Use a sterile potting mix (typical for seedlings), and clean the new pot with a sanitizer like bleach. The fungus that causes "damping off" is ubiquitous in all non-sterile potting mix, garden soil, and native soil. There is almost always some % loss from seedlings due to damping-off, and there is a lot more going on then just the stem. You may notice several weeks of poor or stunted growth before the plant wilts or keels over. This is when the actual roots are infected before the fungus destroys the stem. Throw out the seedlings that have clearly stopped growing.

Jayco: Cedar apple rust is a disease that is active very early in spring, mostly April and in colder areas may up to mid-May. If your CAR problems amount to only a few spots on the leaves, and the disease has not caused serious problems on the fruit of your bearing Macs, you have relatively mild cases. But a serious CAR outbreak on the fruit distorts and ruins the apples, often leaving them to rot right on the trees. If you ever see a greasy yellow/orange substance on the calyx ends of the fruit, you may want to consider preventive measures, which must be taken early. All spraying is temporary. I sure wish it was permanent. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I just wanted to inform people that I had my pear tree problem resolved by sending an inquiry including the photos I had attached above. From the report back it looks like Mark was correct. You can read what the center emailed me and below that see the form I had to fill out to get their opinion. They also sent a link for me to read. I did inform Mark that it looks like what he stated above was correct. Lou Hi Lou, Bad news. It really looks like your tree had fire blight. It's not good. See http://fpath.cas.psu.edu/Fruit_facts/Apple/FBAP.html for more info and management. I think your tree variety is one of the Clapp's. It's listed as suseptible to Fire Blight. There are pears that are less suseptable but none are immune (that I know of). FYI, the easiest tree fruit to grow is probably a disease resistant apple (Liberty is one variety, there are several others). You will still have to spray to control insects but as least disease/fungus should not be a problem. Thanks for the photos, they help a lot. Good luck with your tree. Jean -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: pezzuti@verizon.net [mailto:pezzuti@verizon.net] Sent: Fri 6/19/2009 7:55 PM To: Lehigh MG Subject: Plant Problem Form Submission Plant Problem Submitted: 6/19/2009 7:55:13 PM Contact Information ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Name: Lou Pezzuti Address: 139 Todd Lane PA 18235 County: Carbon Phone: E-Mail: pezzuti@verizon.net Plant Information ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Plant: young grafted pear tree Variety: Clapps Problem: Mewlwy formed leaves are discoloring. Tips ofa few of the leaves turn black and some curl. trunk does not seem to be effected. Tree is very small yet. Symptoms appeared: After leaves appeared on the tree Occured before?: No Plant part affected: Leaves Symptoms ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Yellowing: Browning: Interveinal Wilting Other: I can provide a photo taken just a few days ago. Lots of rain this spring Type of Planting ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Yard Problem Area ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sunny Soil Type ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Clay Soil Moisture ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Terrain ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sloped Drainage ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Good Size of Planting ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Acres: Sq Ft: # of Plants: 1 Extent of Problem ----------------------------------------------------------------------- % of plants affected: # of plants affected: 1 Trees/Shrubs ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Approximate Age: 3 feet Height: How long in present location?: 2nd season Chemicals Applied This Season & Previous Season ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Fertilizer: Early spring table spoon 5/10/10 sprinkled around drip line. Fungicide: Told to use copper dusting-did so. Insecticide: 3 in 1 garden control Herbicide: Nematicide: Disturbances ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Turf-grass ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Additional Comments ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I added these things mentiond above and also sprayed with Sevin and also added Epson Salts-1 tblspoon to gallon of water. I have a photo stored on photobucket.com. I am going to see if I can paste the address here to see if you can see the two photos of same tree. Thank you for your time Lou Pezzuti. http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k215/pezzuti9/?action=view&current=Sicktree2.jpg http://s89.photobucket.com/albums/k215/pezzuti9/?action=view&current=Sicktree3.jpg

The Gala probably is just a bit slower to get going or it had transplant shock and the others didn't. Each tree is an individual and reacts in its own way, so you really cannot fairly judge the 4th by the behavior of the other three. If it arrived with full-sized leaves and hadn't grown any at all since then, I might be worried, or if it arrived bare and naked and hadn't put out any leaves at all since being planted, I'd be concerned. Brown edges wouldn't bother me this close to planting. Continued foliar problems on the Gala next year would be more worrisome. You do need the Gala as a pollinator for your other tree, but it can take apple trees several years before they start to bear fruit, so if the Gala doesn't survive, you can replace it next year. There is a prescribed fruit tree spraying schedule that you should be following in order to keep your trees healthy and happy. I'll link the OSU fact sheet that includes it below. With the amount of rainfall and humidity that y'all normally have there in your part of the state, it pays to be very vigilant about following the spray schedule every year in order to prevent disease. If you are really concerned about the tree and want someone to look at it and tell you if the look of the leaves bothers them, you could post this question at the Fruit Tree/Orchard forum here at Garden Web and ask the folks there what they think. The fruit-growing experts there have an amazing wealth of knowledge. Here is a link that might be useful: Home Fruit Tree Pest/Disease Management