The impact of tropical-storm Arthur is still being felt in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley more than a month after the storm hit the region.
Arthur’s powerful winds damaged plant tissue in July, allowing plant bacteria to spread throughout apple orchards in the Annapolis Valley. The bacteria, called fire blight, has left trees looking as if they’ve been scored by flames.
“They opened up the microscopic cracks in the leaves, which then allows the airborne bacteria to penetrate the tree,” explains Rob Peill, an apple grower in Starr’s Point, N.S.
Older trees can usually fight the bacteria, but younger, infected trees have to be ripped out of the ground before they can grow a single apple.
“That becomes extremely expensive and, of course, it’s a loss of income and it’s a loss of infrastructure for us,” says Peill.
In Port Williams, apple grower Stephen Van Meekeren says fire blight has likely infected 75 per cent of his apple trees. He says the bacteria made its first appearance in his pear trees a few years ago.
“It was a number of years ago, we had fire blight, and yes, it was in the pears quite bad that year,” says Van Meekeren. “Pears are very prone to it.”
The disease can also affect crabapple and hawthorn trees, but local apple growers say they are hopeful because several blocks of healthy trees remain.
Van Meekeren says, as long as pruning can keep the infection out of the trunk - the main vascular system of the tree – the tree can survive. However, it’s going to take a lot of work to keep the infection at bay.
“Hand labour, which, that’s what it’s going to be. There’s not a machine that’s going to cut out fire blight. It’s going to have to be done by hand,” he says.
Fire blight does not affect humans or animals, and growers say even infected trees can produce good crops of apples, with proper pruning.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Ron Shaw
