Problem with a Seckel pear tree

[PA Dan]

Any idea what it is and how I can correct it? Pictures tell the whole story. Pears develope black spots and shrivel up. If anyone can help let me know.

Dan

 

[Oldman47]

I had thought possibly fire blight but that does not match the "classic" symptoms of the disease.

 

[Raintree]

Pear scab, management as you would apple scab. Ascospores overwinter in leaf litter & on infected twigs.

 

[Jed1124]

Nothing you can do this year other than rake up the leaf litter in the fall. Preventive fungicide applications next Spring beginning at bud break will be the ticket.

 

[PA Dan]

Is now the time to spray my pear tree? No buds opening as of yet.

 

[ATH]

Get ready...you are probably a week or two away...as soon as the leaves start to form.

 

[PA Dan]

What product should I be using?

 

[BC WetCoast]

Copper (bordeaux mix - copper oxychloride and lime mix) or a sulphur spray are considered organic and the only ones I'm allowed to use in my jurisdiction.

Other fungicides are available

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7413.html

 

[ATH]

Captan is a pretty 'standard' treatment.

Supposedly Agri-Fos bark applied with Pentrabark works against apple scab. I talked to a university fruit tree pathologist about this. He said they have tried it. It worked really well once, but not since...he said he is not sure.

Anything that works on apple scab should work on pear: http://www.extension.umn.edu/garden/yard-garden/trees-shrubs/managing-apple-scab/#fungicides

 

[maplegrovetom]

Is now the time to spray my pear tree? No buds opening as of yet.

Blast it with Captan when you see 1/4" of green coming out of the buds, and within 48 hours every time it rains hard until the fruit is 1 1/2" long. Cleaning up the scab intested leaf litter under the tree helps to remove it from the area.

 

[066blaster]

You can use lyme sulfur, it is basically a sanitizer,. It will kill anything that is on the tree from last year, use when tree is Dormant. Then spray with Captan or rally fungicides through out the season. Captan is cheap, lyme sulfur is cheap as well. Captan is contact fungicide, it kills fungus on contact but doesn't have much residual effects. Rally is systemic and is absorbed into the tree and lasts a few weeks. I mix them together and put a insecticide in with them as well.

 

[066blaster]

Also thin fruit to 1 fruitlet per cluster, if you want better size. That can help with the fungus issue also, fruit dries quicker, get more air and sun.

 

[066blaster]

Apparently lyme sulfur has been banned. So copper would be the alternative. Or just keep up with the fungicide sprays. Starting when the buds have opened and you see some green.

 

[maplegrovetom]

Apparently lyme sulfur has been banned. So copper would be the alternative. Or just keep up with the fungicide sprays. Starting when the buds have opened and you see some green.

Be very careful with copper, if you don't know what you're doing you can burn all the leaves off the tree, russet the fruit, and even kill the tree.

 

[BC WetCoast]

Lime sulphur has been banned? Interesting, here it is considered organic and available whereas things like Captan are not available for use.