which did not progress into the apple. 



Fire Blight . Except for a limited occurrence on young 

 Gala and a block of exotic (British cider) cultivars, fire 

 blight was not a major problem on apples in 1988. This 

 observation was interesting, since 2 pear blocks had very 

 heavy fire blight damage, and other pear growers had 

 limited problems. Possibly growers are regularly using 

 dormant materials on apples but not on pears. Of course, 

 pears generally are more susceptible, but have not had 



more fire blight than apples in recent years. 



Bitter Rot . Isolated incidence of bitter rot at eco- 

 nomic levels (>5%) occurred in one Massachusetts or- 

 chard. This outbreak was probably related to the unusual 

 heat and humidity. Also, drops had not been removed 

 from the block for 2 years. 



Figures 1 and 2 show the insect- and disease-related 

 fruit injury which occurred in 1988 compared with 1978-87. 



»s* ^* ^« •$« »s^ 



0^ wgm ^9 «^ w^ 



19 



