I have five pear trees. Two had fireblight last year.
Fireblight is a common problem with pears.
There are really not any sprays available to the home gardener that
are effective. If you catch it early, you can prune it out, which is what
I did. The trees are fine now. There are various techniques for ongoing
management, including continued close surveillance of the orchard to
catch the disease when it comes again, and preventing conditions such
as rapid growth and waterspouts that tend to make the trees more
susceptible. Orchard sanitation, that is the burning or burying of any
unwanted branches or fruit, is also important. This is called removing
sources of inoculum.
You also should get rid of any ornamental flowering pears with a
rat-tail blooming habit, that is, the ones that bloom all summer. These
are extraordinarily susceptible to the disease and will tend to pass it
along to other trees.
Many commercial orchards spray streptomycin or other antibiotics
to control it. Streptomycin is not available to the home gardener.
The other sprays and organic concoctions out there are of doubtful
effectiveness.
Fireblight is a bacterial disease spread by the wind and by insects and
birds. You really can't ever expect to get it completely out of your
orchard. It is not a soil borne disease so it is not necessary to remove
the soil.
Even non-resistant apples are much less susceptible to fireblight than
pears. You would probably have better luck with apples.
Hope this helps.
Sam
"The Ranger" wrote in message
...
My pear tree died a very painful and messy death -- so says the nursery I
brought some of the curled leaves and dried twigs to for examination. He
labeled the problem, fire blight. He, unfortunately, was unable to provide
much of anything else in the way of help, though, like aside from removing
the dead tree, how much of the soil should remain behind, how should I go
about preparing the soil for another sapling, how long I should allow the
ground to remain free of any future saplings, etc.
I'd like to plant another bareroot sapling in this area but not at the
cost
of the tree.
Any thoughts/ideas?
Many thanks
The Ranger
--
Visit http://www.whatchadoin.com/Cookbook2002/index.html to get your
copy
of the rfc cook.book. Time to order will close 31/1/03.