Good news and bad news

The good news is the Japanese Beetle attack is just about over. The next morning, I went out to check the grapes by the headlights of my car (I left for work pretty early that day) and found hundreds of beetles laying upside down dead on top of the leaves. Victory! Unfortunately it was a windy day and by the time I got home from work, all the dead beetles had blown away so I couldn't get a picture.

More good news is that my peaches are looking good and just about ripe. I think I'll have peaches in a week or two.




The bad news is that the fire blight I had in my pears is still there.




I've had to cut out several more branches and some were pretty big. Since fire blight can reach several inches beyond the obvious infection, I'm hoping it hasn't made it all the way to the trunk of the tree but it seems like there's a good chance it has. There's really nothing that can be done at this point to control the disease other than to continue to cut out branches. I've only got two pear trees and I'd hate to loose one.

And to add insult to injury, it looks like the fire blight has jumped to my apple trees.




I've been cutting out a few branches here and there but the infection is still pretty small in the apples. Hopefully we can get through the rest of the summer and spray some streptomycin early next year.