New York field reports welcomed. However, the low counts in the shooting tower suggest that it will take a few more days of warm weather or perhaps some rain to get leaves wet enough to allow maturation to proceed before any major discharges will occur. The last several weeks of dry weather apparently arrested spore development in northeastern N.Y. before spores were at threshold levels, whereas the southeastern and western parts of the state had already passed threshold levels before the dry weather began.
Fire blight is perhaps the most devastating disease of apple worldwide.
Last year, extensive losses occurred across much of the Midwest and Northeast because weather conditions during bloom, coupled with bouts of severe weather later in the season, created conditions that were extremely favorable for disease development. Add to this that our new varieties, rootstocks, and planting systems have evolved in such a way that newer plantings are more susceptible to fire blight than ever before, and we now have a situation that makes it increasingly difficult to manage this disease. The bottom line is that fire blight is on almost every apple grower's mind. The following article provides an overview of the fire blight disease cycle and discusses management options through the blossoming and post-bloom periods. The blossom blight phase of fire blight includes shoot death that develops as a result of bacterial invasion from the flower clusters.