Fire blight a concern for apple growers post Arthur

Post-tropical storm Arthur is being blamed for the spread of fire blight in the Annapolis Valleys apple orchards.

Fire blight is a destructive bacterial disease that damages apple trees and reduces their ability to produce fruit. Trees look as if they have been scorched by fire, giving the blightits name.

Stephen Van Meekeren, co-owner of an orchard in Lakeville, N.S., says Arthur shredded leaves and broke tops out of trees.

"So that therefore opens up wounds in the tree, so with the extreme winds of 140 kilometre an hour if there was bacteria from miles away, it travelled, it's airborne and it would have travelled into orchards and of course all these open wounds would have been a place to infect, he said.

Every time it's rainy with a bit of wind now, the bacterial could spread through the orchard.

VanMeekerensays it's affected 75 per cent of his orchard.

Hesays he now has to cut out infected shoots from the tree.

The Nova Scotia Fruit Growers Association says the blight does not affect humans or animals.