Thank you for your very philosophical response... and very helpful response. It's been quite the challenging year. I got a late start with pruning.... then kept it up while putting in the big garden... then amidst the gardening noticed fire blight among the blossoms... so on to pruning again... and then more pruning.... which kept up until September.. and there's still a few branches showing recurrence.
I will have to report on which pear trees are actually resistant... and which are not.... Gold Spice is certainly the most resistant, with Ure not far behind... depending on which other tree it is next to and how susceptible it is... John pear was not as resistant as expected. Kikusui Asian pear was hit hard. Tait had a mild case. South worth and Patten both took a hit, tho' not too bad. Eenie and Meenie (from ottawa) got decimated, as did two of their relatives.
I feel we got side tracked with spraying white vinegar... and then tamarack tea (as an antibiotic spray)... too late for that. Better would have been raw milk.. tho' we didn't have a source at the time.
We didn't want to summer prune and thus open more cuts into the vascular system... so the trees sure look weird with all the sucker growth and the ugly cut stumps. And to make it even more weird, the porcupines invaded again and kept taking down more branches... for the unripe fruit and recently for the leaves themselves. I hear they make a good pie.
And I really feel we need to get some cash to buy a bigger easier sprayer... the one on my back is tiring and can't reach the heights that pears can reach to..... Which would be the only way we can really take a holistic orchard approach it would seem.
The whole thing has been a shock after nearly thirty years of no fireblight.
And it threw my summer into tumult... putting me way behind in most commitments. Plus we mostly left the wild apple trees (which we've been pruning and grafting onto) to their fate... and most seemed to recover without any pruning. the blight stopped at a certain point and did not continue, like it did on the pears. A local friend with an orchard of 20+ trees who has been tending it for over 40 years, said he gets blight occasionally and just leaves it alone... that it takes out a few branches which he cuts off in winter... and then nothing for years... so he doesn't worry about it. Too many other things to deal with on a mixed farm. So I've relaxed about the apples any way.
Added to that is the absence of so many pears... and thus absence of much income.
So there's a bit of a contribution to this "bloody forum" for tonight. I hope it's not really bloody. Lots of sap floating around. And a good bit of pear and apple juice.... much of which will soon go into mason canning jars, "because we can" (and someday we'll find a better way to preserve it... and/or get a cider license.
I greatly appreciate you being there, Michael. I thank you while I'm climbing trees, pruning, picking, etc... and imagine you and all the forum people out there with me, out in your orchards relating intimately with your tree friends. Balancing on branches and ladders. Reaching for the good ones!.... while balancing on one foot, with the other balancing off to the other side... or some such similar motion/stance. A rare breed indeed. Thank you!!!!
Morninglory FarmZone 3b* in Ontario