I'm finished up with trading scion wood for the year and getting my remaining scion wood from individuals who I have standing deals with and Bob Purvis purvisrc@msn.com he charges $4 for a 12-inch stick of scionwood and $2.50 for a 6-inch stick. There is a flat $8 charge for Priority Mail shipping and packaging If anyone else is at that point. I am getting plums, apricots, peaches, and pears from him. Guess next year I need to grow more rootstock! This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Sun, Jan 26, 14 at 15:05

Strectomycin and other anti-bacterials are being removed from the market: http://www.goodfruit.com/fire-blight-control-without-antibiotics/ In reading how the bacteria spreads it almost sounds as if it's being introduced by pollinators. If it is being introduced by pollinators then perhaps it's bee keepers introducing and spreading this disease. Kept bees are also suffering from a colony collapse disease which is probably related to the artificial stress of treating an bee ailment with something that kills all the beneficial organisms in the bee's environment so that it can then can be invaded by organisms that aren't symbiotic with the bee's evolved environment and so this stress over time creates colony collapse syndrome. A bit like they now recommend than you eat yogurt and kefir while and after antibiotics treatments to dry and get a balanced microbial intestine 'ecosystem'. Sorry if I sound like Euell Gibbons but remembering his commercial as a kid makes me smile.

Applenut, there is no sign of any strike low on the trees. I lost a tree a few years ago when a sucker was blighted but that did not happen here. The trees were on M9 B9 M26 M7 and G16. The Geneva stocks are more resistant but are not immune. It does make me think that if I were to replant I would go with the Geneva stocks. My favorite is G11. G16 is worthless as a stock to buy because the root seems to have about a 50-50 chance of dying when you graft a random scion to it, due to a viral infection. My G16 trees from Cummins have been fine because they know which scions are virus free, except when I tried to put backup buds on them. Scott

It's hard to tell, but I would cut it back to the crotch for balance purposes. I suspect you will have to shorten the majority of those limbs sooner than later also. Fruit load would flatten that tree unless you thin the fruit dramactically. Maybe those are next years cuts. I picture a "pop" can hanging from the limb. If it would hang down, I cut it off.