No one wants fire blight in their orchard next year. For fire blight to take off in your orchard next year three things need to be there: the pathogen, the warm conditions and humidity that favor the disease, and a susceptible host. We can’t do much to change the weather but we can remove the source of the disease in our orchards. I am sure you already pruned fire blight in your orchard once. It is worth the time to take another look through your blocks to remove additional cankers!

Erwinia amylovora, the fire blight pathogen overwinters in cankers in the orchard. Bacteria overwinter in living tissue surrounding cankers formed at the base of spurs or shoots killed the previous season. Cankers also will form where cuts were made to remove infected shoots during the growing season. Cells of the Erwinia pathogen survive primarily in the canker margins where diseased bark tissue meets healthy bark tissue. Frequently, in many of these cankers, the pathogen dies out over the winter, but in 20 to 50% of cankers, active cells of the pathogen survive until the next bloom period. In spring, during periods of high humidity, the pathogen oozes out of the canker margins. This ooze is attractive to insects (e.g., flies) as a food who can then move the disease to the flowers.

Cankers are areas of dead tissue. There are other types of cankers but fire blight cankers are reasonably easy to identify. They are greyish, lavenderish and sometimes almost black. The tissue may be somewhat sunken and cracked. The cankers are associated with shoots that were killed last year. In the tissue of young shoots the blight moved quickly through the tissue and down to a larger stem.

It is best to prune the cankers before the tree is shaped for structure, and remove the blighted prunings from the orchard as they can be a source of pathogen cells in spring. Compared to cuts made in summer, winter removal cuts can be made closer to the visible canker edge because the pathogen is confined to the cankered area. Cut at the next "horticulturally sensible" site below the canker. You do not need to sterilize tools when you are cutting on fully dormant trees. Focus your efforts in blocks where you had fire blight last year. But after a year like 2016 it is best to check all of your blocks.

Tianna DuPont