Whether this is a fungus (sooty mold/blotch or some other fungus?) or overwintering fireblight, I need some advise. It’s not on any pears except Magnus and Warren… I have plenty of others w/o this.
I should probably spray with hort oil and copper to see if that cures it. Otherwise, I’d like to know if I’m dealing with early on fire blight?
You’ll see or notice the areas are affected for a short distance and then the entire rest of the stem above or below each stem where the area is affected return to normal bark w/o any stippling or discoloration to the bark.
This has just started since planting four years ago in 2018 on OHxF 87 trees I bench-grafted all at the same time that winter… so they’re all the same batch of rootstock, grafted at the same time, & planted at the same time & all in the same soil content.
With about 99% certainty I can say it’s not a bacterial infection eg. fireblight though many will disagree with me. The infection is called black rot. You want to treat it with fungicides and remove any severely infected trees. Another words act like it’s fireblight and amputate when needed. Forgot the name of it until a few minutes ago.
I would agree I dont think its Fireblight. I have seen pear trees from huge commercial nurseries that are almost entirely covered in that “black sooty mold” Try washing it off. If it comes off easily it is just some type of mold.
How did you over winter them, I see stuff like that on some of my plants that I store in the shed, I don’t recall seeing it on any of the pear root stock that I have stored in the shed. If it’s the same thing as what you have then it just goes away when it’s outside, I am guessing with the cooler fresh air and the rain. I don’t recall what I have seen it on, yet if I had seen it on pear root stock I would have freaked out and remembered it for sure.
I myself feel certain that it’s some sort of fungus. Was it wintered in a humid place that gets hot during the day? Try washing it away with water, if it does not go away with that then try a fungicide.
if seen something similar from rootstocks out of cold storage.
Generally when i see something suspicious. I cut with pruners, to see if it’s still healthy bark/cambium. And there are no discolorations of the wood. If I’m not confident it’s healthy i try to prune almost a foot down.
That of course depends on if you only have a few spots, Or if it’s all over.
It’s black rot. @clarkinks got it right. The areas have developed at crotch angles (trunk is affected and branch at angle) and symptoms on branches. It’s a dead ringer match. My soil dries out and is wet because of the clay and that has stressed those two trees. Btw, both of those cultivars (Warren and Magnus) are both at the very far back of my terrible soil and it’s twice as worst there as closer to my house which heads the other direction (from the viewable grape arbor).
I have no doubt about it. Clark thank you. That article pinpointed it!
Blackrot in grapes I completely eliminated within removal of some vines but not the main vines.
Sprayed with immunox and captan applied alternatively. I’m not talking treatment I mean elimination and it has never came back.
I cut Warren for scions and found (2) only it and on branches but I don’t know where the cuts of those particular per-each stick came from off the tree. It they were at the canopy bottom (my trees are all limbed above deer height) then the fungus is too close to the trunk and would have to be cut off to ensure it doesn’t travel back.
Magnus is a mess. It’s a gonner.
I think I’ll cut these two off and think later what to put on. Thanks Clark.
With many grape varieties, including the seedless ones most of my clients prefer, a single myclobutanil spray when very tiny grapes first form is enough to protect them most seasons- in my climate. .These are grapes that scab up and rot every time without treatment.
On the other hand, I have a client growing a range of wine grapes and they’ve proven much harder to protect, requiring spray throughout the season. We mix Captan with myclo for them instead of alternating. To risky to ever depend on Cap alone when frequent rain is the norm and no one can immediately spray after a downpour.
Your making a very valid point I’m glad you brought up. Some grapes resist black rot better than others. Seedless grapes like red Canadice instantly got black rot when i planted it. Honestly I really suspect they were infected before I bought them I had no trouble before or since. My seedless concord and other seeded slip skins are more resistant. I don’t have red canadice anymore it seemed to attract problems to my grapes. Some things are more trouble than they are worth. This is the part that gets me, why not do with fruit what we do with tomato tags? V, F, N, T for those who don’t know what I mean The Tomato Code - GardenLady.com
Imagine if a similar code was used on fruit trees and grapes. Until then I guess we have job security
So in an ideal world you could have a similar coding system for fruit problems like black rot, fireblight, Scab, rust and so on. Wouldn’t it be nice if you were shopping for Harrow delight pear and you saw it said resistant to all of the above? Things like fruit ripens in summer? 3 years to produce? Tomato give you all that D for determinate , VFT for disease resistance, 67 days for days until production. In the meantime we will have some oppurtunities to learn more and share more. Everyone is beginning to appreciate the importance of their own orchard skills.
My problem with tomatoes is early blight. No other disease has ever been a factor. I have tried to grow varieties that claim to be resistant to know benefit. Mostly it is just the most vigorous varieties that continue to bear late in the season, unless we get some nice timely drought.
That’s actually not to abnormal from what I see there. Sunburn can crack trunks or sometimes they do it naturally. I would spray with fungicide and not worry about it. It’s like fireblight in a way or rust it’s always around don’t overreact to it either. That tree still has lots of life in it by what I see there so far. If I see an area on a trunk I don’t like but it’s a big tree after I spray with fungicide I take a knife and cut it out. If the wood is brown underneath it’s blackrot but once you carve that out to get to good white wood burn it some and call it good.
I got that for sure on apples, and very few I have. I figured it was nothing.
I actually had a case (first time in my life I’ve seen it unfold and quickly it did) Verticillium Wilt. First a Shantung maple’s leaves all drooped overnight, then about 30 feet or I don’t remember away an apricot did the same but it took longer. One big branch would have its’ leaves wilt and hang and then another, & then another… until finally the whole thing perished. The maple took maybe 2-weeks to die right in front of my eyes and the apricot maybe 2-months… it was wild.
