Posted 3/27/2013 7:32 PM (GMT 0)
Ok, so I understand that antibiotics aren't great...
However, the article GREATLY understates what fireblight can do to apple and pear trees -- it doesn't just kill shoots, it can (easily) kill the entire tree, if the cultivar is susceptible. There are some resistant and less susceptible cultivars (and no, these weren't created via genetic engineering, I promise!), but many of the desirable cultivars are not.
Also, the article mentions that lime sulfur can control it. Well, yeah, it can. But lime sulfur is actually really, really nasty stuff to work with. From a worker safety standpoint, I'd say it's better to use the antibiotic sprays instead of lime sulfur.
Fireblight can also only infect trees under a fairly narrow set of circumstances, so disease prediction models have been created and are used by the great majority of apple and pear growers, and they only spray when it's absolutely necessary. They're not out there spraying willy-nilly!