Fire Blight
Risk near you, next 48h
See whether your local forecast favours this disease right now.
When it strikes
Remove affected material now
Take out the affected leaves, shoots or whole plants before the next wet spell, bag them as you cut, and wash your hands and tools before touching healthy plants.
Carried by insects
An insect moves it plant to plant, so controlling the carrier matters as much as treating the symptom. Check for the vector before assuming the plants infected each other directly.
It carries over to next season in soil, debris or seed — which is why rotation matters here, not just treatment.
Keep out of the compost
This survives a garden heap. Bag it for municipal green waste, which is composted industrially at temperatures a garden heap cannot reach, or burn it where that is permitted.
When and where to look
Scout the planting while temperatures hold between 21°C and 30°C, with humidity above 70%, after rain or heavy dew, while the leaves are still wet. Risk builds after roughly 4 unbroken hours of those conditions, so the morning after such a night is the moment to look.
The signs that lead here
Full problem lists for these crops
About
Fire blight (Erwinia amylovora) is a destructive bacterial disease of apple, pear, quince and related plants that spreads rapidly during warm, humid bloom, killing blossoms, shoots and whole limbs.
Symptoms
Blossoms and shoots suddenly wilt, blacken and bend into a shepherd's crook as if scorched by fire; sunken cankers ooze amber bacterial droplets in warm weather.
Organic Treatment
Prune out infected wood 30 cm below visible damage in dry weather, disinfecting tools between cuts. Apply copper at bud break; avoid heavy nitrogen and summer pruning.
Chemical Treatment
Streptomycin during bloom where permitted, or copper-based bactericides on a bloom schedule.
Prevention
Plant resistant cultivars, avoid excess nitrogen and vigorous succulent growth, prune in dry winter weather, and remove cankers.
Crops at risk
Related problems
Fire Blight risk by location
Each location has a month-by-month profile computed from the weather archive: how many hours a year actually meet this disease’s thresholds.