Year old pear has splitting bark, curious if someone with knowledge could give me a heads up. Is it something like fire blight or just growth splitting. Thanks
Not growth splitting. The necrotic tissue around the split suggests fireblight to me, but there are other possibilities.
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Also if it is fire blight do I just cut below it or will spraying keep it in line?
I watched this a week or so ago.
It might help you out some.
Hate FB… lost many apple and pear to it here.
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First, make sure it is fireblight. And if it is it’s too late for sprays. If it is, cut well below it in steps until you come to completely clean tissue (no darkening) and then cut some below that, sterilizing your tools with bleach water, Pinesol, a torch, or alcohol.
And don’t be afraid to remove the whole tree if necessary - better than letting it become a source to infect other trees. Good luck!
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My understanding is FB manifests during active growth.
If the tree went dormant without this bark issue or leaves turning black, it doesn’t intersect with typical fireblight timing (humid, rainy, warm). There may be other causes. If I had to guess, yours look like deer damage where the skin of the tree was physically removed. Most of the diseases that kill the skin wouldn’t remove it unless you picked it off.
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This damage all happened from fall to winter. I noticed it around January. I haven’t touched the tree either so thats all how it has progressed on it’s own. While deer is unlikely I do have goats that destroyed other nearby trees.
To be honest I would be thrilled if it was just damage to the bark. The black edges like mark pointed out where my main concern as the other trees eaten didn’t look like that.
All the replies are greatly appreciated, this is my first pear so trying to keep it going.
Hard to tell from the photo, but this could be winter sun scald damage. I had problems with it on my pears. They were damaged pretty bad, but healed up fine. It looks like your damage faces south our southeast if I am interpreting your photo correctly. This would line up with typical sun burn damage. The broken and withered small branch may point to fire blight, though.
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