Research develops effective treatments to fight blight in apple, pear crops
Over the past several years, frequent periods of warm and wet weather during the spring in Virginia have triggered epidemics of fire blight causing $22 million per year in losses to apple and pear crops.
Researchers led by Virginia Tech are developing new effective treatments utilizing fire blight bacterium Erwinia amylovora in fire blight cankers. Cankers are infected dead zones on wood bark and often cause as much as 50% of losses in orchard acreage. Also collaborating is a team of researchers at the University of Virginia and Oregon State University.
The team is developing effective dormant copper spray treatments in a mix with bark penetrating oils for eradication of fire blight bacterium.
Project supported by U.S. Department of Agriculture Capacity – Research funds.
