North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>]

> I've planted about twenty apple trees, have 5 that have bloomed, but fire 
> blight has played havoc on them  so far. Anyone else having this problem?


I had fireblight last year - really bad on my Suncrisp apple, which 
seems to be horribly sensitive to it, but also on my Pink Lady apple 
tree - so this year, I've been spraying the blossoms on all my apple and 
pear trees with streptomycin sulfate.

I just did a search for it online and ended up buying from this place:

http://www.planetnatural.com/site/index.html

It comes in a 2 oz. tub, which is really small. But you don't use much 
of it. At least, it looks like this tiny container will last me at least 
two years. You're supposed to spray every three or four days when the 
trees are blooming, which is a pain, but it really doesn't take much time.

I don't know how well it will work (I haven't seen any signs of 
fireblight yet), but it's better than nothing. I was just sick last year 
of constantly cutting away infected branches - some of them very large - 
on my trees.

Note that different varieties seem to vary tremendously in their 
susceptibility to fireblight. My Suncrisp apple is planted in a clump 
with three other varieties, so there's only a matter of inches between 
them. But although I battled fireblight on it for a long time last year, 
I never once saw the disease on any of the others - Honeycrisp, 
Goldrush, and Fulford Gala.

That could just be chance, of course, but others here have noted the 
susceptibility of Suncrisp. (Unfortunately, I'd already planted it by then.)

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

http://garthright.blogspot.com/

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