Kal: Something is wrong if your 20th Century (Nijiseiki) pears are reaching only golfball size. Asian pears need to be thinned heavily, sometimes over and over again, to allow the remaining fruit to achieve the size it should. I thin mine about 4 times, and the remaining pears reach over 3/4 pounds each. I am assuming here that you would prefer to have fewer large fruits than a whole basketfull of golfballs. Yellow skin generally means ripe, or nearly ripe, but try Danny Boquet's trick of shining a light through them at night to see if they are translucent. I have been doing this for years, and it is quite interesting. When the fruit is full of sugars, the light passes right through. Also specify your location next time you post. You may not be in the ideal climate to grow Asian pears, although they are widely adaptable. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I'm going to give you the counter opinion to copingwithclay. I had to seriously cut out fireblight two years running in my Hosui when it was small and it went on to survive girdling by goats. It it currently loaded with fine fruit. I've cut back Nijiseiki to just above the graft twice and it recovered (though I had to be really patient). Both of these, like the majority of Asian pears, are considered fireblight susceptible. I chopped the top out of my YaLi due to FB even though it is supposedly fireblight resistant. Shinko is also supposed to be resistant but it's not much for taste (for me at least). Most of my other Asian pears are considered susceptible though they have not gotten infected. Bottom line is that in my limited experience, most, if not all, of the Asian pears worth having are potentially susceptible and I would definitiely try to save them before getting rid of them. The recommended spray to prevent FB is streptomycin which is available from some of the mail order places. I have used it but I don't have enough experience to say how well it works in general. Close monitoring with quick pruning is my recommendation.

My first thought is... why is it inside in a pot? Beyond that... no, not fireblight... looks like a watering issue... too little water...or too much water. Soilless potting mix not a good choice for a growth medium for a fruiting tree. It's not a 'houseplant', like a Schefflera or African violet.

Yeah, I thought the leaves would be going to but last year I had some fire blight on a 20th century and it took the whole tree down so I wanted to try to be more proactive this time. Last time I cut off the infected parts (but maybe by only an inch), and it seemed to have no effect. It slowly just spread all the way down to the root stock and eventually the whole tree was dead. I like your suggestion. I will keep a close eye on it and if it gets any worse or the leaves start to turn I will take it off. When I planted it I cut it pretty short to encourage low scaffolding. Cutting off this section would take probably half of the new growth off (which ideally I'd prefer not to do), but if it gets worse I'll take it off as you suggest.