Yesterday I stopped by a friend’s house to see how his fruit trees are doing. He planted about eight trees in the fall of 2022. Two of those trees included a Bartlett and a Warren pear. Immediately I noticed what looked like fireblight strikes on one of the pear trees. I assumed it must be the Bartlett. But after looking at the tag, it was the Warren. The trees are about 12 feet apart from each other and the Bartlett looked to have one similar strike. But nearly all the new growth seemed to be affected on the Warren.
I am wondering if the tags on these two trees could have been mixed. The Bartlett had a pear growing on it, but I didn’t take a picture. I suggested my friend cut out the affected wood. Hopefully he does and the tree recovers/survives.
Below are some pictures of the infected wood. Just wanted to confirm, this is fireblight right?
No, he did not. We did have some late season rain in April this year that probably didn’t help the issue. I will send some pictures of the fruit on the Bartlett tree and the leaf shape for comparison sometime later today.
I very nice looking tree and fruit. Can I ask what you would rate the pears on a scale of 1-10 for flavor and quality? And does it matter what rootstock it’s grown on to be so resistant to FB?
@clarkinks has a thread every year where he rates fireblight-resistant pears. He rates Warren an 8/10:
So far as I know, the rootstock does not affect the fireblight resistance of the grafted tree. Rootstock resistance still matters, though, because a root sucker can grow out of the rootstock. If the rootstock is not a resistant variety, the sucker can get infected by fireblight, either before you prune it, or through the pruning wound itself if you are unlucky.
If fireblight travels down an infected sucker and reaches the roots, the tree is done for.
Thanks Clark. That confirms my suspicion that he had the labels switched between his two trees. And it makes sense that the Bartlett would have more fireblight than the Warren. Maybe I can convince him to graft over to another variety if he continues having problems.
I live in an area that gets HEAVY fog through May and June. Agriphage has really been helpful and kept the FB under control. However, it is expensive and only lasts a year. in the bottle.
