Fire blight control?

[Rusty]

Okay, this is my THIRD year battling this infernal stuff. The first year it attacked my Bartlett pear, which hasn't produced a pear since. Last year it hit my apples, Red Delicious and Granny Smith. Both trees bloomed this year. I sprayed like crazy with a fire blight spray. Granny lost every apple. Red was looking pretty good...until we had a week of rain. Now the whole tree is covered. But there is fruit on it and the spray says not to spray after it sets fruit.

Last year I cut the way they say to, dipping in bleach between cuts, but that only seemed to make it spread more, so I quit cutting. But not before the tree was really misshapen.

What I am wondering now is should I give it a really, really hard prune--right back to the freshly planted stage with just a trunk and 2-3 primary limbs--and if so, when should I do this? My other alternative is to dig it up and throw it away, I'm thinking. I mean, how much chopping can one tree take before it just dies?

Any advice?

Rusty

 

[patandchickens]

You're sure it's fireblight, yes? (In which case, you have my sympathy).

IIRC the usual advice is to prune back *hard* when you're cutting out the affected portions, like 18-24" into apparently healthy wood. Did you do that, or did you cut closer?

If your other choice is to dig the tree up and burn it (you *are* burning the affected parts or sending them off iwth curbside pickup, yes, not leaving them around in compost or a brushpile to spread the disease further?) then I don't see as you would have much to lose by trying your severe pruning suggestion. Only possible downside would be if there are other susceptible trees around that might catch the fireblight in the interim, where they might not if you just ripped out the affected trees right now. If that's not the case, try it and see, what do you have to lose?

Good luck, it sounds like you need it ,

Pat