Hi Amy,

The first photo looks like it could be fireblight, the second shows a wound that the tree healed, and the photo of the entire tree shows an apparently healthy plant.

I’m not sure what’s going on here. Haralson has very good resistance to fireblight. As far as I can tell, the tree does not have any dead, drooping “‘shepherd’s crook” branch ends that often are the first sign of the disease. The overall tree looks healthy. I don’t see any dead or dying branches. Is the fruit on any of these branches drying up and mummifying? 

Read through the fact sheet below, it will help you figure out if this is fireblight and tell you what to do.

https://extension.umn.edu/plant-diseases/fire-blight

Note that though it’s best to prune out infected branches in winter you can do this in summer if you sterilize your pruners or saw between cuts. (Lysol household cleaner is good for this.) Prune on a dry breezy day when the interior of the tree isn’t wet.

If you can’t determine what’s going on and still want a diagnosis, call a certified arborist who can visit in person. You can find one here:

https://www.treesaregood.org/findanarborist

You can remove the ferns if you want. They can be tough to eliminate though, and you should be careful not to do too much damage to the tree roots. A tree’s most important roots are in the top foot of soil.

I hope this helps. Good luck.