North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Richard Frost" <frost@san.rr.com>]

Title: Message

Fireblight control begins with healthy trees.  A tree with lesions in the trunk might never fully (or even moderately) recover.  After the active fireblight season is over, prune your tree back several inches below any sign of fireblight -- dipping the clippers in ammonia every time.  Now completely reinvigorate the soil down at least 2 feet at the drip line and outward.  Totally pamper this tree without over-fertilizing.  Apply Streptomycin in late fall in a several day lull between storms.  Apply again about 2 weeks BEFORE the tree blooms.  Foliar feed regularly with nutrients after the bloom.  Keep an axe close by so that the tree knows this is its last chance.  Try this 2 years in a row.  After that, consider the battle lost -- the tree is systemically infected.

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jwlehman@aol.com [mailto:Jwlehman@aol.com]
Sent: Friday, May 20, 2005 8:08 AM
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [NAFEX] Fireblight cure.

It was written:
   That 
Pomona fireblight article says, "The best spray to use so far is Streptomycin, 
if you can find it.  As far as I've been able to discover, only big fruit 
growers can access Streptomycin."

Hello all,

I'm not sure how well 
Streptomycin will work for a small grower. About three years ago at an Indiana 
Hort. Society meeting a commercial grower reported he noticed the outside rows 
in the orchard didn't receive the same degree of protection as the center of his 
orchard. He theorized bees coming in from the outside brought in fresh bacterium 
whereas the center of the orchard trees were visited by bees that had been 
across flowers with Strep. killing what was on their bodies. Based on his report 
a few stand alone trees might receive less protection as they would be more 
likely to receive continual fresh inoculum. 

Jerry