North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Steve <sdw12986@aol.com>]

Jerrydana5@aol.com wrote:
> I have a couple of apple questions:
> 1.  My apples get this covering of fine black spots on their skin, some 
> fungus I suppose.  I scrape it off with one of those plastic "tuffie" 
> scrubbers for washing dishes before making sauce.  But I wonder, is 
> there a better way?
> 2. I've had some problems off and on with blight in the last couple of 
> summers as they have been wet and cool.  I've beaten it so far by 
> spraying with streptomycin and cutting off the young shoots as soon as 
> they start to wilt.  I always sterilize by trimmers between cuts with 
> alcohol. (Bleach is too hard on the trimmers.)
> When I trim my trees in the winter/early spring, do I still need to 
> sterilize my trimmers, as frankly, it's a pain to constantly dip them in 
> alcohol?
>  
> Thanks.  Jerry in southern Indiana 

Before anyone answers, let me ask a follow up question on Jerry's 2nd 
topic. Is it true that streptomycin is only useful in the control of 
fire blight when it is used during flowering to prevent the blight from 
entering that way?

Steve