Regarding Carol O'Meara's June 6 column, " Fire blight, deadly to trees ...," apple tree owners need to know that there's more than one kind of blight we're seeing a lot this year. Much of what appears, to the untrained eye, to be fire blight, is actually blossom blight, aka "bacterial blossom blast." This infection damages blossom clusters and the leaves with them, but it doesn't affect the entire tree. It's an entirely different bacterium.
Short-term, this infection makes the tree look terrible, and may reduce the crop (to zero in extreme cases). But the tree can shake it off over this year; it will leave just small localized scars. An apple grower with some reasonable experience can help you tell the difference from fire blight.
I'd just hate to see people pulling out apple trees because of a short-term recoverable infection.
Dick Dunn
Longmont