Fireblight

MO Steward

Buck Fawn
My dad came back from the farm the other day and said that some of the apple trees in our orchard have fireblight. I have been doing some research on what steps should be taken now and have a few questions.

1) Would you recommend pruning the infected branches out now or wait until winter?

2) Also, in one of the pictures he took it appears that one tree had a few root suckers that we didn’t get a chance to cut that look like they also may be infected. A video on the internet recommended that instead of cutting infected root suckers it is better to spray them with a chemical such as Scythe to get a chemical burn down to prevent the spread of the fireblight into the root system. So I guess what I’m asking is would you just cut these or try to go the chemical route in order to try and save the tree?

3) Lastly, would it be beneficial to spray a copper mixture now to further prevent more fireblight from spreading or is this spray only beneficial in the spring?

If you have any other tips for controlling fireblight please let me know.
Thanks,
Mike
 
Thanks for the link NH. I will be heading to the farm in about a week and plan on evaluating the trees then. As of about a week ago, my dad said there were only a few trees with a couple branches each that were infected and if that is the case I think I will try to prune out the diseased wood as long as it is a dry, sunny day in an effort to prevent the fireblight from spreading throughout the rest of the orchard.

Do you or anyone else have a suggestion on what I should do to the fireblight on the root suckers?
Thanks,
Mike
 
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