Jamie Coggins, a graduate student, and Bonnie Schonberg, a research technician, measure the effects of fire blight on apple trees during a trial at Washington State University’s Columbia View research orchard near Orondo, Washington, in June. (Ross Courtney/Good Fruit Grower) This past summer, a team of researchers armed with scissors walked through a North Central Washington apple orchard and did the unthinkable: They inoculated 1,600 trees with fire blight. They’re not aiming to wipe out an orchard. Rather, they’re trying to identify the genes responsible for fire blight resistance in different apple cultivars and, ultimately, employ that information to develop […]