Garlic Scapes and Fire Blight

In this episode, we are joined by Travis Cranmer, Vegetable Crop Specialist for alliums, brassica and leafy vegetables to introduce us to the benefits of removing garlic scapes and Katie Goldenhar, Pathologist for horticulture crops to discuss the risk of fire blight of apples and pears after bloom. Plus, Ontario crop updates for June 8th, 2020.

For more updates on Ontario horticulture visit:

• www.onvegtables.com
• www.onfruit.ca
• https://onspecialtycrops.wordpress.com/

Have a question or a topic you'd like us to cover? Email us at ONhortcrops@gmail.com 

Music: Aspire by Scott Holmes

Transcript

0.00
Kristy
This is What’s Growing ON? A show where we dig up the latest dirt on Ontario horticulture production, helping producers navigate best management practices and taste the sweet success of a quality crop. My name is Kristy Grigg-McGuffin.

Cassie
And I’m Cassie Russell. Join us as we talk to specialists in the field of fruit, vegetables and specialty crops to find out what’s really growing on.

Music transition

0.35
Cassie  
On todays episode we will be talking with vegetable specialist, Travis Cranmer on garlic scaping followed by a segment on fire blight of apples and pears with pathologist Katie Goldenhar. 
 
But first, lets cover some general crop updates for Ontario. Kristy, what’s growing on with fruit? 

Kristy
Thanks Cassie. 

Strawberries are moving quickly now with the warmer temperatures. Raspberries will likely begin bloom next week while blueberries are at full bloom now. Botrytis and anthracnose fungicides will be applied over the bloom period if conditions are optimal for infection. Tarnished plant bug, aphids, clipper weevil and mites are now active in many fields. As well, gypsy moth larvae have been found in strawberries and blueberries.

For tree fruit and grape, development has been behind normal due to the cooler May temperatures. The warmer weather recently though has really pushed growth forward. 

Conditions have been optimal for fungal diseases in grape. We are also seeing the first adult mealybugs. Development for grapes is about 10-12” shoot growth.

The early apple growing regions of the province are at petal fall to fruit set while later regions are not far behind, seeing late bloom to early petal fall. Still no signs of apple scab or fire blight despite recent infection events but powdery mildew has got a hold on susceptible varieties in some orchards. Insect activity including spring feeding caterpillars, mullein bug, aphids and leafcurling midge has really picked up this week.

Stone fruit are at shuck stage and pears are nearing calyx. Pear scab is showing up in some blocks. Controls for aphids, curculio, oriental fruit moth and psylla are being applied.

Frost damage from the May freeze is becoming more apparent in orchards but the full extent of frost damage will not be known until later this summer as fruit continues to mature.

Over to you, Cassie for a veg update.

Cassie
Thanks Kristy, 

Brassica transplants are establishing well and putting up new leaves. If transplants have leaves cut off in the field, look for cutworm larvae in the soil. Wilted plants may be due to millipede or seedcorn maggot damage and if the leaves are purple, the wilt may be due to wirestem. Adult click beetles and flea beetles are active already and the first generation threshold for cabbage maggot emergence has already been reached in Essex county.

With carrots, the bulk of carrot acres seeded, many growers are irrigating to get good germination with the dry conditions that are being seen in some areas. With the stretch of hot weather, we saw a lot of heat canker and dying off from hot soil conditions despite frequent irrigation in some cases. Carrot weevil is active and laying eggs.

In celery, Aster leafhopper and tarnished plant bugs are active and thresholds have been reached in all regions except for Sudbury.

Garlic are starting to send out the scape leaf and the scapes on ‘Music’ should start to emerge in most regions over the next 5-10 days. Irrigation may be required for bulbs to size well in areas that have had little precipitation over the past month. 

With onion, the degree day threshold for onion maggot has been reached in most growing areas. Control volunteer onions in neighbouring fields as this can be a source for fungi inoculum or pests like onion thrips.

Almost all the potato acres are planted in Ontario. Most of the early seeded acres weathered the frost surprisingly well and enjoyed that stretch of hot weather. At plant, insecticides should be taking care of overwintering Colorado potato beetle adults. Monitor your fields and keep an eye on any Colorado potato beetle populations that appear to be multiplying earlier than expected. 

Warm temperatures have led to rapid spear emergence in asparagus. Last week’s fluctuating temperatures have encouraged Stemphyllium purple spot in many areas. Fusarium and Phytophthora symptoms have been observed in some areas: early symptoms were difficult to differentiate from the extensive frost damage that we saw recently. 

Large amounts of cucumbers have been planted, and pumpkin production is planned to proceed as per normal in southwestern Ontario. Transplanted cucurbits have already been host to large emergences of striped cucumber beetle.

Tomato and pepper planting is underway throughout areas of southwestern Ontario. Scouting for weeds and early season pests she be started immediately. 

Kristy
For more detailed information on these and other fruit and vegetable crops, check out our weekly crop updates at onvegetables.com and onfruit.ca.
 
Music transition

5..58
SEGMENT 1: Garlic Scapes
Cassie
On today’s vegetable segment, I’m here with Travis Cranmer, OMAFRA Vegetable Specialist covering alliums, brassicas and leafy vegetables. Welcome Travis!

Travis
Thanks Cassie!

Cassie
Thanks for coming on the podcast. It’s great to have you here. So, I’m really curious – what kinds of questions are you getting around garlic this time of year?

Travis
This time of year I tend to get a lot of questions regarding the benefits of garlic scaping of garlic. It’s that flowering stem that you see in the first week of June. Technically it’s not a flower but it uses the plants energy the same as a flower would.

Cassie
Why is it not technically a flower?

 Travis
The garlic that we grow in Ontario is technically sterile, meaning that the flowers it produces does not have true seeds. Yes, garlic scapes product bulbils, but those bulbils look like seeds but have the same genetic information as the mother plant.

The wild ancestors of today’s garlic, originated thousands of years ago in Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan. Garlic spread across the globe as it became a popular vegetable, spice, and medicinal plant. The varieties of cultivars we have today were each selected for favourable traits, whether it was the spiciness of the cloves, tolerance to drought or the average size and number of cloves in a cluster.

Garlic has been reproduced clonally— by the separation of cloves— for hundreds if not thousands of years. Scapes, the leafless flowering stem rising directly from a bulb seen in hardneck garlic, was removed to deter the plant from sinking energy into the bulbils and instead divert the energy into the cloves. As a result, flower production is greatly reduced or even absent in some cultivars and most garlic clones are sterile.

Cassie
Are there non-sterile or fertile cultivars?

Travis
I believe some researchers in 1980s found some plants that were fertile and after a lot of work they were able to cross the flowers. True seed garlic can be produced by crossing these varieties and I believe research is being conducted to develop new breeding lines.

Cassie
Going back to what you said earlier, you remove the scape so the plant puts energy into the bulb and not the bulbils in the scape. Is that correct?

Travis
Yes. In Ontario, cultivars generally shoot up a scape sometime in the first or second week of June. The yield increase that you could expect differs depending on what cultivar you are growing. Research conducted by John Zandstra at the University of Guelph Ridgetown Campus has shown that the timing of scape removal directly influences the resulting yield of the crop and average size of the bulb. His results show that it is advantageous to remove the scapes as soon as possible to reduce any negative impact on yield with a potential yield increase of 20-30% or more when removed by hand. This work was done with the cultivar ‘Music’ which is the predominate hardneck cultivar that is grown in Ontario.

Cassie
So, what’s a hardneck cultivar?

Travis
Hardneck cultivars are the ones that produce a scape or sterile flower stalk. So, there are hardneck/bolting cultivars and softneck/non-bolting cultivars. There are some cultivars that partially bolt, but it may depend on when they were planted, how stressed they are and a bunch of other factors. So, most of the garlic we grow in Ontario is hardneck but many growers are trialing and selling softneck cultvars in Ontario as well. Generally speaking, softneck cultvars do better in hotter, drier climates and hardnecks perform well in more temperate regions. Depending on what garlic taxonomist you talk to, there are 8 cultivar groups that fit under strong bolting, weak bolting and non-bolting. 

Cassie
So, with garlic scaping, you pull or snap the scape off to increase the yield in hardneck cultivars. What do you do if you have a lot of acres to scape?

Travis
So, you’re asking if it’s going to take awhile to scape a full acre? Yes, I would promote snapping the scape. If you pull the stem could break below the highest leaf and without anything to support that top leaf it may flop over. Depending on your acreage, it takes 10-14 hours for one person to scape an acre of garlic depending on how dense you are planting. There is a movement for scapes to be sold in grocery stores as they can be incorporated into omelets, pesto, stir-fries, steamed like asparagus or even grilled and a bunch of other things. Typically, you get over 300lbs of scapes per acre.

Cassie
 Wow. It’s funny because a friend of mine actually grows garlic and every year she gives me pickled garlic scapes which is so good. Not a lot of people have heard of them. 

If you weren’t worried about selling the scapes but you wanted the yield benefit/increase, could you use a mower to cut the scapes off?

Travis
You could, but I would avoid doing so. It takes a while for scapes to be totally above the crop canopy, and the longer the scape is there, the more energy that the plant is putting into the scape compared to the bulb. John Zandstra also did some research with the cultivar ‘Music’ looking at using sickle bar mowers as a way of scape removal and what the yield benefits were. 

So, you could imagine that sickle bar mowers would greatly reduce the amount of labour that is required for scape removal, but it comes with a cost. Often leaves are cut in the scape removal process if you are using a sickle bar mower, and by removing only one leaf, bulb sizes were reduced by 13% and the yield was reduced by an average of 17.5%. Yield was greatly impacted as the number of leaves cut during mowing increased. If the top two leaves were cut, the yield was reduced by approximately 25%. If you nick the third and forth leaf you could expect to lose 46 or over 50% yield reduction.

See, garlic tends to only shoot up so many leaves per season, and compared to weeds, it is a weak competitor. Those thin leaves do not have that much surface area and if there are only 10 or 12 leaves and you cut 2 or 3 of them, that’s some serious surface area that you are losing.

In Music, the scapes get well above the crop canopy, so theoretically if the scapes were high enough above the leaves and the ground was level, there’s a good chance that you could cut without cutting to many leaves, but there is another disadvantage to using a mower…

Cassie
And what’s that…???

Travis
The spreading of viruses and other pathogens. So, let’s say that at the start of the row, the mowers knives come into contact with a plant that has a virus, bacteria or fungi. That pathogen stays on the knife and when it cuts the second plant it spreads that pathogen to the fresh cut of the second plant. I worked in a research greenhouse a few years back, and if I cut one plant with scissors that was infected with a virus and then purposely cut a few plants after, all of the heathy plants showed viral symptoms a week later. It’s not like we are cleaning the knives of that sickle bar mower between each cut…we are cutting the whole field and in doing so are spreading pathogens to other plants. 

And I want you to keep in mind that without flowers and true seeds, garlic is a vegetatively grown crop, just like potatoes or strawberries. It reproduces asexually by clones. So, the genetics in the mother bulb is identical in the daughter clove or in the bulbil that is produced in the scape. Seeds have an abscission layer…and without getting into too much detail, this layer can prevent the seeds from getting infected with the virus from the mother plant. In garlic, there is no true seed production, no abscission layer, no protection against viruses and we are propagating the plant using a piece of the bulb, using cloves. 

So, if the mother plant has viruses, bacteria or fungi, the cloves are going to have viruses, bacteria or fungi. And in the fall when we use some of our cloves to plant a new crop, we are also planting next year’s problem with the crop as well. Using a sickle bar mower and spreading pathogens around turns a few problem bulbs into a lot of problem bulbs that there is no viricide or bactericide that can be applied to fix the crop. 

Cassie
That makes a lot of sense. But how is scaping by hand any better?

Travis
Remember how I mentioned that you were snapping the scape, hopefully when you are snapping by hand your hand is not coming into contact with the vascular tissue of the plant, the snap is below your hand, so if the breaking point never comes into contact with your hand you are greatly reducing the risk of pathogens, especially viruses from spreading.

Cassie
So, if garlic has been vegetatively propagated, wouldn’t viruses build up naturally over time? 

Travis
Yes! Virus infection is generally transmitted by insects like aphids, thrips or leafhoppers. These insects have a stylet that pierces the plant’s cells and if a virus is present, the virus can enter the insect’s foregut and into the salivary glands. As the insect moves to a new plant and pierces it, some virus-infected saliva may be left behind from the previously visited plant. Virus symptoms don't always show up at first but can accumulate in clones after years of production while not causing any visible symptoms and cannot be ‘cured’ with a pesticide application. They can still slow the plant down in other ways such as causing a yield drag or making the plant more susceptible to other stressors. 

Some crops, like potatoes, have a certified seed program which is federally regulated and has set limits on how much disease and virus can be tolerated. There are also seed classes based on age and disease/virus levels. Other smaller crops, such as garlic, do not have the same regulations; so seed is often reused indefinitely. 

Cassie
So, is there a certified seed program for garlic?

Travis
The Garlic Growers Association of Ontario and the SPUD unit, a research facility in New Liskeared are working together to create a program were members can order clean planting stock. Past research showed that virus freed bulbs showed a yield boost of 25-50% compared to bulbs that were not put through the program. So, there’s a huge potential for greater yields and lower crop loss if over time there are fewer problems with viruses, fungi and bacteria.

Cassie
Right, so it seems kind of like a no brainer here to use certified seed.

Travis
Right, and it wouldn’t really be certified in the sense because we don’t have a certification program. Instead it would be a virus-free planting stock. So, what happens is the SPUD unit would ask for garlic tissue. Let’s say they take the scape from the field in June. They put that in the lab and grow it out but want to remove the viruses that are already there. So how do you do that? Long story short is that they subject that scape to a heating period and a cooling period. In garlic, the cells of the meristem / shoot tip of a scape can grow faster than the virus can infect the cells. Meristem tips are cut and placed on a media and under lights and ideal conditions they grow without the rest of the plant present. A mass of cells, known as a differentiated callus, develops and root and shoot hormones are used to produce, you guessed it, roots and shoots. This plant tissue is then tested for viruses multiple times and if clean, these plants are then multiplied and used to create bulbs, called roundels, for field production. So, the SPUD unit has developed protocol or a recipe that is specific to garlic grown in Ontario. 

Growers would put in an order for virus free roundels and several months later. So a grower would put in an order, receive the planting material or roundels a few months later, they would propagate the roundels like transplant onions and then once cloves form, plant those cloves in the field to produce larger bulbs. It would take 2-3 years to get a marketable size bulb, but the following years you would expect to see that 25-50% yield increase that I was talking about earlier.

By planting a bit of virus freed stock every year, you would eventually transition over to the new stock from New Liskeard and your pathogen load would decrease, your yields would increase and I bet the quality and length of storage of the bulbs would improve as well! That’s a lot to process, but a lot of problems caused by pathogens can be managed or eliminated with proper production strategies, like the way you scape.

Cassie
So what would you give as a quick summary of scaping in general?

Travis
If you are going hardneck cultivars, do it as soon as the scapes emerge and try not to damage the leaves or spread pathogens between plants!

Cassie
Great advice! Thanks again, Travis for joining me on the podcast today. I really appreciate all your expertise on garlic. 

Travis
No worries! Any time. Thanks.

Cassie
Thanks Travis. 

Music transition

25.24
SEGMENT 2: Fire Blight of Apples
Kristy
On today’s fruit segment, while bloom in an apple or pear orchard can be simply breathtaking, these blossoms offer great real estate for the devasting bacterial infection, Erwinia amylovora also known as fire blight. As a pest management specialist for apples, I get numerous questions each year about how to deal with this disease. With this year’s bloom now past in most orchards, I’m joined by Ontario’s pathologist for horticulture crops, Katie Goldenhar to find out if we’re really out of the woods for fire blight infection. Katie, welcome and thanks for being here.  

Katie
Thank you for having me, Kristy. 

Kristy
So, let’s start first with an overview of fire blight. What exactly is this?

Katie
This is a disease caused by the bacteria Erwinia amylovora which is a rather ubiquitous pathogen, in that it is commonly found in and around an orchard and grows on many surfaces. However, if conditions are right, it can be an extremely devastating disease to apple and pear crops, potentially causing the death of the tree. This bacteria favours warm and wet conditions and can be transmitted via insects, rain, wind or contaminated equipment, tools or clothing. Many parts of the tree can be affected and the symptoms are often referred to by the part of the tree that’s impacted: blossom blight, shoot blight, fruit blight, limb and trunk also known as canker blight and rootstock blight. Bloom time though tends to be the most susceptible timing for infection.   

Kristy
Why is bloom the highest risk? 

Katie
Flowers provide a natural opening in the host for the bacteria to invade the host cells. The bacteria spreads easily by insects like pollinators and flies, by rain splash or wind when blooms are open, and they survive very well in or on the floral tissue. With free moisture, the bacteria moves into the flower cup and through these natural openings directly into the host tissue. This makes bloom the most dangerous time for fire blight infection. Especially when there are favourable conditions like we’ve had, hot and humid, during bloom as temperatures over 18 and humidity over 90% promote rapid bacterial growth. 

Kristy
So with these warm days, you’re saying the blooms can act almost like incubators for the bacteria, causing bursts in population growth? 

Katie
Yes.

Kristy
But does that ensure infection? Why should growers be concerned about it if there’s no rain forecast for their area?

Katie
In these conditions, the fire blight bacteria can colonize and spread throughout an orchard really easily through rain, wind or transferred by insects. It takes very little free water to wash the bacteria into the bloom, especially if the population is so high. Not only can unexpected rain events occur, but heavy dew that’s common in the spring, overhead irrigation or water from a sprayer can lead to infection. This is why it’s important to follow forecasting models like MaryBlyt, Cougar Blight or refer to our Ontario fire blight prediction maps to determine when risk is high and preventative material is needed.

Kristy
So you’re saying there are a number of conditions that need to be met for an infection to occur  – the pathogen needs to be present, an opening such as bloom needs to be present on the tree and conditions need to be warm with some kind of wetting event? 

Katie
Right, so you need the disease triangle. Thank you, Kristy.

Kristy
Most varieties and regions are now past bloom in the province but it’s not uncommon to see late bloom in some blocks. Do we still have to be concerned about infection risk?

Katie
A really common cause for fire blight escapes in an orchard are often caused by growers stopping their bloom management program too early and missing secondary, or rat-tail bloom. These are blooms that can occur after the main bloom period is over and can often be overlooked as it’s just clusters here and there throughout a block. Something like Gala is a variety that is really prone to rat-tail bloom and also quite susceptible to fire blight. So, it’s important to really walk your orchard blocks and continue monitoring conditions for infection. You may even want to strategically hold onto one final spray application just in case there is that late bloom so long as it fits within any preharvest restrictions. However, if time and labour are available though, it may be best to go through the orchard and remove the rat-tail blooms altogether since the fruit produced by the late blossoms are more of a risk than they are an asset.  

The other concern is the often late or delayed bloom in new plantings. The later timing often falls within more ideal weather conditions for disease development. In general, there is a higher fire blight risk with young trees as blossom or shoot infection can quickly move to the main leader with such vigourous growth, and under ideal conditions, can cause tree death within one month. So, similar to rat-tail bloom, if labour is available, remove any blooms on these new trees. Otherwise, consider something like a copper registered for summer use to protect those blossoms.

Kristy
With both rat-tail bloom and new plantings, I usually encourage growers to try to remove fruit buds before they open to prevent any of that bacterial growth from starting on the bloom. But if they miss that window, I tell them to look for a dry day to try and reduce that risk of infection. Would you agree?

Katie
Yeah, I think it’s really important to manage this disease in those young orchards.  

Kristy
So, say we get through all of that, and blossom blight was avoided in the orchard. What are the chances of shoot blight developing?

Katie
We know that blossom blight can lead to shoot infection via direct movement into spurs. However, while avoiding blossom blight is important to the overall fight against this bacteria, succulent green tissue can still be invaded separately by the bacteria causing shoot blight. Risk is lowered when there is less inoculum from blossom infections, however cankers that form ooze droplets can still transmit the bacteria to the new shoots even after bloom. It is also possible for bacterial cells to be blown into an orchard at any time during the season from a neighbouring block. Injury to the shoots leaves them more susceptible to infection, with less bacteria needed to infect a wound vs a natural opening in the shoot. 

Kristy
Ok, what is ooze? 

Katie
Ooze is a mass of exopolysaccharides and bacterial cells that is exuded from infected host tissue. Basically, it’s a droplet that comes out of infected tissue that had A LOT of bacteria cells capable of causing infection. There is an average of 1 to 100 billion bacteria cells in one ooze droplet. Which is crazy when you know that as little as 104 bacterial cells are needed to cause infection…. So this ooze is important. Ooze is not always formed from infected tissue, it seems to be correlated when there are favourable conditions for rapid multiplication. Ooze can also dry out on the tree but as soon as there’s free water again, it can transmit the bacteria. It was found that a dried droplet could survive and be viable for 25 MONTHS afterwards. 

Kristy
Wow, that’s crazy. So, if you think about a fly visiting one ooze droplet and how many other surfaces it lands on after that, that single ooze droplet could potentially spread bacteria through an entire orchard. 

Katie
Right, that’s why ooze is so important.

Kristy
Just to back track, you also mentioned there needs to be a wound for infection to occur on shoot tips. What type of injury is this?  

Katie
Bacterial pathogens need an opening in the host in order to infect. This could be a natural opening like blooms or through a wound on a shoot tip. Any number of things can cause injury. Microscopic wounds can occur with heavy rain, wind storms especially in areas with sandy soils or near gravel laneways. Even vigourous growth of younger trees can cause microscopic tears in the developing tissue. Large wounds caused by insect or deer feeding, mechanical damage from pruning or hedging, or storm events like hail can lead to trauma blight.

Prevention is important to manage the risk of trauma blight. Try to keep the orchard clean of infection so if a trauma event occurs, there won’t be high populations present to spread.

But if a trauma event does happen, try to get a protective spray such as Streptomycin or copper on within the first 12 hours after the storm. At this point, the bacteria have been introduced but haven’t really started to grow. Waiting until there is an established infection, these products won’t be effective as the populations will be too high to provide sufficient knockdown. 

Kristy
So, fire blight has struck in the orchard. Why is it recommended to cut the shoot back so much from the point of visible symptoms? 

Katie
Once the bacteria enters the shoot, it can travel 2.5 cm per day. It is moving so fast, it is possible to not see symptoms yet where the bacteria actually is. Those symptoms will show up 1-2 days later or even later if conditions haven’t been ideal for movement. Therefore, it’s important to prune at least 30 cm below the transition zone of healthy to symptomatic brown tissue, or at least into 2-year wood in order to control the spread of fire blight and protect the leader. Always ensure tools are sanitized between cuts by dipping or spraying them with a bleach or alcohol solution in case cells were transferred from an infected tree. 

Kristy
And just to add to that, I also think choosing days that are dry and sunny for pruning is important to prevent further spread. With a nice stretch of several days that are dry, there’s the opportunity to leave the pruning cuts in the row middles to dry out before mulching them up. With the high-density plantings we have in the province, moving pruning cuts out of the orchard cause more problems with spread than anything else.  

So, in those dry conditions, when growers are pruning out fire blight, should they focus on the more vigourous blocks since the bacteria can move so quickly to the leader?

Katie
Yes, try to focus on trees where infections have a high likelihood of reaching the main leader, are positioned in the tree that it could easily cause further infection such as higher in the canopy, and on varieties that are more susceptible to fire blight. In a variety like Honeycrisp which is not as susceptible too fire blight as something like Gala, the bacteria does not spread as quickly. 

Consider the vigour and number of strikes on a tree before deciding to prune during the season. It’s possible that extensive pruning can stimulate trees to produce more succulent shoots, making them susceptible to infection again. With low vigour trees, the bacteria generally doesn’t move into major limbs or trunks during the growing season so it can be left for after terminal bud set or dormant pruning. Highly vigourous trees with only a few strikes though should be pruned as soon as possible to help provide control of the disease. Same goes for young trees since the bacteria can move to the trunk so quickly.

Kristy
I’ve always liked a comment from David Rosenberger, a pathologist with Cornell about following a “fire blight triage” when it comes to in-season pruning decisions. The highest priority is young orchards less than 8 years old with a few strikes, followed by those young orchards with severe strikes. After those have been taken care of, the focus should shift to older orchards with a few strikes. And then there’s the “walk away” group or lowest priority which are orchards with so many strikes, pruning would likely stimulate growth. Those you leave for after terminal set.

One last question for you – it sounds like a big part of fire blight control is preventing the bacteria from reaching the main leader. What happens if it does spread to the leader? What can a grower do? 

Katie
Unfortunately, once the bacteria has spread to the leader, the grower should remove that tree from the orchard. The bacteria will eventually move to the rootstock and kill the tree. As well, there is the potential for canker development and ooze formation that can increase the risk of infection in other healthy trees in season or for following seasons. 

Kristy
OK, so get it out. Better to lose one tree and a bunch of them, right?

Katie
Yes, exactly. 

Kristy
Well, Katie, thank you for joining me today and sharing some of your advice on managing fire blight. 

Katie
Thank you for having me.

 Kristy
I was just speaking with Katie Goldenhar, Pathologist for horticulture crops with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food & Rural Affairs.

Music transition

41.34
Kristy
Well, that brings us to the end of our first episode. Thanks Cassie. You introduced me to the world of garlic scapes. Who knew?! 

 Cassie
Right?! And thanks for your chat with Katie. I learned so much about apples and it was definitely interesting to hear about fire blight ooze. 

Kristy
For more information on these and other horticultural crops grown in Ontario, links to our fruit, vegetable and specialty crop blogs are provided in the show notes.

Cassie
Special thanks to our guests, Travis and Katie and music track for this episode is Aspire by Scott Holmes.