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bryanlee_ms

Does my pear tree have fire blight?

Bryan Lee
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago

I think I know the answer to this question, but just want to check - does my pear tree in this picture look like it has fire blight?

A couple weeks ago, my wife noticed a few dead leaves. She cut off that branch (washing the pruners with a bleach solution after each cut). However, several days later, more dead leaves and black spots started appearing.

This is a small tree, as we purchased it as a bare root a year or two ago. It is a Bartlett pear. Looking at the tree, every single branch from the main trunk I see has either dead leaves or black spots on leaves. The best-looking leaves are near the bottom, but I suspect these may be from the root-stock.

The only reason I'm still holding out hope that this is not fire blight is that I've read that some common symptoms are shepherd's crook shaped branches, and some sort of amber-colored liquid oozing from the trunk - I don't see either of those right now.

If this fire blight, since every branch down to the root-stock seems to be affected, we're thinking of just removing the entire tree and looking for a more disease-resistant variety.

Thanks if anyone can help with the disease identification and/or advice!

(If this is useful information, we're in the San Francisco Bay Area, where we had some unusually warm 70s days in February followed by some cold, wet weather).






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