DC Fights Fireblight at Apple Orchard

Crop diseases threaten nut and fruit crops all over the USA. They have a high contribution to the loss of viable crops in the United States, with 40-50% of crop loss to diseases worldwide.

Common Diseases in crops:

• Bacterial Blast
• Bacterial Leaf Spot
• Blight
• Powdery Mildew
• Downy Mildew
• Bread Mold
• Brown Rot
• Black Rot
• Rust

Plants are constantly exposed to the elements. Rainfall, irrigation and sunlight all play a part in diseases and how to control them. Diseases can cause decay of the flower or fruit. In minor cases you can remove branches, but in major cases the whole tree is killed and must be removed to prevent spreading to rest of crops. Antifungal plant spray can effectively take care of fungus growth.

Sierra Natural Science’s Organic Disease & Fungal Control product penetrates the microbial cell wall and builds a protective coating against the elements, thus keeping the active ingredients available longer to use against the microbes. Natural preservatives are used to stop decomposition of the plant cell wall, adding an active natural healing action to the plant not just a controlling action against microbes.

Blossom Farms Apple Orchards DC trial for fireblight

DC is an organic disease and fungal control product that can be used up to harvest to eliminate a wide range of disease for higher yields at a lower cost.

Sierra Natural Science worked with Mr. Rajkovich to try to save the rest of their apple trees from fireblight. On one of their 5 acre blocks of apples they had several hundred strikes where the branches needed to be removed from the trees. One application was sprayed on the 5 acres which significantly reduced the issue. The following year DC was sprayed again:

“Our weather conditions make it so fireblight is a major concern in the spring when the apples are in bloom. We applied DC [when] the apples were in their dormant stage, and at pre-bloom stage. The results were dramatic. I am extremely happy with the results which DC has provided our apple orchards for fireblight control at a fraction of the cost of using fungicides and antibacterials. We had no more than 5 strikes. I expect there to be zero fireblight next year.” – Randall P. Rajkovich

We continue to work with Randall and their great team with hope of increasing their yield every year.