Poorly pear tree

[tattiep]

Can anyone shed any light as to what is wrong with my pear tree. This started at the end of last year but we thought is was wind damage as we'd had some ferocious storms up here however we have just returned from holiday and its obviously poorly again.

I've had this tree for nearly 20 years and it has survived moving garden so I'd hate to lose it.

Thank you

[rustylady]

When did you move it, and whereabouts are you?

[tattiep]

We moved it about 7 years ago and it has been providing us with sometimes 100 pears a year since then. last summer i did notice that some of the trees around the streets had the same spots on the underside of the leaves. We are in Fife in Scotland.

The tree was a Mother's Day present from my son when he was a toddler and he's 21 now so you can understand why I want to save it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[rustylady]

FB is our fruit expert, and I expect he'll be along soon with some advice.

If you could add your location to your profile it will show up on your posts.

[FB.]

I don't often visit this section so hadn't noticed this topic until nudged in this direction.

I'm not sure what the spots on the leaves are (what do they look like from above - maybe scab or a rust fungus?), but the twig looks like canker.

Canker is best removed as soon as seen because it can spread rapidly and kill a lot of twigs, branches and eventually the tree within a matter of a year or two - seek out any further branches with peeling/papery/sunken bark and post up pictures for diagnosis.

[FB.]

Oh - also which variety is it?

[tattiep]

I know the tree is a mixture and one of the varieties is Conference. I've added these photos in the hope they help. We pruned it back quite a bit last night and it seems that the majority of the infected parts are high up.

[FB.]

The leaves probably have scab. It's a nuisance but it's unlikely to kill the tree.

The peeling/split bark on the twigs looks like canker (although scab can sometimes cause canker-like effects on young twigs).

The canker-like problem looks like it could be quite extensive and looks like the tree could do with some priority attention to stop the spread before it is too late.

The following link says most of what I could say - and has a nice picture:
Pests and Deseases: show

Also a link to the RHS page on apple canker (much of which applies to pears):
Apple canker / Royal Horticultural Society

Quite probably, the worst affected branches - like those in your pictures - will have very little in the way of new shoots; just some little "rosettes" of leaves around spurs, which is the usual reaction of a branch or tree which is dying.

So I would look at dead and non-growing branches as the main ones which need urgent attention. Branches with vigorous new shoot growth are best left unpruned until after the tree is dormant.

Once the severely diseased parts are removed, you might want to consider using a spray of "Bordeaux Mixture" a couple of times a year to try to reduce reinfection from spores which have landed in the nearby environment.

[tattiep]

Thank you so much. As per usual it is raining here today but as soon as it is dry I'll get my husband to prune it back even more and I will get to the local garden centre for some Bordeaux mixture. It would break my heat if I lost the tree all together. It's so strange as the big branch that doesn't appear to be infected has little fruit starting to grow.

[FB.]

I'll get my husband to prune it back even more and I will get to the local garden centre for some Bordeaux mixture.

Only prune off shoots which are visibly diseased. Don't remove more than half of the leaves.
Tidying-up pruning (as opposed to emergency surgery) is best left until winter as it risks killing the tree from shock if too many leaves are lost - whereas in winter the tree has no leaves and suffers much less shock.