North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Richard Moyer <ramoyer@gmail.com>]

Please see this link for fireblight management:
http://www.caf.wvu.edu/kearneysville/wvufarm10.html
and this article linked therein:
"A Philosophy for Effective Fireblight Management'
by Paul Steiner
>From the intro:
"Success in plant disease management requires a change in philosophy
about man's role in agriculture. Rachel Carson, in her revolutionary
book, Silent Spring (1962), cited a most appropriate quote from E. B
White: I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too
ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into
submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we
accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively
instead of skeptically and dictatorially. Agroecosystems are not
natural entities and exist only with the continued input of energy by
man in his deliberate attempt to keep 'nature' in abeyance while he
produces the food and fiber crops of his choice. Should that input be
withdrawn, such systems are unstable and quickly begin to revert to
the prevailing natural ecosystem.

The purpose of this discussion is to address the changes required in
our thinking about disease management in the agroecosystem so that the
strategies and tactics we choose to apply can be implemented with
maximum effectiveness, a challenge that goes well beyond following
standard 'control' recommendations."

Richard Moyer
SW VA