Fire-Blight

Fire blight, also written fireblight, is a contagious disease affecting apples, pears, and some other members of the family Rosaceae. It is a serious concern to apple and pear producers. Under optimal conditions, it can destroy an entire orchard in a single growing season.

Fire blight decimates orchards and is a direct result of temperature changes in environmental conditions. When untreated, fire blight renders orchards unusable for multiple seasons. Fire blight wipes out years of work and is expensive to recover from. Losses from fire blight often number into many thousands of dollars due to:

• Loss of historical orchard investments
• Losing partial or entire crops
• Expensive quarantine and recovery measures

Traditionally, fire blight is managed by spraying. The challenges of spraying are the costs of the spray, and more so, deciding when to spray. Timing is critical for effective fire blight management. It has always been an option to over-spray; however, there are obvious problems with this including the costs associated with spraying and its adverse effect on the environment. The reality is that the Maryblyt method of measuring fire-blight risk is decades old, and now Hanatech (Proud IoT partner of Bell) Fire-Blight Risk Management can measure this risk continuously, automatically and affordably; eliminating the need for guesswork in your spray schedule. 

Small apple and pear growing farms spend upwards of $2500 every season to remove afflicted orchard sections. Large operations, easily spend $10,000+. These expenses impact the farms bottom line, and can be avoided.

Benefits:

• Scheduled risk updates, and emergency alerts – by text and email
• Built for apple and pear growers
• Know your risk today and know the three-day risk forecast
• Save time and money by spraying smarter
• Customizable to any orchard

https://hanatech.ca/news/need-for-proactiveness-in-fighting-fire-blight/