I hope I did this correctly… SE Wisconsin…
I have 30+ pears trees and afew are completely dying. The are all brown. This had to happen in the last 1-2 weeks. After a very wet week, It has been dry the last week.
I did try summer pruning 2-3 weeks to encourage spur formation. The varieties [dying] are Harrow Sweet , Potomac & Magness. The rootstock is OHFx87 some of the summer pruned trees are fine. I think some of the dying trees were not summer pruned.
They’re dead aren’t they…Any advice.?. Thanks!
Can you take some close ups of the branch tips? Fireblight has a Shepard hook on some of the branch tips. Are they impacted at the top of the tree and ends of branches first? Is the spot where the first trees died lower than the other spots?
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It’s heartbreaking to see. Very sorry for your loss.
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I’ll get better pics tomorrow. Thanks!
Sorry for that Herb. It looks like a really nice set up you have.
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thanks!
Thanks! It has been fun.
It looks like they are dying from the INSIDE OUT I don’t see the Shepard’s hook typical of fireblight in the spring.
I doubt that they are dying. More like some disease or pest affecting the leaves. Maybe pear psylla which affects the upper canopy more than lower. Seems to fit. Or one of several mite species that affect pears.
Psylla if bad enough can kill the tree but yours aren’t dead yet. I’d think it would take several yrs to kill a tree.
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Thanks! Other years I’ve had what I suspected as mite problems. I won’t rush to order new trees for next year and spend my time researching methods of attacking pear psylla.
The wood looks good so that makes fireblight and root issues less likely. I would also expect its a leaf issue, psylla or pear scab. Psyllae could be the “mites” you saw, look into that pest.
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