My experience with barefoot trees purchased from the Internet is not good at all. One of five worked and I gave up contacting the Nursery for replacement. As a matter of fact I stopped buying trees from the Internet. It is like everything else starts good then the greed and consumer Rip-off prevail. Last year I Bought a Chicago Hardy Fig tree from EBay for $10 and $8 shipping it arrived in pot and the tree was about 6 inches long after one year it is about 1 foot long. I am stupid and I don't learn quickly. This year I purchased 2 black mission Fig trees from Purpee $30 cost and $10 shipping for a total of $40. It arrived after 4 weeks and when I opened the box my woman said they did they send you weeds. She thought it is weeds. The trees are 3-4 inches long and I said that is it. Never again. I was at HD buying some Sulur and found that they have new trees arrived I bought A brown Turkey Fig tree which has two 5 feet branches and in a pot for measly $19.00. I planted it and kept it inside the Garage and it is now has lots of leaves and look like a real tree. I have to find a nursery even within 100 miles and go and see what I am getting and it has to be in a pot. The so called barefoot gives the roots a big shock and most of the time don't recover.

This is often the case with pears. The roots are not fibrous and just head down and nurseries don't make an adequate effort to lift more root. I believe that's one reason they are so sluggish coming out of he shoot. I've ordered from a commercial nursery that wouldn't guarantee their pear trees if you didn't drastically cut them back. The salesman told me he visited a commercial orchard down south somewhere where 1,000 pear trees died because the buyer failed to do this- whatever the Whitcomb research may say. I don't know for sure what's the best way to manage them but I don't usually cut them back and almost all trees live and give a little spurt of growth the first year.

tumbleweed, the problem is they won't invade your yard. I agree that would be awesome if they would just remain in the confines of the gardens in which they originated. Unfortunately this is not how it works. They end up in natural areas such as forests, prairies, grasslands and wetlands where they can form a colony that inhibits the growth of plants that are supposed to be there and needed to be there for the survival of the habitat. Aside from that, I still feel I should caution you since millions of people are lured by their ornamental attributes and learn the hard way, these grow rapidly into big heavy trees. Shortly after they mature, they fall apart. Now it's one thing for a tree to fall apart when it's a container size but when it's 10" caliper trunk with limbs weighing hundreds of pounds and requires a tree service to come out, the expense you will have to go through for removal at that point will be no laughing matter. When you're working on your family budget and planning for eventualities such as roof replacement and driveway repair, with callery pear, you'll want to be sure to budget $1500-$2500* for each tree on your property for the inevitable removal not including any damage caused when they come a-crashin' down. * Call local tree services and see if you can get an average cost of removal for a mature callery pear that has split into 3 pieces and remember that these usually need removal in the wake of winter and spring storms when trees are down all over town and rates are tend to be on the high side.

I want to say its Fire Blight. If it is, cut it back to a main branch so it doesn't infect the rest of the tree. Discard the infected branches in the trash.