Hi all, I’m new to the forum. What a wealth of knowledge! I poked around already (both here and for many days on various ag extension websites) and haven’t seen anything close enough to what I have going on with these two Bartletts for my novice eye to confirm what’s going on. Is this what overwintered fire blight looks like? Or is there something else going on with these trees?
I planted these two last year. First one, then the other began to have its bark take on an orange look. By September, they both had their leaves go yellow and drop almost a month before other trees in my area. The leaves never looked burnt, nor did the branches crook downward, so I didn’t think it was fire blight - with which I have no firsthand experience - and I assumed they were shocked from my having planted them in June (we’d just bought the house; I couldn’t resist). Over the winter, I noticed black cankers, darkened areas of branches and streaking. (I pruned off the branches with worst of the cankers already.) Might this be fire blight or some other disease? Whatever it might be, they don’t seem well. The limbs are a bit floppy, and I’m leaning toward pulling both out.
The other factor is that the property we purchased is both blessed and cursed with several beautiful old, 30-foot apple trees that have gone decades without any tending. I hemmed and hawed over whether to trim them back gradually or to cut them all at ~8 feet and let them rebound. I opted for the the gradual approach, which seemed more manageable with the other draws on my time. But now, I’m wondering if the two pears, which are 30 ft from an old apple, might have picked up what struck them from the older trees. And further, I fear that by not cutting down the apples while they were still dormant, I’ve left a reservoir of diseases ready to pounce on my new plantings this year. (Ack!) Any thoughts are welcome, and thanks for reading of my sorrows.
Heres my thoughts i would spray the apples first with copper and then regularly with a fungicide like immunox or captan and leave them alone this year. Make sure you wear goggles and a mask etc. when you spray to be be safe. Spray upwind only so the spray is not blowing back on you. Try to get a sprayer with a good stream to hit the tops of those apples. Prune them up this winter. You prune an old apple alot at once they can die so i would not. The pears i would do the same spray with copper take a pocket knife and carve out that black spot in the wood and leave them alone. Under the black spot will be dark wood carve it all out. I would paint the trunks with white interior paint once you get the trunks cleaned up. Bartlett are very susceptible to all diseases which is why i graft them over. The ones i had sufferred with fireblight constantly. I top worked them and my problems ended. I see nothing catastrophic there yet.
About the old apple trees, you may find this article useful:
The part you want is the part from the Michigan State extension service - it starts partway down the page.
As I understand it - and I am far from being an expert - the general idea is that you want to take a gradual approach, over the course of several years, so that you avoid either killing the tree (as Clark warns) or shocking it into excessively vigorous regrowth (in other words, a whole bunch of non-fruiting wood which you would then have to prune out again).
Thanks all, @snowflake, I found cankers on multiple sides of the trees. Were you thinking this could be winter sun damage? @clarkinks, this seems like a reasonable and doable strategy - thanks! @JinMA, thanks for this link. I remember reading this many, many months ago when I was prepping to trim the apples.
About what you said about leaning toward pulling the pears: In my experience, and from what I’ve heard from people far more knowledgeable than I am, pears can be slow to establish in their first year only to take off in their second. I’d be inclined to give them a chance and see how they do.
