I am located in Western PNW and noticed these brown/orange spots on my two new pear trees. Tried to google it and it seems to match the photos of pear rust but ideally would love to confirm and also curious if you had luck treating it.
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It looks like trellis rust. Hopefully it impacts the leaves only. It is to late to spray anything this year.
Is it basically a one year thing if it impacts leaves only (obviously I’ll thoroughly clean them up and everything, once they drop) but it can settle in the wood and become permanent? So far I haven’t seen anything on the bark and when comparing to the pictures on the internet, I also haven’t seen that bumpy “crown” underneath the leaves.
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There are nearby evergreens that harbor the disease.
“This type of fungus needs two host trees. So, the disease first develops on a juniper or red cedar, then spreads to apple or crabapple trees. Though, some apple trees are resistant” and i should add pear trees. Galls can look different than this but here is one type on cedar
Note that is not my photo it is from the blog above. There are many types of rust. Galls look different depending on the type of rust it is.
See this old link
Yeah I read about this while googling the topic and my neighbor’s property has what is mostly likely a big juniper, although I’ve never seen those orange blobs on it. What is weird to me is that I have 8 apple trees, and most of them have been here for over a year and none of them have these dots. The two pear trees were planted recently, just a few months ago, and they nearly instantly started getting this thing. One of them is fairly far from that juniper too. They are also locally discovered PNW varieties that I hoped would be resistant to our mushroom realities here.
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Some rusts impact pears and others apples. The galls look different but they are around or the trees would not have rust. The key to getting rid of it is spray the evergreens and pears. If the rust does not impact the fruit it is not as big a deal.
I’ve been plucking off affected leaves on my trees. That’s not a sustainable approach for most people.
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Hopefully the trees just manage to coexist with those junipers because I can’t really do anything about the neighbor’s trees. There is also a chance that it’s a one-off thing - this year is particularly brutal in terms of fungal diseases. Not sure why but my first guess would be the very unusual weather at the end of the recent winter (or more broadly - the entire winter was weird really).
@disc4tw It is sustainable for me in terms of labor - I have a small hobby “orchard” on a city lot but I wasn’t sure if it was doing more harm or good for the tree. I tried it initially, it kept coming and I stopped because I worried I would defoliate the tree.
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Well, the rust will defoliate the tree on its own and by letting the leaves fall, you’re increasing the bacteria content of the soil to start the cycle again. I have Immunox to deal with cedar apple rust and I expect it would work well for the pears too, but I haven’t begun spraying yet as my trees are still fairly young and unproductive. Next year I may begin an actual spray schedule for things I can’t control with beneficial insects etc. The other option is asking neighbors with host trees if they would prefer fruit trees (and cut down the host trees).
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Thanks, I’ll read about Immunox and may give it a try sometime down the line, maybe in two years if the story repeats next year. Also, if the leaves start to drop, I’ll definitely notice and collect them - I tend to micromanage the hell out of my trees lol.
Unfortunately removing the neighbor’s tree, while I very much would love that for a number of reasons, is not an option since he is a very… “difficult” person.
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Dale Carnegie’s How to win friends and influence people is a good one for learning how to deal with difficult people. If the tree is at all on your property there are alternatives available too.
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Haha thanks for the suggestion but the relationship with that neighbor is far beyond repair and we have an openly hostile relationship right now. He is one of those people who perceives friendliness as weakness and would bite off entire arm if you extend a hand. The tree is firmly on his lot so it’s just something I’ll have to deal with.
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Just an update on this - this rust is brutal and slowly consuming the leaves on both pear trees. It’s way way more than just some orange dots now. Is it hopeless? If I am located in Western PNW and have junipers around. Is it doable at all or should I give up on pears?
One small bit of hope that I am clinging to is that this year seems to be in general brutal as far as fungal diseases go. I can see pears all over my neighborhood covered with these orange dots and apples covered with powdery mildew. Maybe next year will be better? If not, I’ll probably call it a day and replace them with plums that handled this year like champs - I think they just slept through the worst of it and when they woke up, the mushrooms must have been banished by the sun.
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I’m just north of Portland. Rust this year is the worst I’ve seen in the last 15. I wouldn’t make permanent decisions based on just this year.
Also, its very variety dependent. I have multigrafted trees on which some varieties exhibit symptoms and others have none. Worst case is you can graft over to resistant varieties and have a big head start vs planting new trees.
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Thanks, happy to hear it’s not just me! I specifically picked the pear trees that allegedly originated from around here (Rescue and Orcas) in hopes that would help. Also it was super interesting to observe apple trees - I planted an assortment of different kinds (and have an old Gravenstein growing on my property) and they all reacted differently this season. Some were completely consumed by mildew and still struggle to grow. Some had just a few tips, and some completely ignored mildew and showed no symptoms.
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My experience with Juniper Pear Rust in the PNW is that European pears are affected much more than Oriental pears. After a neighbor planted junipers near us, I had to remove a grafted Anjou pear branch on a 20th Century Asian pear tree. The latter was only lightly affected. A Hosui pear that I added later is also similarly resistant.
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