Dying pear tree! Help???

I have five pear trees planted next to my front fence. I'm not sure how old they are, but they were full grown (~15 feet) and producing plenty of fruit when I bought my house 4 years ago. They have just finished blooming and are leafing out--except for one, which has retained its brown dead blossoms and has only put out a few tiny leaves. It looks really bad. :(

I can't see any sign of bugs or fungus, although to be honest I'm not completely sure what to look for. Does anyone have any idea what might possibly be affecting my pear tree, what signs I should look for, and could it spread to my other trees???

Thank you for any help you can give to me, I'm really worried about my poor trees.

pam

look up fireblight, that is the most common severe disease of pears. There are many good webpages on that topic. If you don't think that is it, upload some pictures here and we may be able to tell more.

Scott

Pictures? Can't give a good answer without seeing

Can be of any number of reasons...

* Fireblight is a big one, it a bacterial disease that looks like quite literately your tree was burned by fire. You would have noticed fireblight symptoms last year if the tree was alive than since its quite distinctive though.

* Another possibility is that it was girdled over the winter by either mice or voles . Check the bark at the soil level for damage, digging away any dirt and much around the tree down about an inch or so to check.

* Another possibility if its on an extremely wet site is root rot.

OK will try to get some pix here later this afternoon after work...

pam

Here we go...this is the sick tree next to a healthy one for comparison...

Up close of blossom cluster...

And a final shot...

Doesn't look like fireblight, that I can see...still have to climb over the fence and check for girdling, but nothing obvious so far...

pam

You tree looks like it is affected with what is known as "pear decline phytoplasma". It is transmitted by an insect called pear psylla. What you are looking at is the spring stage of the disease - in fact your tree looks similar to this one http://www.forestryimages.org/browse/detail.cfm?imgnum=0162006

Some varieties and rootstocks are resistant to decline, others are not (quince is one in particular) - which explains why this tree is affected and not the rest.

Psylla populations can be controlled via dormant oil sprays with petroleum-based horticultural oils.

Your tree, you might as well get out the chainsaw and cut it down before it declines any further as an eyesore since its dying anyway. You can plant another pear tree in its place (just ask and make sure its grafted onto "Old Home X Farmingdale" rootstock since its resistant to a large degree to decline and keep up on the dormant sprays)

On the slight, very slight upside, if you BBQ, pear wood is very good for smoking.

This message was edited Apr 28, 2008 10:53 PM

Good call Amanda Emily. I have a pear doing that same thing now.

Scott

Yup, that's what it looks like. Well, poop. Thanks lots for your input...and now I know what to do next time.

(And yes, we do BBQ, so we will save the wood for that. :))

pam