Early last month I was delighted to see my little pear tree flowering like crazy. Now it’s in leaf, but the leaves don’t look so good…
More than half are all curled up and black around the edges. I see no webs or signs of sucking bugs.
Alas I am no gardener, and I don’t know what any of this means. If I saw bugs I could come up with something like a plan.
So I figure, maybe it needs feeding? It’s planted in a hugelculture hole with lots of mulch and organic material, but this is its third spring and last year I didn’t do anything special about feeding.
Vaguely aware that over fertilizing can be worse than doing nothing, I’ve done something rather timid. I filled an old cracked bucket with my oldest and most-composted horseshit, then saturated it with water to let it soak through to the roots. Is this of any value? I’ve got some Miracle Gro all-purpose plant food here. Should I be using that? Dunno.
It could be a fungal infection which can be treated both with chemical or homemade treatments. It could also be fireblight which is a bacterial infection and can only be treated by pruning off the affected parts and even that is not always successful. Your best bet is to cut off a sample bag it and take it to the garden centre as they will be able to identify it. Sorry I can’t be any more positive.
Letting the manure tea seep into the ground is way better for your tree than miracle grow. At least that is how my mama took care of her plants and they were beautiful. I on the other hand can kill cactus.
My best guess is that the tree simply needs more water, more often. Without being able to see the leaves up close, or the trunk of the tree, it’s hard to tell what else might be going on.
Unfortunately, the average “garden center” probably has nobody on staff who knows anything at all, and relying on anything told to you there is risky. A real commercial nursery would be better.
Best to take/send a sample of leave and bark tissue to the state ag agent nearest you.
But water deeply and frequently for a while and see if that won’t take care of it.
Oh, and the serious rule of thumb is that no fertilizer should ever be applied to plants that look sick or stressed – and lace of sufficient water is the worst stress – as yours certainly does. I’d wait until it showed signs of vigorous new growth, then apply your manure tea.
Joel, this web page has a pile of information about blackening of pear leaves that should be useful to you.
http://aces.nmsu.edu/ces/yard/1997/042897.html
It doesn’t look quite like fireblight to me, but pear trees are very susceptible to it. Fireblight tends to shrivel and blacken the tips of branches first. If you had some way to filter some of the minerals out of your water I’m sure the tree would appreciate that. ML is right, you don’t put any type of growth inducing fertilizer on a plant that is showing signs of stress. Stick your finger in the dirt or dig a small hole to check the moisture level of the dirt. Miracle Grow would be one of the worst things to apply, as it leaves fertilizer salts on the surface of and in the dirt. If you have a magnifying glass check the leaves for signs of things growing on them. Copper sulfate is good for that. Spinosad is good for bugs, worms and mites and if your trees has them you’ll see signs of it with a magnifying glass on the leaves. But those leaves look very distressed to me. BTW many state extension offices are equipped to diagnose from good close up photos attached to an email. Check with them and see if you can do that. Your county should have an extension Master Gardener office as well as an extension educator or extension agent.
It looks very much like the Fireblight we dealt with last year. If you can remove the affected Branches (use alcohol on pruners between each trim) and treat the Tree early, you might save it. There are lots of expensive ways to spray, but there is also 6 cups of water to 4 cups of White Vinegar (scaled for need). If it isn’t Fireblight but some thing else than you are out a whole lot less.
Just a question : are the tips of the branches arching downward? That appears to be a classic example of FB.
Hope the little Tree makes it.
Hey mutti! Wonderful to see you!
Hi – I’m a frequent lurker here and there (waves furiously) 🙂
Its a fungus called leaf curl.
It affects peach trees more commonly than other trees. The general solution is to wait until winter and spray it with a copper solution to kill the fungus. If you spray it when it has leaves you can kill the tree.
If your winter is cold enough it can kill the fungus for you. At least in my case it did (Yeah finally a good result from a Michigan winter)
Meant to include this earlier. I have to peach trees that have had this issue before, but in my case it did clear up on its own due to the cold
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaf_curl
http://www.caf.wvu.edu/kearneysville/disease_descriptions/omplfcrl.html