A small fire blight strike, June 24, 2026

Today we snipped off dozens of mostly small fire blight strikes from infected trees around the orchard. The majority of damage is concentrated in one small area of about an acre, which is the same area that was the hardest hit in 2020, the last really bad year for fire blight. Other areas of the orchard—even with the same cultivars—have no strikes at all. Could it be that the bacterium has been lurking in that one area for the past six years, waiting for the right conditions to return?

Skylar harvested several wheel-barrow loads of comfrey from around the apple trees and filled a large barrel. She then filled the barrel with water. The comfrey will steep and ferment for a week or so and then we’ll spray the comfrey tea on the apple trees.