RESISTANCE OF PEAR VARIETIES TO FIRE BLIGHT IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA

Fire blight in Macedonia was spread from northern Greece.
In the beginning, the disease was noticed in border areas and later further inland.
Large areas of orchards with pears and quince (government and private) were destroyed.

Immediately after appearance of the disease, we recorded dissemination of the disease, effect of soil types, climatic conditions, orchard management, cultivars, and rootstocks.
Cultivar resistance was evaluated using the USDA scoring system, which is based on the percentage of blighted portions of the tree (van der Zwet et al., 1970).

Most severe damage was recorded in high density (intensive) orchards of pears on quince rootstock, followed by semi-density and low density (classical) orchards on wild pear (Pyrus communis) rootstock.
The disease caused severe damage on grafted wild pears (P. communis and P. amygdaliformis) in hilly, mountain areas, even though damage was reduced because of continual droughts in recent years.

We evaluated more than 50 domestic and foreign cultivars of pears in commercial and experimental orchards in the Republic of Macedonia.
The most sensitive to fire blight are western-European cultivars, Beurre d’Hardenpont, Passa Crasane, Cure, Beurre Bosc, and Santa Maria.
Very resistant are some domestic cultivars of pears, like Jeribasma, Karamanka, Badnikarka, Trupnjak, and Drvenka.

VII International Workshop on Fire Blight

B.P. Ristevski, A.B. Ristevska

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1996.411.79