Fire blight symptoms vary depending on the tissue affected and can also vary between pear and apple. Blossom and spur symptoms appear in the spring. Bacteria gain entry into the tree via blossoms and new shoots. Diseased blossoms become water-soaked, wilt and turn brown. Bacteria spread rapidly into other flowers in the cluster and then move down into the spur. Spurs become blighted, turning brown on apples and black on pears. Shoot blight starts at the growing tips of shoots and moves rapidly down into older portions of the twig. Blighted twigs first appear water-soaked, then turn dark brown or black. As blighted shoots wilt, the twigs bend at the growing point and resemble a shepherd’s crook or an upside-down “J”. Blighted leaves remain attached to the dead branches throughout the summer. During warm and humid weather infected shoots will ooze droplets of creamy white bacteria. As fire blight bacteria move through blighted twigs into the main branches, the bark sometimes cracks along the margin of the infected area causing a distinct canker. The bark on younger trees becomes water-soaked and the cankers have a dark brown to purple color. Sapwood beneath a canker has a reddish-brown appearance and may be soft to the touch. Cankers can girdle the main branches and trunk causing additional dieback. Fruit may be blighted. Rotted areas turn brown to black and become covered with droplets of whitish tan-colored bacterial ooze. Fruit remain firm and eventually dry out and shrivel into mummies.