Hi,
I planted 10 new trees this year all from the same nursery. Everything is doing well EXCEPT two pears and one plum. They all seem to be suffering the same way, first leaves out are getting blackened on the edges and no new leaves or growth are emerging. I’ve checked disease photos online and can’t find one that matches. Hoping to solve this before it potentially spreads.
If someone can tell from my photos what is going on it would be greatl
y appreciated. Thanks.
I’m zone 5b. Rocky Mountains, 7000 ft altitude, northern New Mexico. I’ve been growing fruit trees for 5 years now and have probably 30 growing well. I haven’t seen or had this problem yet with new plantings though. These were put in the ground early April. The photos are from 2 days ago.
May I ask what nursery supplied your Harrow crisp pear?
MEHRABYAN NURSERY located near Ithaca NY. I’ve ordered from them in the past, never had any issues.
I’d be tempted to dig one up to see if there has been any root development.
Looks like a water problem. What zone are they in? Have you had very high heat? Possibly the roots haven’t grown enough yet to support the leaves.
5b, nothing crazy hot. 90 max one or two days otherwise high 70s to 85. Not much rain but I water regularly and all the other new pears and plums are on the same watering and soil and have like a foot of new growth already with no browning, dying leaves.
Maybe I should dig one up to check the roots…
I have a Harrow Sweet on OHxF97 rootstock, planted in spring 2024, showing identical symptoms to your Harrow Crisp. I dug it up a couple of weeks ago and noticed it hadn’t developed any feeder roots - no significant root growth at all. I attribute this to the rootstock and the wet location. Interestingly, the other three pears planted in the same area but on Betulifolia rootstock are doing very well!
huh, wow very interesting and yes that looks like mine. Same rootstock almost (but the 87 semi dwarf variety). Yet 15 feet away I have a Seckel Pear on the same rootstock that is growing superbly. I’m starting to remember that the 3 trees I have that are failing were wrapped together in the shipping box; so maybe their roots dried out too much together, or the opposite were too waterlogged and died back.
Not likely. My four pear trees came from the same nursery and the same box, so I can definitely rule out dried or waterlogged roots.
I’m starting to question my decision to replace a failing pear tree with one on 87 rootstock. I should probably choose a better spot - somewhere the other 87 rootstock pears are doing well.
I actually have a potomac pear on OHxF87 from the same nursery Planted this spring with similar symptoms.
With the extremely wet spring we had here so far I’m starting to think the spot i planted it might just not drain well and may be hampering root development.
The Olympic on Bet roots i got from them at the same time and planted about 15 feet away seems to be doing well enough despite arriving with (relatively) few roots, but my heavy clay is slow draining and with all the rain the last 2 months I’ve realized the spot the OHxF87 roots are planted in must be on just a slightly lower grade in the yard as it stays mushy longer after these 6inch+ rainfall weeks… debating if I should dig it up this fall after it goes dormant and replant it on a mound like i did for my stonefruit…
At the time of planting all the trees i got from them looked very good (the Olympic was the one i was least impressed by actually and that one seems to be doing fine just growing slow compared to my apples - it was slow waking up and has been slow growing but it had notibly fewer roots at planting so I’m attributing it to that and guessing in a year or will have recovered and become more vigorous) so I’m more inclined to think its my growing conditions vs the trees i recieved per se in this situation currently.
