I think I might be screwed. My apple and pears are basically growing under cedar trees. I have started to find tiny orange spots on some apple leaves today.
This is what I found on 50% off trees at home depot. I have bud wood coming from USDA later this summer and I need somewhere to graft. Bringing these home will guarantee CAR wont it.
Those look like white cedar (aka arborvitae) - Thuja occidentalis. White cedar is not a host for cedar-apple rust. The primary non-pome fruit host of CAR is eastern red cedar (pointy leaves, not flat). You aren’t doomed. But you could easily have wild red cedars without a half mile.
If that is CAR on the pears, it won’t spread to other trees this year.
This is a good source for info. Cedar-Apple Rust and Quince Rust
Those dont look like the variety of cedars that will be the alternate host for the fungus either.
IMO people get way too concerned with CAR in most cases. A couple of sprays at the right time will all but eliminate the infection on your trees for the year. Lots of good varieties that get by passed if you wont take a variety that shows a bit of susceptibility to CAR. Lots harder and more devastating diseases to deal with than CAR.
If you get CAR lesions forming, Immunox is fairly effective. Not all apple variants are vulnerable either, as only 2 of my varieties have any significant problem.
I don’t think that anyone has said it yet. Although I do not know about whether those trees will host CAR, It certainly looks like CAR to me.
Probably. My CAR lesions were usually rounder, though.
If the underside of them starts producing those tube-like structures you know you have CAR.
That is not Apple Cedar Rust. That looks very much like European pear rust. Although the host plants are juniper, cedar, most sources say, there is no effective spray for home owners.
It seems to be more troublesome than CAR which can be sprayed by Myclobutanil.
@lordkiwi, your trees in the pics are pear, I believe.
I am preaty sure I took a picture of one Apple and one Pear. These where at home depot where I was thinking about buying an Apple 50% off. I need a tree to bud graft on later this summer.
The first pic looks like pear leaves. The second, if I were to say, I’d say pear leaves but I could be wrong.
What surprises me is that it is a lot harder to find a way to treat pear rust.
Well even if I took two pear pictures by accident. Both Apples and Pears where equally infected at HD. If I bought them would Immunox provide any benefit now or in august?
Immunox for apples, definitely.
Immunox for pear rust, possibly. Not enough info on pear rust treatments but one site said what can work with pear scab, should work with pear rust. So myclo should work.
OK, last year most of my pears ended up being deformed from the time they were fairly small until they eventually fell off prematurely. Those that stayed on for a few weeks mostly had a strange, florescent-bright orange growth on them that formed little hairs. My understanding is that is some form of rust-either cedar or European or quince? So this year I was going to spray myclobutinyl and captan mixture (wasteful to double up like that but I’m not 100% sure which is best and I don’t have many pear trees so its not a big deal to spray both). Depending on which University site I go to one recommends Captan and the next recommends Myclo. SO I guess I’ll use both since it won’t cost much more.
Well, most of my pears are just now finishing petal drop, and almost all the petals have now fallen off (1-3 days ago) and the tiny little pears have just become visible in the last 1-3 days. But by the time the petals fell off, the majority of my tiny pears are ALREADY deformed and/or burnt looking
The pear trees do have spots on the new leaves, but they are black spots, not the orange spots that I thought came from Rust. Also, some of the baby pear bunches look like fire blight-black and wilted/dead. So I’m not sure if I’ve got fire blight or some kind of rust. But that bright orange fungus last year made me think it was rust for sure. The galls on my cedar trees are not gelatinous yet either…at least none that I saw were. But there is some orange looking spots on a lot of my cedar limbs.
Here are a few photos I took today:
Here is what my cedar trees look like. They are about 75 yards from my pears
Here is a gall. It feels solid. Has it already been gelatinous or not done so yet? Today is first day I looked at them:
Here is what my pears look like. As I’ve said, they look more like fireblight than rust, but I know I had rust last year and it seems early for fireblight??? I should have got photos of the other tiny pears that are deformed. They don’t have black or orange on them yet, they look alive but are elongated and deformed (many of them).
Here is what all the leaves on my pear trees look like. Covered in spots already, but the spots are black and not orange???
So what say you all? Have I already missed the chance to fight Rust? Is rust the problem I have or is it fireblight now, and maybe I can still stop rust with spray even though petals have fallen? There are still enough normal looking baby pears that I’m willing to try to spray a fungicide if its worth while??
Thanks all.
Im going to address these one at a time. Disease one is very common fungal diseass and is controllable which is pear scab
See this link http://treefruit.wsu.edu/crop-protection/disease-management/ and captan is a good approach. V. pirina is the fungus causing the problem.
Disease number 2 is called pear quince rust not to be confused with trellis rust or other rusts http://www.walterreeves.com/gardening-q-and-a/pear-quince-rust/ caused by the fungus Gymnosporangium clavipes.
Disease #3 could be pears not forming due to natural processes (rare) which turn black and die but could be fireblight etc. Its to early to tell yet.
I was hoping the King of All things Pear (Clark) would respond! And undoubtedly you have nailed it. Those photos in that second link are exactly what my little pears looked like last year.
Now for an important question: Am I too late to do anything about one or both of these problems this year? I’ve read in some places that you have to spray for the quince rust DURRING BLOOM- if so I’m too late. The petals just fell off in the last 3 days but they are gone, and as I said, a lot of my baby pears are already elongated and deformed- but not all. Can I still save the rest or am i too late? Thanks.
Your not to late to save some of the crop. I would chain saw prune the cedars to the ground and eliminate the source of infection or spray them also. See this link Pear Rust
To address bacterial infections such as,fireblight and blossom blast see this link Pear Orchardist Trivia
Cutting my big cedar is something I’ve been wrestling with for about 5 years now. Its a huge, beautiful specimen that is right square in my front yard. I decided about once a month that I’m going to cut it down, but a few days later I just can’t bring myself to do it!! haha. But with me trying to grow apples and pears, its crazy to leave it! It may go this summer.
It is interesting to note, BTW, that my asian pears have neither the spots on the leaves nor the deformed baby pears or burnt looking areas. One of my pears has every single leaf covered with black spots and almost all baby pears are deformed, while other Europeans show some signs but not nearly as much. My point is that it is very easy to see that some pears are a lot more resistant to these problems than others, which is interesting to me.
Thanks again! I’m going to check out your links right now…
@thecityman thanks here is an old link which may be useful Pear disease and Insect identification. Your right worse case scenario top work the trees to a more disease resiztant type of pear. The harrow pears are disease resistant in my area.
I have a row of about 50 juniper trees along the border of my lot. They have galls every year. The rust on my apples is minimal, easily controlled with the same spray I use for scab.
Yes a good approach is spray the cedar but some of those cedar get pretty large.
