07/14/08 Oregon Battles Fire Blight

Oregon Battles Fire Blight. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Oregon fruit growers are fighting fire with fire. In this case it's fire blight. A nasty tree disease that can decimate an orchard according to Phil VanBuskirk, Administrator for Jackson Counties OSU Extension. VANBUSKIRK: It is a bacteria and it does attack both apple and pear. It likes wet, moist temperatures. This spring was a rather long, late rainy season for us. The way to control the organism is use of antibiotic sprays in the spring when the blossoms are present and then during the summer months they look for those cankers that are created and try and cut them out and burn them immediately. The cankers give off a sweet smelling liquid that attracts bees and other kids of pollinators which makes it easy to spread the disease. This year is just a bad year. VANBUSKIRK: It's now because of the warmer temperatures starting to show up that the limbs and the leaves and the fruit begin to shrivel up and die. Just like the name fire blight it looks like somebody had taken and lit a fire under the tree and singed the branch. Van Buskirk says the workers are trying to get a handle on the outbreak. VANBUSKIRK: What they're doing again is they're trimming out the diseased wood in the tree so that it doesn't kill the tree. They try to cut in far enough in advance of the symptoms of the disease in order to stop it. They remove those branches from the orchard. Even after they're cut they will still ooze that white substance that attracts the insects and the bees and can spread it. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.