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| My Asian pear tree is getting hit hard by some sort of fungus or disease this year after several years of no spraying and trouble free growth. Is there anything I could or should spray now to help it? For fungicides, I have immunox (not rated for Asian pears?), sulfur and copper. The leaves are covered with black spots (pear spot?) and are yellowing and falling off.
This tree has 4 varieties grafted on one tree and the early variety has aborted a lot of fruit and a lot of them have been lumpy/misshapen. The later variety (brown, russetted) seems somewhat more resistent to the black spotting as well as the fruit being lumpy. I have used baggies on all the fruit in past years and gotten perfect fruit. This year I only bagged maybe 10% of the fruit and still see very little pest pressure. Maybe 10% of the fruit get a bug but about 50% of the early yellow fruit are misshapen...either failed bug bites or a fungus? Thanks for any advice. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| How long ago was it planted? Perhaps ran short of water this summer? Would account for dropped fruit as well as leaf yellowing and loss. |
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| This is a 5 year old tree that has never had these symptoms until this year. I'm in the Lehigh Valley and we've had a regular amount of rain the past 6 weeks or so after a dry June. I don't think it's just lack of water. The later variety (see new pic) is still quite healthy. |
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- Posted by scottfsmith 6B-7A-MD (My Page) on Sun, Aug 19, 12 at 20:56
| Sharp, leaves can start looking like that when the tree is not being fed properly from the roots. There are many reasons why a tree is not getting proper nutrients. There could be a fireblight strike by the tree base. The graft could be experiencing delayed incompatibility. There could be a nutrient imbalance. The tree could have gotten girdled and you did not notice. There could be borers at the base. The roots could be drowning from too much water, or suffering from too little. There could be a root disease or nematodes. Many of these problems manifest at the base of the tree so have a good long look there to see if there is anything odd-looking. If you don't see anything there, there is not much I can think of to do other than perhaps give it some fertilizer if you did not fertilize this year. Scott |
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| Thanks for the info. I don't see any fireblight, borers or any damage to the tree trunk itself. The unhealthy part is the biggest of the grafts. I'm surprised that just one variety is so unhealthy compared to the rest. I may not have fertilized is this year so can try that. Do Asian Pears get Leaf Spot? See link below that matches up with the symptoms fairly well. |
Here is a link that might be useful: Leaf Spot link
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- Posted by scottfsmith 6B-7A-MD (My Page) on Mon, Aug 20, 12 at 9:20
| Ah, I didn't realize the second picture was on the same rootstock. I would say the greatest chance is that variety is experiencing a delayed graft incompatibility issue. It could also be leaf spot or pear scab or some other disease, but it doesn't look a whole lot like either to me -- those diseases grow out a damaged spot from a single point of infection so there is a consistent circular shape to the spots. Necrotic spotting can be produced only by poor nutritition. The misshapen fruit could be from stinkbugs, even if you don't see them now they could have been busy on your pears a month ago. They sure were busy on mine. Scott |
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| Following up from last year with the same tree: It has leafed out fine and flowered but as you can see in the pictures, has some serious reddish leaf curling happening. It almost looks like my peach leaf curl but I don't think asian pear can get it. (It is next to a peach tree with some very mild leaf curl last year) Anyone have any ideas what might be the cause? A bad case of pear leaf blister mites? Or some sort of fungus? I did not spray anything over winter but tried to clean up as many leaves as possible. I do not see any aphids on it. Trunk looks healthy with no borers. What can I spray now? I'm thinking sulfur for any fungus plus some insecticidal soap if it is mites. Thanks for any suggestions. |
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- Posted by scottfsmith 6B-7A-MD (My Page) on Thu, May 2, 13 at 13:49
| Thats definitely pear leaf blister mite. Its extremely common; it was also your problem the previous year but the pix are after the mites had died and I couldn't figure it out. Next year spray lime/sulphur and oil just as the buds start swelling and you will nail it. For this year hit with sulphur or lime/sulphur (watch the rate on l/s when not dormant). It may take multiple sprays. I had a fair amount of damage the last two years. This spring I completely nailed it with l/s and oil, except for one tree I think I forgot to spray, and its getting the sulphur treatment now. Scott |
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| Thanks very much Scott! I just got back from the PA extension office and the woman there also said it was pear leaf blister mite. |
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| Thank you very much, Scott. I saw it last year on Hosui. I thought it was some mineral deficiency since the soil in where it's planted is not that good. Now I see it again this year on young leaves. Hosui is most affected, some on 20th century, nothing noticable on Shinko and Olympic. It's time to look for sulfur. I have not seen lime-sulfur in any store around here anymore these days. The last one I bought was 5 yrs ago.
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| There is conflicting evidence about lime-sulfur being phased out that I have read online. I just bought a bottle off Amazon and will definitely use it next winter. I did a sulfur spray last night and will follow up with a 2nd in a week or two. The apples are just about at petal fall and ready for some spray too. This pear has four varieties grafted and the mites are definitely attacking one variety more than the others. I don't know which variety it is though. |
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