Agriculture advisors are warning some apple growers to be on the lookout for a blight that can kill the trees in their orchard. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Gretchen Millich reports:
Transcript
Agriculture advisors are warning some apple growers to be on the lookout for a blight
that can kill the trees in their orchard. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Gretchen Millich reports:
A bacteria that can kill apple trees called fire blight – could get worse next year in
especially humid areas near the Great Lakes. Fire blight gets worse during wet
weather or hot and humid conditions.
Michigan State University horticulture expert Phil Schwallier says trees that show
signs of fire blight this year could spread the disease to surrounding trees next year.
He’s telling growers in western Michigan near Lake Michigan to start removing
infected trees now.
“Apples have 26 major pests that attack them. So they are under attack all the time.
Fire blight is the most dangerous one because it actually kills the tree. If a tree is
severely infected, we tell them to remove that tree, take the whole tree out.”
Apple growers in west Michigan are still recovering from a severe outbreak of fire
blight in 2000 that destroyed more than 500 acres of apple trees. Ohio, Indiana,
Illinois and Missouri apple growers also struggle with the disease, but experts there
say they’re not expecting any major outbreak next year.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Gretchen Millich.