Please diagnose my Bradford Pear ailment!

I inherited a couple of Bradford Pears with my property a couple of years ago. They look fabulous in the Spring and early Summer. I do not see any obvious damage on the trees. I water occasionally and deeply in the heat of Summer and I fertilize. Here's the problem: Once the heat of Summer really hits (late June-August) the leaves of the trees start forming these wierd spots that start in the interior of the leaf and eventually start to merge down both sides of the leaf and eventually the leaf turns dark and falls off. What diseases are Bradford Pears prone to that seem to really show symptoms when the weather heats up? Thanks yall. Stacey

I don't know about Bradford pears specifically, but many things in that family are susceptible to black spot so it could be that. If that's what it is, it's one of those diseases that's better handled by trying to prevent it before the symptoms show up vs treatment after the fact, but chances are you won't 100% eliminate it. In the fall I would make sure to rake up all the infected leaves rather than leaving them under the tree, and then in the spring there are sprays you can buy and use them before or just as the leaves are starting to come in. The good news is it's unsightly but not generally fatal.

The other possibility is fireblight, pears are susceptible to that as well. I'm not sure if Bradford is supposed to be resistant to it or not. With fireblight you might also see some cankers on the trunk/branches as well as the leaf symptoms. Fireblight is not particularly treatable, best thing you can do is pick up the diseased leaves so that hopefully it won't spread to other susceptible plants in your garden (anything in Rosaceae is going to tend to be susceptible, but there may be other plant families as well that can get it). Here's some info on it:
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7414.html

Well, I'm not real fond of Bradford Pear trees anyway, but they came with the house. If I can't cure them 100% I'll chop them down because I really don't want to mess with sickly trees. Especially sickly trees that tend to break in ice and wind and only last ~20 years anyway. If it were one of my live oaks I would pull out all the resources, but not for a Bradford Pear. Probably best to just put them out of their misery and plant a 'real' tree.

I would agree with that, I'm definitely not a fan of the Bradford pears. And since you bought the house a couple years ago and the trees were already there, chances are they wouldn't last that much longer anyway! I think lasting 20 yrs would might be optimistic with these, many don't last that long.

I think they are beautiful in bloom and great in the fall with the hot orange colors --but those flowers smell like frying shrimp!!

I don't know if I am on the right track but here in the piedmont of NC there are bradford pears everywhere on commercial property.... nobody waters the trees..nobody fertilizes... they need no care it seems..(which is why the trees are used so extensively) so maybe before you cut them down...neglect them.. and see if that leaf issue returns this year.

Hi Rosie. Alot of folks here plant the Bradford Pears too, especially in residential neighborhoods and on commercial properties. The flowers are pretty and they are the trees that tell me when Spring is here as they are very early blooming. My problem with them is that they just aren't very 'tough'. I don't know much about weather in NC, but my property is just West of Fort Worth, TX and we get serious ice storms and incredibly
gusty winds. Not like in West TX where 60-70 mph winds are pretty normal (think 6ft wide tumbleweeds :0), but still 30-40mph is not unusual. We had a nasty hail storm last May (baseball sized hail and a tornado dropped down just 3 miles from my house) that demolished my peach tree crop and probably 95% of the houses in this area have been reroofed. Most trees have problems with high wind and ice, but I think the structure of BP's limbs are just not meant for that type of abuse. Plus I really don't want them spreading disease to anything else if what they have is incurable. Pretty tree for sure, but probably not going to make it another 5 years. I will probably see how they do this summer around June - July but if they still look really bad, I'll probably just take them out. Thanks alot for your help, though. I hate to cut down any tree, but I think I can replace it with something that will do better in our climate and hopefully live a much longer and healthier life. ;) Stacey

Hi Stacey
Yes, the Bradford's bite the dust here frequently too due to winds from the occasional storm. It is definitely a downside to this tree. *Besides the shrimp smell...eeech.. We have a neighbor with a tree farm.. he has a looooooooooog and narrow unpaved driveway that is lined both sides with Bradford Pear. A few weeks come spring and fall it is gorgeous (the bloom first and then the autumn color) but the rest of the time......it is not a look I like --underwhelming. BUT that being said... every other year (sometimes every year) one of his Bradfords get nailed by a storm... I'll drive by and there is a tree broken in half (these are tall trees) or split right up the middle looking like a wishbone. Few days later, he plants a very small Bradford in back in the hole and I swear a few seasons later... you can barely tell where the substitution occured. I keep thinking those trees ought to be useful for research that is linked to rapidly dividing/fast growing cells.

LOL! Yeah they do grow fast - I think this is probably one of the reasons they are often planted in new residential and commercial areas. Instant gratification! :)

Yea but so are Godiva Chocolates and they don't smell like shrimp! And there is a 'growth' rate associated with those chocolates that can't be beat! ....And, I've been caught in a quite a few NC wind storms and I ain't blown down or split in half yet!! HA!HA!

ROFL!!!