A soil test will help you determine whether or not your soil even needs a fertilizer application. To avoid this susceptibility to fire blight in your trees, especially if you live where fire blight is a known issue, it is recommended that you use a low-nitrogen fertilizer during the growing season and only fertilize when necessary. Any excessive amount of new growth on your tree is easily susceptible to fire blight infection.
In high-pressure areas, your best defense is likely going to be a combination of cultural practices, cleanup, and manual/chemical control methods.Ĭultural practices. Managing Fire Blight In Affected Fruit Trees Outbreaks of fire blight occur periodically in British Columbia pear and apple orchards. It causes severe blighting of blossoms, shoots, limbs and fruit. Scrupulously remove all prunings and infected material well away from the infected tree and burn it.įire blight is a destructive bacterial disease of apple, pear and other related species such as hawthorn, quince and mountain ash. This may result in a badly shaped tree but if not done the tree will almost certainly die. Cut away any infected wood at least 15cm / 6in further back from the infection.
PEAR FIRE BLIGHT TREATMENT HOW TO
Here is a good video by Nathan Brandt of MU Extension on fireblight and how to prune it out. Also, clean up and dispose of any dead twigs and mummified fruit on the ground. Avoid pruning in spring when bacterial ooze is prevalent. Disinfect tools between cuts by dipping in a 10% chlorine bleach solution. In late summer or winter, prune out all diseased wood at least 10 to 15 inches below the infection and destroy. When terminal buds set and tissue hardens, the disease stops progressing.ġ. Hail damage is often followed by a rapid spread of the disease. The ooze dries and is carried to new sites by insects, wind, rain, or pruning equipment where it causes new infections. In spring, the cankers produce a white or amber ooze which contains the bacteria. Young trees can be killed in one season, but it generally takes several years of continuous dieback for death to occur.įireblight bacteria overwinter in cankers larger than one inch in diameter and in mummified fruits.
These can girdle the stem causing even more dieback. As the twigs die back, dead sunken areas on the stem called cankers develop. A characteristic shepherd's crook often develops as tender growth rapidly wilts and dies. As the disease progresses, leaves and twigs take on a black shriveled appearance as if scorched by fire. Common entry points are through wounds, blossoms, and natural openings such as stomatas and nectaries. Symptoms begin as dark green, water-soaked spots on tissue where it is penetrated by bacteria. If not controlled, it can cause flower and fruit blight, twig and branch dieback, or even kill the plant. Temperature, humidity, insect vectors, and wounding can all affect the severity of infection. It is a serious disease that affects new leaves, fruit, flowers, and stems of over 75 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family including: apple, crabapple, hawthorn, pear, pyracantha, cotoneaster, spirea, flowering quince, and mountain-ash. Fireblight canker and twig dieback on crabapple ( Malus)įireblight is caused by the bacterium, Erwinia amylovora.
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