OT: Pear Leaves Suddenly have Black Marks on the Edges

[Jamie0507]

As I was inspecting the leaves on all of my fruit trees, I noticed my Red Anjou Pear is developing very dark/black marks on the edges of its leaves, and I've also found a few leaves like this on my Bartlet Pear which is right next to it. This is the second leaf for both types of pear, and I do remember it developing later on the Anjou last year. I never could figure out what it was. The Anjou has shown some sensitivity to sprays last year (Imidan I believe it was), so I didn't spray with anything thisyear. The other trees have all had dormant oil applied over winter and a dose of copper fungicide about a month ago. Since it was raining so much, my thoughts are that it could be some kind of fungus? Anyone have any ideas on how to treat this? Or what it is so I can research it further? Any help would be much appreciated

[DBJohnson]

Does the black extend down onto the stems and along the branch? (Or...watch to see if it does...) My first thought when I saw the picture was Fireblight. I had a very old pear tree on the property that was eaten up with Fireblight and it spread to the hybrid willows I put out last spring...I lost 93 of the 100 I set out.

I really hope it's not Fireblight...my experience with that crap last year was not fun.

[Jamie0507]

That's the first thing that came to my mind but I'm hoping that's not what it is! Oh that fireblight seems to be a real death sentence to young trees especially 😥.. So far the stems, branches seem unaffected and its just on the edges of the leaves.. I believe time is of the essence for saving trees that have been struck with it, and also to prevent its spreading.. I may need to go ahead and contact the PA state agricultural extension on this. Im not sure what else I should do.. This is so frustrating.. I can only imagine how you felt losing that many trees to it last year Bryant! What an aweful thing to deal with, I'm so sorry to hear that happened.. What was the advice you received to treat it? If there is anything that is?

[DBJohnson]

Prune back at least 8" from diseased areas, disinfect tools after every cut, keep diseased cuttings separated from healthy plants, burn all diseased foliage and wood. I ended up cutting down and burning the old pear tree that started it. It was big and I hated having to remove a 70-80 year old tree, but it was completely eaten up with fireblight and was the point of infection at my place.

[Bluemalibu]

Sorry Jamie. Pears are so very susceptible to F/B... but it needn't be a death sentence. Bryant gave great counsel. I had about eight trees that sustained an infestation last year; by amputating the infected limbs I was able to save all but one tree. (And some were infected over 2/3 of the tree)

[Jamie0507]

Thank you both for the replies, it really stinks but hopefully I can take care of this problem before it does kill my Anjou, or worse.. Spread to my other pears and newly planted apples.. I found a product called "Serenade" that supposedly suppresses it, but I need more than just suppression with this F/B.. Gotta get the pruners out there and make sure I get every last leaf or branch with the black on it before it rains again.. I guess this just comes with the territory of growing fruit trees ;(

[DBJohnson]

What caused the high mortality rate of my trees was that the hybrid willows had just been planted (received as bare-root whips about 14-16" tall when planted). From the size, pruning back as much as is needed effectively removes the entire tree. I tried isolation and localized pruning, but neither worked in my case--again, because of the small size of the trees.

For the big pear tree that started it all, it was about 80-90 years old and had been split by a lightning strike 10-15 years ago and survived. The Lightning split the trunk vertically but both sides survived and produced small green pears for years. I spoke with the former owner and he stated that the pear tree had always had "some black leaf problem but it didn't really affect the fruit." Yeah....turns out the "black leaf problem" was a chronic case of Fireblight that didn't kill the tree, but spread itself everywhere when conditions were right (as in, other trees suspectible to it and a wet spring/early summer--like we're having now). The extension agent came out and looked at it because my wife wanted to save it if at all possible. The answer was that the tree pretty much had it everywhere because of the split trunk and the deadwood inside the tree. The only solution was to cut it down and burn it...which I did.

My apple trees have shown no evidence of the Fireblight and they're in the 40-50 yr range, so I think they are resistant to it.

[Jamie0507]

Oh man, that musta REALLY hurt to cut down that big ole pear.. Here I am so upset over my 2 3 year old pear trees (looks to be spreading) so I can only imagine how hard it was to cut down a pear tree that made it through almost a century but it just had to be done.. Thank goodness your big old apple orchard is okay!

[ross]

Jamie,

I don't know what disease that is, but see this thread: http://growingfruit.org/t/low-impact...-draft/3610/24

You definitely should be spraying regularly with fungicides.

[Jamie0507]

Thank you Ross! Great thread with important info on a spraying regime.. It can get so complicated with what to spray & when to spray it.. Geez figs are so much easier! Lol! I did do the dormant spray (winter), sulphur, and Serenade at different times over the last year, but I guess I didn't do it as often or regularly as I should be doing it.. I just hope I can get it under control soon. Waiting on the county ext to get back to me 😔

[Jamie0507]

Yesterday I found my Bartlet Pear next to the Anjou looking like the pic below. This stuff is spreading fast.. So sickening to think I could lose all my pear & my new apple trees from this disease

[Gr8Figs]

My Bartlett pear trees usually get some fireblight damage on new growth after rains in the Spring.They eventually bounce back in the Summer and produce plenty of pears.IMO the fireblight on your leaves doesn't appear to be bad.

This Spring,I planted a 5' Moonglow pear about 15' away from one of my Bartlett pear trees and it hasn't shown any signs of fireblight.My Seckel pear tree has about 3 tips of branches with new growth that is blackened.

[Jamie0507]

This is so encouraging to hear! Thank you Barry I do have quite a bit of new growth on both of these trees, so from the sounds of it that may be how the bacteria made its entrance. I'll be monitoring it closely. Thank you again for your response 👍

[hstark]

While I haven't seen this problem before, because you are seeing it on more than 1 tree, you may want to try to reduce/eliminate the insect vector that's carrying it too. Look up Neem oil. I mix up a VERY effective spray from a recipe I found online (that I adapted a bit), which basically kills about everything that contacts it (bacterial, bugs, fungus). You can buy neem oil at any hardware store or Home Depot, but it's way cheaper to buy pure cold pressed Neem oil on Amazon and make your own (keep the neem in the fridge). Neem is THE MOST effective mosquito/bug repellent I've ever seen, and non-toxic (unless you eat a lot of it, and when you smell it, that idea will leave your mind quickly).

I add
2 Tbl regular Baking Soda
2 Tbl Murphy's Oil Soap (to make it stick and to help emulsify the Neem oil, and soap is also a bacteriacide, fungicide and insecticide by itself. Murphy's is a pretty pure soap, and you can buy it at the grocery store- don't use detergent)
1 Tbl Neem Oil
This in 1 gallon of water.

Saturate spray everything til wet. You'll see an immediate reduction in just about any problem you have. I don't think it will do anything about virus, but Florida gets just about every bug and disease you can think of with our heat and 100% humidity, and this has been keeping everything at bay (bugs, fungus, bacteria). Plus, you aren't harming anything, just making them attack your neighbors plants instead of yours. hehe. My yard plants are pretty ridiculously lush, and I am VERY forgetful about watering or fertilizing. Baking soda is basic, and won't destroy your sprayer like vinegar will.

While working in the yard, I use a 10% neem oil 'lotion' as bug repellent. I get a small bottle of extra virgin olive oil, eat about 10% of it in salads, and top bottle again with neem and shake it up. I keep this on my counter. When I go to work on the yard, I slather it all over any exposed skin. My favorite time to work on the yard is at dusk, when the mosquitoes love to come out. No bites, and I'm a mosquito magnet without it. That and some top models swear by neem oil for the skin. You won't hear about it, because big cosmetic companies can't profit, but it will improve your skin too, so there's zero downside (but smelly, so you may think about this in public). A bottle of Neem oil is pretty huge bang for the buck.

[Jamie0507]

This is awesome Hstark! I actually have all of these ingredients on hand too! I've used neem with some success before but not with the baking soda added. That makes sense since baking soda is way low on the ph scale, perhaps it helps to create an environment that is not conducive to fungal or bacterial growth.. I always like a natural approach before bringing out the heavy chemicals. neem also sounds like a great alternative to deet based insect repellents that ya just know should not be put on your skin.. Thank you for your homemade recipe, I love to make my own concoctions over the expensive store bought products so I'll definitely give it a go! 👍

[hstark]

Well, let me know how it works for you, Jamie. Oh... I use this spray on my citrus, tomatoes, avocado and loquats. My figs haven't had problems to spray for, and I'm very new to growing figs consciously (my old plant grew itself). But my citrus get leafminers pretty bad if I don't spray for a few weeks/months. I spray any time plants get eaten or moldy looking (powder mildew is very common here), but I go for periods where I forget to look, and then my trees/plants get eaten, and I start all over again. hehe. It probably doesn't actually kill bugs, just makes the plants taste bad so it may be more deterrent than actual pesticide.

Oh... if you have the store bought (Home Depot) neem fungicide/pesticide from the garden section, I wouldn't use that on the skin, only cold-pressed 100% pure neem oil diluted to 10% or even less (don't need more, and at higher concentrations could be irritating to the skin). Good luck with your pear trees! I wish we could grow pears this far south.