The multivariate compositional nutrient diagnosis (CND) was considered to evaluate the nutrient imbalance causing fire blight development in ‘golden delicious’ apple. The CND norms provided for a low-fire blight severity subpopulation was V*N = 2.813 ± 0.186, V*P = 0.297 ± 0.147, V*K = 2.660 ± 0.149, V*Ca = 2.442 ± 0.218, V*Mg = 1.188 ± 0.061, V*S = 0.595 ± 0.399, V*Fe = -0.952 ± 0.212, V*Mn = -3.132 ± 0.195, V*Zn = -4.040 ± 0.366, V*Cu = -5.032 ± 0.177, V*B = -3.361 ± 0.120, V*Rd = 6.521 ± 0.128. The corresponding sufficiency ranges of nutrients for for imparting moderate resistance in plant against fire blight were N = 2.309 ± 0.333, P = 0.185 ± 0.016, K = 1.968 ± 0.170, Ca = 1.645 ± 0.430, Mg = 0.453 ± 0.053, S = 0.269 ± 0.086 in percent and Fe = 345.250 ± 76.213, Mn = 60.926 ± 11.724, Zn = 26.368 ± 12.943, Cu = 9.088 ± 1.682, B = 48.603 ± 9.509 in mg kg-1. According to the principal component analysis analysis, leaf Ca, B, S and Zn had a significant effect on the reduction of fire blight severity index.