What Is Fire Blight Disease? Here Are the Symptoms and Solutions

Fruit trees are a luxury when they’re healthy, but when diseases like fire blight take flight, your precious trees can be at risk of dying or spreading the sickness like—pardon our pun—wildfire. Since it’s a detrimental disease, our guide helps break down how fire blight can grow on your trees and what to do to prevent it from forming. 

What Is Fire Blight Disease?

Fire blight is a bacterial disease that impacts a variety of apple and pear trees. This particular plant disease gets its name because it leaves behind wilted and brown blossoms, shoots, and branches, almost like they’ve been burned by a fire. Fire blight thrives in warm, wet conditions and often spreads through insects, rain, and contaminated tools. Young trees affected by fire blight can die in a single season, whereas more mature trees can survive several seasons of fire blight. 

Signs of Fire Blight Disease

Caused by the bacterium Erwinia amylovora, fire blight first presents as cankers on the trunk, main branches, or mummified fruit. Once it appears, it’s hard to stop this pesky disease because it can multiply rapidly. Other common signs of fire blight include: 

• Curling shoots 

• Blackening shoots 

• Dark water spots on blossoms or leaves 

• Oozing cankers on the trunk 

How to Treat Fire Blight Disease 

If it’s too little too late and fire blight has already taken hold of your fruit trees, there are some steps you can take to try and nip it in the bud and keep it from coming back. If you’re uncomfortable taking these tasks on yourself, consider contacting your local tree maintenance professional to help. 

Prune Trees 

First, you need to cut out any infected branches about 8 to 12 inches below the visible symptoms. Between cuts, remember to disinfect your pruning tools with a solution of 10% bleach or rubbing alcohol to prevent the bacteria from spreading.

Fertilize 

The healthier your trees, the less likely they are to be overtaken by fire blight disease. You can improve your trees’ health by applying a balanced fertilizer regularly. Just be sure to steer clear of fertilizers with excessive nitrogen, which can make trees more susceptible to fire blight disease.

Manage Watering

Fire blight thrives in warm, wet conditions, so you should prevent overwatering and water at the base of the tree to ensure proper drainage. 

Tips for Preventing Fire Blight Disease 

The best way to prevent fire blight disease is to plant resistant varieties of apple and pear trees. Some varieties are extremely resistant, while others are more susceptible to the bacteria fire blight carries. Below we’ve laid out which varieties to look for when planting an apple or pear tree to help prevent fire blight from developing. 

Other effective prevention methods include pruning in late winter or early spring when conditions are dry and disinfecting pruning tools between cuts. Copper-based protective sprays can also help keep fire blight at bay when pruning trees.

Apples

Pears