Fireblight

  • April 6, 2023 at 1:07 am #198
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    FIREBLIGHT OPTIONS

    Posted by Edgar Evenkeel
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    Edgar Evenkeel
    Fireblight Options
    February 04, 2022 11:22PM Registered: 1 year ago
    Posts: 5
    Curious on folks take on spraying CCB at bloom vs spraying Copper + Regalia for orchards with severe fireblight infections the previous season. Any insight welcome.
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    Mike Biltonen
    Re: Fireblight Options
    February 05, 2022 12:07AM Registered: 10 years ago
    Posts: 276
    First off, I wouldn’t apply Regalia at bloom for fireblight since it has been shown to thin apple blossoms at 1+ gal/acre plus esp if there is an adjuvant or oil in the tank mix. Second, copper can cause phytoxicity and thereby burn flowers/flower parts, reducing the overall fruit set – but mostly on high elemental copper compounds and not necessarily on lower ones like Cueva. None of this is a bad thing if you want thinning, but for fireblight control alone it is risky without considering the secondary effects of thinning that may give you undesirable results.

    Now, I do use and prescribe the use of Double Nickel + Cueva (1 qt/acre each) applied around bloom (from tight cluster -> petal fall) a few times (depends on the year) to knock down the epiphytic Erwinia populations and reduce the potential for blossom infections. The CCB is good for when the blossoms are open for creating a competitive surface where there is less likelihood of the bacteria taking hold. I wouldn’t apply DN/Cueva on top of/after a CCB because it will kill the living organisms. I also wouldn’t apply CCB more than 48 hours after a DN/Cueva spray for the same reasons.

    Copper is a “normal” bactericide and is used for a wide range of bacterial pests including fireblight. DN is a fungicide but also classified as a bacterial antagonist and so can help provide a separate unique line of defense.

    So, without knowing your situation and assuming you are following the models to know what the actual fireblight risk is….. in a normal fireblight year, I would apply: DN/Cueva at TC and at Pink, CCB with first open blossoms and 1-2 times more through bloom until first petals fall, then DN/Cueva at 50% and 90% PF. If you are using Blossom Protect or another commercial material I might adjust this approach. In a low pressure year, I would reduce this program. In a heavy year, I might run for the hills. But in a normal year, this I believe is a very nominal approach. PLEASE bear in mind this is just an example and needs to be amended for anyone’s specific situation and any given year. But that would be my approach.

    Mike Biltonen, Know Your Roots
    Zone 5b in New York
    Reply Quote
    Edgar Evenkeel
    Re: Fireblight Options
    February 08, 2022 09:29PM Registered: 1 year ago
    Posts: 5
    Thank you Mike, that is the exact info I was looking for. I will adjust the spray program for this particular orchard in Whitefield Maine where FB infected 30/80 apple trees in 2021.

    The property owner has elected to REMOVE 25 trees with >50% FB and replant with non-apple fruiting species.

    The remaining 55 apple trees will be managed under a holistic spray program.

    In my research to find Holistic FB management, avoiding STREPTOMYCIN, the options came down to:

    1. CCB + Bacilis subtilis
    2. CUEVA Copper
    3. REGALIA
    4. DOUBLE NICKEL
    5. BLOSSOM PROTECT

    For this orchard:
    GREENTIP: CUEVA+Neem+Karanja
    PINK: REGALIA+Neem+Karanja+Fish+EM-1
    BLOOM: CEASE+milk/whey+kelp+Karanja+EM-1
    PETALFALL: REGALIA+fish+kelp+Neem+Karanja+EM-1

    Would you advise switching REGALIA with DOUBLE NICKEL?

    Your insight is gratefully appreciated.
    Reply Quote
    Mike Biltonen
    Re: Fireblight Options
    February 09, 2022 01:15AM Registered: 10 years ago
    Posts: 276
    Hi Edgar,
    You’re very welcome.
    I would advise switching out Regalia at Pink for Cueva + DN.

    Brand Name Active Ingredient Mode
    Lifegard LC Bacillus mycoides isolate J SAR
    BlightBan A506 Pseudomonas fluorescens A506 CC
    Blossom Protect Aurobasidium pullalans DSM 14940, 14941 CC
    Bloomtime FD Pantoea agglomerans strain E325 stigma
    Agriphage Fireblight Bacteriophage phage
    Thymeguard 23% Thyme Oil, 77% citrate antib
    AgroPest 13% Thyme, 10% Rosemary, 77% citrate anitb
    Cueva Copper Octanoate antib
    Double Nickel Bacillus amyloliquifasciens, Bacillus subtillus antib
    Actigard Acibenzolar-S-methyl SAR
    Regalia Extract of Reynoutria Sachalinensis SAR

    Mike Biltonen, Know Your Roots
    Zone 5b in New York
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    Michael Phillips
    Re: Fireblight Options
    February 09, 2022 04:20PM Moderator
    Registered: 10 years ago
    Posts: 621
    What’s telling here is that most all these products are derived from organisms!

    It’s fair to say that approaches to fire blight all over the map. I will use fixed copper for a start’me’up application at green tip throughout all three blocks this year because of burgeoning shoot blight strikes the previous two seasons. Those micronized copper grains in bud scales and bark crevices in turn will limit the number of staging areas for the blight bacterium when conditions come right during bloom. It’s worth noting I have not done an orchard-wide copper application in over twenty years. That early-season thrust will be followed by going full holistic in order to reestablish arboreal biology for many, many reasons. Calling on the CCB card depends on conditions and the extent bloom is spread out. The addition of SeaCrop to a CCB has been suggested by Washington growers… and such a mineral charge to boost metabolism efficiency is all about immune function (SAR pathway and more). Other organisms on my team include Bacillus subtillus introduced in spring sprays with a Tainio Biological addition. Use of Quantum Total is another way to enhance microbe diversity, to go along with the lactobacilli action of EM. Following bloom, I’m going to be a lot more aware of potato leafhopper damage on tender shoots as that looks to be the vector that has led to the endemic build-up here.

    I can tell you that Eric Shatt of Redbyrd Cider uses a couple rounds of Cueva during bloom on rows of highly susceptible bittersweets. Brittany’s use of bacteriophages is totally appropriate for the warm humid reality of the Southeast. Mike’s combos are proving promising for his consultant clients.

    The takeaway in all this is you need to think through modes of action all the way down the line. Mineral fungicides are going to impact organisms. Yet some European cider varieties apparently need those 2 or 3 light touches of Cueva to make it through the blossom period at some locations. Organism products are expensive so you need to be tuned in to how you enhance that investment rather than undermining it with the very next spray. Thinking in terms of THIS for THAT is how we lose sight that holistic orcharding is a package deal.

    Lost Nation Orchard
    Zone 4b in New Hampshire

    Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2022 02:27AM by Michael Phillips.
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    Brandt Schisler
    Re: Fireblight Options
    February 28, 2022 09:04PM Registered: 4 years ago
    Posts: 28
    From my understanding, Double Nickel is anti-bacterial and anti-fungal. Therefore, spraying it with EM-1 would be counterproductive, would it not?

    I have issues with Sooty Blotch and Flyspeck here in our Missouri climate and considered using DN during bloom to help with that (in a previous conversion with Mike B he mentioned my issue starts at bloom, and not toward the end of the season like I had previously thought). I have talked with Maury out of Wills Orchard in Iowa and he seemed to have had good luck with DN controlling Fireblight, Sooty Blotch & Flyspeck but I am still torn on what direction to go as I currently do Vermicompost tea + Milk/whey + EM-1 + Seacrop + Kelp + Karanja + Molasses at bloom and I think it may help my early varieties but all of my late October varieties, especially Goldrush & Ultra Gold, seem to get hit pretty hard with the Sooty Blotch and Flyspeck.

    One idea I had for this year was to dig up some dirt from under an area where ramial woodchips have been continuously piled for the last 20 years and add it to my vermicompost tea mixture. I may go this route first and if no luck then I will try the DN in spring of 2023. But for purpose of this conversation I must bring up that I have not had fireblight for the last 2 years with my bloom spray I explained earlier, and additionally I do a BRANDT Tritek dormant oil and Badge X2 copper at greentip.

    Hickory Ridge Orchard
    Zone 6b in Missouri

    April 6, 2023 at 1:08 am #199
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    Keymaster

    AGRIPHAGE FOR FIREBLIGHT CONTROL

    Posted by Brittany Kordick
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    Brittany Kordick
    Agriphage for Fireblight Control
    February 13, 2021 08:40PM Registered: 4 years ago
    Posts: 165
    In case anyone was interested in experimenting with Agriphage for fireblight control this season, wanted to pass on some info we’ve accumulated.

    Agriphage Fireblight consists of bacteriophages that specifically parasitize Erwinia amylovora. Phages have a special place in our hearts, as some of my mother’s research background involved them, and we’ve been dying to try Agriphage for the past couple of years.

    It’s manufactured by OmniLytics, bacteriophage specialists, for Certis. Any questions about the product, go directly to the R&D guys at Omnilytics — they really know their stuff, are passionate about their products, and want to gather as much info as possible about them. They offered to test Agriphage against anything we want to tank-mix with it, free of charge; we just send them samples.

    So far, they’ve found copper, iron, and zinc sensitivities to be the only things you need to worry about with Agriphage. They’ve tested Trilogy against it, as well, and Certis is basing their assertion that neem/azadirachtin is compatible on that particular study only. Note, Trilogy has a much lower neem oil content than other products, so while we don’t expect any particular sensitivity, we will have OmniLytics test compatibility on TerraNeem or pure neem oil to be sure.

    Cost via 7 Springs Farm is $515 per case (consisting of two 2.5 gallon jugs), and not normal stock, so not available without special order. We are lucky enough to live 1.5 hours from 7 Springs, so no drop shipping charges for the many cases we will use this season, but a lump $100-200 special order shipping charge to get it to 7 Springs, then pick it up in person.

    Right now, we are planning on applying Agriphage 3 times surrounding bloom, starting at green tip (we know we’ve got plenty of Erwinia out there for the phages to feast on already after a very bad fireblight year in 2020). We’re hoping to mix it right in with our regular holistic cocktail mix, but a surprising component, Micro-Pak, which contains some zinc and copper, may be an issue.

    FYI, and will post how it all turns out . . .

    Kordick Family Farm
    Westfield, NC
    Zone 7a

    Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/13/2021 08:42PM by Brittany Kordick.
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    Eliza Greenman
    Re: Agriphage for Fireblight Control
    February 14, 2021 09:14PM Registered: 9 years ago
    Posts: 23
    I read somewhere that in tomatoes they were using the agriphage with skim milk powder and corn starch to lessen the effects of UV radiation and, thus, giving the phages a bit more time on the tree. Seems like Surround could be a good step in that direction in terms of phage cocktails (perhaps that’s been mentioned somewhere on this forum already, my apologies if so).

    I’m interested to hear how this goes for you. Good luck!
    Reply Quote
    Brittany Kordick
    Re: Agriphage for Fireblight Control
    May 08, 2021 02:29PM Registered: 4 years ago
    Posts: 165
    An update on Agriphage from the thick of extreme fireblight time in north-central North Carolina:

    We are not completely out of the fireblight woods yet, but we’re very pleased with Agriphage so far. After an early sprayer break, we missed out on two intended sprays back to back during bloom and prime infection time. We had done one spray just prior to greentip at that point, and have since picked up with two more orchard-wide sprays, and a couple of variety-specific ones beyond that in our historically bad fireblight trees. We didn’t get our pruning completely done, as usual, and the Hewe’s Crabs were one of those that missed out — not good since they were the absolute worst hit with fireblight last year, to the point where they had zero green on the trees at the worst of it, and you can imagine how much dead wood and likely cankers were hanging out on these full-grown M111 trees. So plenty of inoculum out there, probably the most we’ve ever had, in spite of our heavy lime sulfur and copper and PerCarb sprays while dormant to attempt to clean up as much as possible.

    Then the weather: three hard freezes during bloom, one bad hailstorm, and damaging high winds for about a week, which tore everything up pretty good. Lots of damaged tissue, and we’ve been in a state of perpetual extreme fireblight warnings according to our weather station-linked NEWA modeling for the better part of 2.5 weeks now. We’ve got some strikes out there, but they are very minor and far less than usual (and far, far less than you would expect following last year’s over the top infection rate), not very widespread, specific to high inoculum sites. It ain’t over yet, but the labor saved (we haven’t had time to cut out strikes, and aren’t worrying about killing ourselves to keep up with them for once — the visual infection sites seem to halt in their tracks after an Agriphage app; more than a week after a shoot goes down, there is no noticeable oozing or spread, it’s just . . . dead), etc. is definitely worth the price in a fireblight-lousy orchard in our opinions.

    We have enough Agriphage left to do one more spray at a lower rate, but we’re going to hang onto that in case we need an emergency cleanup. Based on what we’ve seen, we will probably use Agriphage again next year to keep going with our bigtime fireblight cleanup, but for other orchards, I envision Agriphage as something you’d do every couple or few years after fireblight gets out of control, just for a big cleanup.

    We also have some compatibility testing updates after OmniLytics tested several product samples we sent in:

    So two “duh” incompatibles were lime sulfur and PerCarb; they killed the bacteriophages outright.

    Several perfectly compatible mixers: Quantum Light, SeaCrop, karanja oil, TerraNeem, ReBound Manganese.

    And a couple with caveats: EM-1 and HoloCal inactivated one of the three Agriphage phages at 24 hours, but it was fine at the 4, 6, and 12 hour mark. Per the tester: “My recommendation is to make sure that you mix and spray ASAP when combining AgriPhage with those two. Don’t let the AgriPhage sit out in the same tank with those chemicals for too long.” There is probably something in the formulations of these two products that acts to block the receptors on the phage in question. AgSil was another product that passed at 4 hours, but at 8 hours, was starting to kill phages. The tester felt it could be OK to tank-mix AgSil and Agriphage as long as you spray it immediately.

    Of our three Agriphage sprays, the first was sprayed alone, out of extreme caution, since our compatibility testing wasn’t finished yet. The second and third ones we risked adding mixers and Agriphage was added to our holistic mix cocktail, which contained EM-1, etc., but not AgSil.

    Kordick Family Farm
    Westfield, NC
    Zone 7a

    Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/08/2021 02:35PM by Brittany Kordick.
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    Nathaniel Bouman
    Re: Agriphage for Fireblight Control
    June 27, 2021 07:10AM Registered: 8 years ago
    Posts: 75
    Thank you for this great information. I tried AG this season. Like you, I’m still checking for new symptoms. So far only the Bedan are showing strikes. They bloomed really strangly—in three stages spread over weeks. I missed spraying the last bloom and I think these are the ones that got hit. Also, I did tank mix with potassium bicarbonate once. Do you know anything about compatibility with Pot bicarbonate?

    Nat Bouman
    Growing cider varieties in Zone 5b
    On B.118 at 18X24
    Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
    Reply Quote
    Brittany Kordick
    Re: Agriphage for Fireblight Control
    June 29, 2021 03:21PM Registered: 4 years ago
    Posts: 165
    We are not currently using potassium bicarbonate in our orchard, so did not ask OmniLytics to test it against the bacteriophages in AgriPhage. However, I would fully expect potassium bicarbonate to be devastating to bacteriophages, and definitely wouldn’t tank mix AgriPhage with it. While bacteriophages are not fungi, which are particularly susceptible to potassium bicarbonate, they are “living” in a sense, as viruses, and like so many biologicals, are fairly sensitive. The closest spray component to potassium bicarbonate we use would be PerCarb, a sodium carbonate formulation used to treat bacterial/fungal infections broad spectrum; we use it when a particularly blank disease inoculum slate is desired. As mentioned in an above post, we did submit PerCarb for testing against AgriPhage Fireblight, and it killed all three phages in the blend outright upon contact. I would assume that potassium carbonate would do the same, but you never know. If you’re particularly keen to do a regular mix of AgriPhage and potassium bicarbonate, I would contact OmniLytics about doing a test, or even just give them a call, as they may already know the answer to this question definitively.

    Kordick Family Farm
    Westfield, NC
    Zone 7a
    Reply Quote
    Brittany Kordick
    Re: Agriphage for Fireblight Control
    February 22, 2022 03:52PM Registered: 4 years ago
    Posts: 165
    As we gear up for spring sprays and revisit our Agriphage plans, one further crucial detail to report: the bacteriophages in Agriphage will not actually replicate unless it’s 60 degrees. As such, the R&D guys don’t recommend spraying until it’s 60-65 degrees daytime temps on average since you may not get huge benefit (a bacteriophage would literally have to land smack on an Erwinia amylovora bacterium to kill it; they don’t move around a whole lot). They offer the caveat that temps tend to be slightly higher within blossoms, so once buds open, definitely look at applying Agriphage. For that matter, the Erwinia has to be not only present, but at a susceptible stage, as well, which usually doesn’t happen until temps warm up.

    So this year we’re tweaking our plan to begin spraying closer to pink stage, rather than last year’s greentip, and will be keeping a closer eye on temps surrounding application. Previously, thinking had been that, coming off a bad fireblight year in an orchard, a pre-bloom Agriphage “cleanup” spray would be beneficial. Our thinking is now more along the lines that it wouldn’t do any harm, but might not do a whole lot of good until a little bit later.

    Kordick Family Farm
    Westfield, NC
    Zone 7a
    Reply Quote
    Nathaniel Bouman
    Re: Agriphage for Fireblight Control
    May 09, 2022 04:37PM Registered: 8 years ago
    Posts: 75
    Brittany, you described how Agriphage seemed to halt the spread of infection. I observed this as well. I missed a key moment with a late bloom in hot weather. Got some strikes. Sprayed Agriphage after the fact and the infection seemed to stop at the spur. No oozing, no canker developed, no no shepherd’s crooks, despite a lot of heat and rain. The spur dried up and that seems to be it. Normally I would have pruned off the branch 18″ below the strike–and I did do this on a bunch of trees but I decided to leave a few on and monitor. I did not observe any advance of the disease–and that seems to still be true nearly a year later.

    Nat Bouman
    Growing cider varieties in Zone 5b
    On B.118 at 18X24
    Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
    Reply Quote
    Brittany Kordick
    Re: Agriphage for Fireblight Control
    May 11, 2022 03:08AM Registered: 4 years ago
    Posts: 165
    Glad to hear of your experience, Nat! It’s become rare that we prune out any strikes in our orchard now that we’re using Agriphage . . . and this is a huge deal, considering that previously for a few weeks around this time every year we were doing little else but pruning out strikes. Not only do we see fewer and fewer, but since they do just dry up and die we are happy to let that pruning wait until winter.

    We asked OmniLytics to do some additional compatibility testing for us this spring and here are the results, fyi:

    Howler, Lalstop G46, and Grandevo were all compatible at 24 hours. Lalstim Osmo was compatible at 1 and 4 hours, but not at 24 hours; the lab thinks tank-mixing for immediate spray would be fine on the Lalstim Osmo, just don’t let it sit long.

    Kordick Family Farm
    Westfield, NC
    Zone 7a

    Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/11/2022 03:12AM by Brittany Kordick.
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    Sue Haynie
    Re: Agriphage for Fireblight Control
    May 19, 2022 05:56AM Registered: 2 years ago
    Posts: 5
    This is excellent! I spoke with Daniel at Seven Springs Farm and he said to contact the “Agriphage Expert User”, Brittany Kordick. smiling smiley

    Here’s some questions a couple of us growers in New England have about working with Agriphage. (I’m waiting for my shipment of Agriphage to come in, since I was out of town when the the season’s first episode of Fireblight arrived Sunday May 11, 2022 / Monday May 12, 2022.

    We are expecting another epsiode of Fireblight this coming Sunday May 22 and Monday May 23, 2022.

    Questions:

    1. How many hours after a Fire Blight Episode but before another rain event should Agriphage be applied?
    2. What are the MIN. and MAX. temperatures to apply Agriphage?
    3. What are the intervals? (Each time after a FB Strike? when there is no rain for 24 hours? or every week after the first time you treat orchard
    with Fireblight?
    4. What’s the coverage on leaves, flowers, branches and trunk?
    (Should run off be “Slow Drip” or “Fast Drip”?)
    5. What is the duration of applications? For example, should Agriphage be applied on a weekly basis all summer long?
    6. Have you tested tank mixing Agriphage with nutritionals such as Biotin Calcium or Boron? If so, is it recommended to tank mix these minerals?

    Thank You so much for helping us New England growers, (who are experiencing this disease in Apple Trees more than ever.)

    Sue Haynie
    Sweet Seasons Farm
    Zone 4 in northeastern Vermont
    Reply Quote
    Brittany Kordick
    Re: Agriphage for Fireblight Control
    May 19, 2022 03:49PM Registered: 4 years ago
    Posts: 165
    We are no Agriphage (or fireblight) experts, nor have we participated in any studies regarding either — we are growers just like you who risked some skin on trying something new that there wasn’t a lot of info on. I’m happy to report from the field on how it’s going for us, but my “field” is in a very different part of the country than yours, with different climate, levels of pressure, and any number of variables. I hope anyone else using Agriphage out there will consider sharing their experiences here, as I have, as it serves to give us all a much more rounded picture of how to deploy bacteriophages against fireblight effectively.

    Most of your questions can be most appropriately answered by contacting Certis and speaking to a rep — it’s the job of these guys to be on call for growers with questions like yours, and we spend lots of time talking to them as we try and understand and get to know a product. They know the technical aspects of their products a lot better than we do. I responded to your personal email/voicemail last night with the best answers I can give without calling a rep or scouring the Agriphage label myself, and I will post them here below.

    As Todd recently noted in a different thread regarding RHAB control, using big gun packaged products can make you complacent. By the time you’ve done all the work of product research, product spending, work of application, etc., you don’t unreasonably feel like you’ve done enough work here. We’ve been humbled this fireblight season, which we are currently at the height of in our orchard, and our thinking about fireblight control seems to evolve as rapidly as the damn bacterium itself. Our hope for this season was that our extensive use of Agriphage thus far would have reduced inoculum to the point that we could expect to see less and less incidence in our orchard going forward. Ha, if it was that easy, everyone would have these delusions of grandeur. We had almost zero blossom blight this year after keeping up with Agriphage sprays as best as we can straddling 175 different bloomtimes (and we also use Blossom Protect in our most prolific bloomers that we noticed in the past tend to be early vectors for fireblight spread, and other practices/spray components may also play a part). We were feeling tentatively cocky. Then about two weeks ago (well past petal fall on all varieties but a couple of late bloomers) we started seeing some very minimal fireblight in the orchard. And from there . . .

    Long story short, we were dismayed to see surprising spread in the orchard (still nothing like what we’re accustomed to, and nothing particularly devastating) from there these past two weeks. But we were applying Agriphage very intelligently and every season we feel like our understanding of fireblight improves! What could have happened? There’s no way that Erwinia could have developed resistance to the phages that fast. We also spot treat (instead of cutting out strikes) with a little squirt bottle if we just have a strike here and there, and infections were resolving after application in this manner, so product clearly still working.

    Using NEWA disease modelling data affiliated with our on-farm weather station, we pinpointed a particular date as the likely infection event for most of what we were seeing. Well, two weeks ago I monkeyed with the calibration on our sprayer in an attempt to solve some residual issues and make for more efficient sprays. I did an Agriphage application to try it out, and it went great — I used 1/3 less tanks than I had in the past . . . and thus, applied a low-medium rate of Agriphage as opposed to our usual high rate surrounding the biggest infection event of our year so far. I didn’t think of going out and applying more, just that that should be sufficient, and given that it was prime infection time, I’d follow up with a higher rate of spray soon.

    As stated above, bacteriophages are not highly mobile — they really need to land on a bacterium to annihilate it. What limited movement they have comes primarily from the replication process, after which more of them are “propelled” to new locations. So it’s likely that there was a ton of Erwinia out there and not enough phages hitting them to take care of them before infection could ensue. We were talking about it afterwards and about how folks with low fireblight incidence in their orchards might be tempted to use low rates of Agriphage in their orchards, especially given the very high cost of the product. Ironically, if you have a relatively low population of Erwinia, you are even less likely to take care of it by applying a low rate of Agriphage since the phages will be less likely to come into contact with the bacteria. Thus, we plan to do more and more IPM style scouting and more high rate spot treatments to save product until fireblight infection becomes orchard-wide annually.

    So the takeway so far for this season is, yeah, don’t get complacent — Agriphage is not a silver bullet and while we may not spend weeks cutting out strikes from sunup to sundown anymore to little positive effect, in our climate we are always going to be spending weeks of our year consumed with fireblight to the detriment of all else in our orchard. The situation changes too rapidly to do otherwise. We were doing an excellent job scouting daily this year and so thrilled to see such little blossom blight, but it takes so little to get out of control, and it does it so quickly. When I spot treat, I am always amazed to see how localized infections over several shoots can be obviously traced back to a single miniscule blossom blight in the vicinity. A couple days ago, we had made an application plan to apply Agriphage immediately again to our only two “bad” infection blocks in the orchard. Woke up to a 40% chance of rain, and disturbing amounts of ooze indicating active infection in other trees throughout the orchard. Full spray it was, and fast. Moral of the story: fireblight sucks and keep up with your legwork, not just your spray apps.

    Re: AgriPhage and New England Holistic Apple Orchards
    Kordick Family Farm
    Hi Sue,

    I hope Agriphage works as well for you as it has for us! Fireblight is such a pain, to put it extremely mildly, and while Agriphage is no silver bullet, we are thrilled to have it in our arsenal. We’re in the thick of extreme fireblight infection period down here, and I’ve thought of a few things to add to the HON thread regarding Agriphage, so I’ll try and do that soon (basically, use the highest recommended rate whenever possible since the bacteriophages aren’t particularly mobile; if low pressure overall, rely on spot treatments at high rates to save product). I would recommend that you call Certis and talk to a rep about any general questions you have. They can tell you much more about it technically than we can, and the more you understand about the product, the easier it will be for you to make decisions about rate, when to spray, etc. in your particular situation.

    I honestly don’t remember how rainfast Agriphage is supposed to be, but it generally doesn’t stick around in the environment long (even if there’s a high population of Erwinia amylovora, the bacteriophages will kill off the bacteria fairly quickly, then die off themselves once the bacteria are depleted, so if you’re in a climate or situation where more Erwinia are moving in regularly or cankers are releasing them locally, you do need to keep applying to replenish populations). That said, circumstances will usually dictate what we do, and the other day we were spraying over the course of a stormy day when a downpour ensued. I kept spraying through it all, knowing that most of what I was doing would be washed off, but being that we had some shoot blight going and my tank was already mixed, it made sense at the time to keep going in hope that some of the bacteriophages stayed in the canopy and did something for us before the rest of the forecast warm rain hit. Most times, it probably wouldn’t, but every time is different.

    Likewise, I am not aware of any upper temp range for Agriphage application — good question for a Certis rep. Basically, if Erwinia amylovora is active, the bacteriophages should be, too. In our minds, 65-85 degrees is prime infection weather, and once it hits 90 degree temps regularly, fireblight slows down and may not warrant protection — but this is what we believe we can say in our climate — VT is a whole ‘nother ballgame.

    The intervals of our sprays depend on too many variables to say definitively — sometimes a few days, sometimes a few weeks, depending on infection risk, weather, trauma events, infection observation in the orchard, etc. We plan for every 7-14 days, with some sprays occurring weeks apart, and some as few as 3 days apart, thus making for some kind of average. We try to have an extra spray’s worth of Agriphage on hand beyond our expected seasonal needs in case of emergency treatment needs.

    You can check with a Certis rep, but I’m remembering that the label specifies not to apply Agriphage to runoff.

    As far as trunk and limb coverage, this gets into “disease theory.” You can use Agriphage on cankers (but timing has to be right — applying it in winter when Erwinia bacteria are latent won’t do anything; they need to be active in warmer temperatures for them to be vulnerable). If you don’t have cankers that you’re specifically targeting with a direct spray, I wouldn’t go out of my way to get coverage on non leaf/flower tissue . . . but I’m not sure it’s not a good thing to hit as much of the tree in general as possible, given that Erwinia may overwinter in ways that are not commonly understood. Knowing your enemy is key here, and if you’re not a fireblight researcher (we’re sure not), that can be tough.

    In NC, our fireblight pressure tends to abate by mid-June, whether it’s to do with Erwinia life cycle or temps too consistently hot for them to thrive, or hardened-off foliage being less susceptible to infection, all of the above, we don’t know. The modelling tells us that we’re at extreme risk for months afterwards, but aside from a spot of shoot blight here and there, we really don’t see that manifest in the orchard. Of course, if we got a hailstorm in August, that might change things. I’m really not sure how the lifecycle of fireblight would play out in a Northern climate.

    We have only tested/tank-mixed with Agriphage the materials we have listed in this thread, but another great question for a rep, or you can see about doing some testing yourself and sharing what you find here.

    Best of luck, and I hope you’ll share your Agriphage experience in the HON thread as your season unfolds and you get your posting issues sorted out!

    Kordick Family Farm
    Westfield, NC
    Zone 7a

    Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2022 03:11PM by Brittany Kordick.
    Reply Quote
    Brittany Kordick
    Re: Agriphage for Fireblight Control
    May 19, 2022 04:02PM Registered: 4 years ago
    Posts: 165
    One final Agriphage thought: we do feel like we have taken care of a lot of our residual perennial fireblight pressure (ie, cankers) at this point. Our feeling of success comes from seeing trees that were our worst “fireblight magets” year in, year out, as some of our most pristine trees this season. Clearly, infection will always come down to weather and timing and opportunity. Likewise, some of our historically most pristine trees are some of our worst hit this season. So success in a big way, we feel, but vigilance will always be key, and it will be exceedingly difficult to anticipate infection, given all the variables involved.

    Kordick Family Farm
    Westfield, NC
    Zone 7a

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