First time seeing this on my Asian pears in the 4 years I planted. Does this necessitate removing the branch or it just affects that on spot (some other blights)
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I think the margin of safety is at least 6" (even 8") below the canker - in other words, below the two spurs below the canker. FB is a mess with pear trees and being safe is the only practice to follow. I was at the Alson Smith Center (Winchester, VA) a few weeks ago and the general feeling among the orchardists is that pears are FB magnets and hard to successfully grow. I would also spray the daylights out of that tree with something like Harbour and then pray.
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I’d definitely cut that way back. Looks like it’s been festering for a good while which means it could be running down inside that main branch undetected.
I’d cut back at least to the three- way intersection at the very bottom of the pic. Consider going further than that. After you cut it, watch that cut end like a hawk for any oozing. If you see that after a week or two then there’s going to be trouble and you’ll need to cut a lot farther down and start praying.
Spraying won’t do any good unless there are still flowers open
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The cut end? Should I leave exposed or cover with buddy tape ? (Not sure if buddy tape will stop blight from entering). No flowers on tree only fruit
Definitely leave the cut exposed so that you can monitor for signs of FB. I think there’s a greater risk of FB already having moved farther down than you cut vs reinfection of the cut end. But make the cut in dry weather.
For me I would just pull that off and call it a day. I have not seen those spur strikes expand, there is not so much vigor there. The main thing to be concerned with is if the damage goes into the main limbs. Waterspouts are often the source of that, lots of vigor by the main limbs. If you decide to do that make sure to keep an eye on it.
My Seckel got absolutely nailed last year, and it infected some bigger limbs so I had to remove much of the tree.
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A shot of copper after pulling off?