North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Hilborn.E@epamail.epa.gov]

Thanks to Doug, Dennis and Jim for the quick response.

I have been examining all of the trees daily and removing affected
shoots (but probably not cutting enough!). I sanitize my pruners with
high concentration isopropyl alcohol between cuts. I remove and throw
away (in the trash) all cuttings and dropped leaves.  I have good weed
control around the trees.

I have never seen the bacterial ooze, but just the shepherd's crook
appearance on the new growth (shoot blight).  My apples are from Lee
Calhoun and all (I believe) are on M.9 rootstock.

Something I have observed but did not know what to make of it is that
all of my dwarf pears (blight resistant varieties from Stark Bros) have
what I believe to be signs of blight on the rootstock up to the graft.
Now, I do not know for sure what they use, but my understanding is that
quince is typically used to dwarf pears. I don't know of any blight free
quince.  My pears look great in general. The foliage is healthy, so I am
hesitant to remove them upon a suspicion....

I guess my plan is to spray all immediately, remove the Am. Golden
Russet.  If I can figure out if I have trunk or rootstock blight can I
keep things in check with regular sprays here in the humid south, or am
I better off removing all affected plants?

Thanks again for all of the help!

Betsy  Hilborn
NC 7a