charred appearance?

The reason why I ask is, last year, I thought I had gotten a very late fire blight strike. But, it turned out to be just a shepherd's hook wilting of the central leader (and other branches) caused by high humidity. I could see them hook downwards in the morning, and stand back up again at night! I did wind up getting a couple strikes of FB at a different point (earlier) last year though, even with my Kocide 3000 dormant spray.

This year, I've started spraying Agristrep, but I've only done that once. I'm not sure really when the danger of FB has passed... Can someone tell me?

Thanks,
-Glenn

glen- they were side branches,leaves were brown- reddish brown and crispy.

I had a developing case of fireblight on my crabapple I planted this spring. I just ripped it out. The last straw was when the aphids were at the tips of all the branches. I said, enough of this, let's move on.

The dwarf plum now lives there. We shall see.

Fireblight is worst at bloom time but it can hang on all summer. I have been having lots of minor strikes all summer long. My quince in particular is getting nailed. It also has major problems with codling moth and now quince rust so I am thinking of just pulling it out.

Scott

Quince is a fire blight magnet that I've seen bring FB to other trees in orchards.

I too am having continued strikes this year for the first time, minor but somewhat alarming. I will not apply strep next year as FB has yet to prove an existential issue in any orchards I manage. Doesn't tend to show up in sequential years when left untreated.

It's funny how on most sites pears have been completely unaffected this year and it's the apples that are being burned.

Thats exactly what I think my quince may be doing; the apple FB is clustered in the part of the orchard closest to the quince. The pears are pretty far away and they don't get any blight at all, ever. Some quince fruits were getting infected that I wasn't noticing and that may be where the bacteria were hanging out. I have gotten very diligent recently on picking off any misshapen or small or darkened fruits on the quince. Before I applied strep I was getting it a lot worse and for an even longer period.

Scott

So.. if we have fireblight in the summer (which I do on both pears and apples) what is the best thing to do to save the tree?

And then what exactly should we do in the winter to prevent it?

I've cut off many branches already (while sterilizing my snippers between cuts) but new areas show up (or were there in early stages which I did not see). Poor things are looking pretty sad and I'm seriously thinking of taking out all my pears and apples (only 2 of each) and using that ground for something that actually produces food. We don't really need more fruit anyways. More herbs and greens maybe.

Thanks, Ron

Why don't you plant some fireblight resistant varieties. There are plenty of them out there. Here's a list of pears and apples that show some resistance:

Apples:
Arkansas Black
Britemac
Carroll
Delicious
Early McIntosh
Empire
Jamba
Liberty
Melba
Northwestern Greening
Priscilla
Stark Bounty
Stark Splendor
Turley
Viking
Wellington

Pears:
AC Harrow Crisp
AC Harrow Gold
Harrow Delight
Harrow Sweet
Harvest Queen
Kieffer
Magness
Maxine
Moonglow
Old Home
Starking Delicious
Warren
Ledbetter
Chojuro
Kikusui
Kosui
Seuri
Shinko
Shinsui
Singo
Tsu Li
Ya Li

Honey crisp has some resistance to FB, but I still got it. Funny it got it but the jonathan didnt...(knock on wood)

Liberty is the only one on the apple list I would be interested in growing and that has moderate resistance to fb.

I haven't found Honeycrisp at all resistant here.

Well me neither hman lol. I did find this on the U MN site

Fire Blight: depends on age, rootstock and disease pressure.

Vigorous young trees on susceptible rootstock (M9, M26) may show serious infection in severe fire blight years. Older trees under normal conditions show moderate to good resistance.

Here is a link that might be useful: U.M.N Apples

Joe-il, I have gotten lots of strikes on Honeycrisp where other varieties haven't been affected at several sites so I don't need to read other research. These were not trees on dwarfing root stock. I flat out don't believe the research, and you'd probably believe your eyes more than their research too. I don't expect you to believe my eyes, however.

Is there a more obnoxious internet expression than LOL?