Two pear trees, an early season Ubileen and a late season Anjou, are developing blackened leaves. My orchard is in the Great Lakes Region.
This doesn’t look like the drying and curling of fireblight pictures I see on the Web. I had this condition before on the Ubileen, and I treated it an iron supplement supplied to the drip line – don’t know if that helped or the condition went away on its own.
This summer, especially much of July has been very dry. I did not water because the orchard had gotten about an inch of rain two days prior.
In “doing something” until I get more information, I applied per label directions as a nutritional supplement 1) foliar “liquid iron” (iron sulfate), 2) liquid iron to the soil along the drip line. Following that, on the theory this may be a leaf-chewing pest, I applied Avaunt (indoxacarb) insecticide in a separate spray, not taking the chance at tank-mixing. I did not apply a fungicide yet.
I also read a recommendation to apply foliar copper.
Here is what the blackened leaves look like mixed in with green leaves – doesn’t look like pictures of pear diseases I have seen where leaves curl or form spots.
Here is what the yellowing leaves look like
