Well before I head off for school today, I found myself out in the yard doing some tree work. Funny how that goes; you start trimming a branch and the mind starts drifting. This morning it went all the way back to 2013 and the year we almost lost all the apple trees at Red Wing.
It was a wet spring. The trees were older and packed in tight with branches everywhere. Looking back now, it was the perfect setup for fire blight. Warm, damp, no airflow. You might as well call it a blight factory.
We started seeing it move fast. Branches turning brown and looking like they were burned. Once it gets going, it does not wait around. It will spread if you give it the chance. It even jumped from the older trees over to the newer ones that had just been planted, remembering people, and that got everyone’s attention very quickly.
We did what we could at the time. Cut it out, removed as much infected wood as possible, and yes, burned what we took down. There were also organic sprays used to try to slow it. It was a battle, but we got through it.
When things settled down, we changed how we cared for those trees. Every year after that, we made it a point to thin them out. Open them up so air can move through. Let them dry out after rain. Keep branches from crowding each other. Simple stuff, but it matters.
That approach has worked for about 13 years now at Red Wing.
We do the same thing at Sunny Meadow with the fruit trees donated by Weston Nursery, and they are thriving. It is not complicated; it just takes consistency and paying attention.
I am going to take a look and see if that same thinning is still being done over at Red Wing. If not, I will ask if we can help with it. Most of the trees there now are the ones planted remembering people, around 14 of them I think, and I want to see them do well. One of them is remembering a family member, so that one hits a little closer to home.
If you have apple or pear trees, it is worth looking up fire blight and how to manage it or talk to someone who works with fruit trees. It is one of those things you do not think about until it shows up, and by then, it moves fast.