It might be fatal ...... big pear down with Fire Blight???????

[WTNUT]

Last year I had some blight appear on one of my bradford pear trees. I cut out the dead limbs as best as I could and sterilized the tools and burned the bad wood. But, as I inspected the tree today what I think to be fire blight appears to be on every lateral at some point. I am posting photos that show sample of the dead branches. Let me know what you think I should do. I have about 15 trees in this small orchard and my first question is should I just take this one out to help protect the others versus trying to see if this one makes it??????

 

[Turkey Creek]

I agree with the above guys. What was your purpose for planting the bradford to begin with? Lots of fire blight resistant pears to choose from, no sense in fighting a battle you dont need to fight.

 

[WTNUT]

Well first I made a mental mistake. The ornamental Bradford's are here at home. It is either a Leifer or Bartlett.

 

[WTNUT]

When I first started planting fruit trees those were alli could find locally. Now that I order barefoot online I have Harrow Sweet, Blake's Pride. Potomac. Red Clapps, Anjou, Forelle, Magness, and Red Bartlett at least. Some are slow to start but most doing really well.

 

[WTNUT]

Is it better to take one of the larger tractors and push it over so I can get roots and all out? I would like to plant anther tree there at some point. Does FB contaminate the soil?

 

[WTNUT]

Boy don't you hate to lose a fruit tree that you have 10 or more years into ........

 

[WTNUT]

Well that was down right scary!!!! With nearly all my laterals infected is there ANY BENEFIT to trying to cut the tree off at 4 feet from the ground and top work it?

 

[WTNUT]

I don't maybe there is one low lateral that is not infected that I can save until I can graft it nex year. I will have to look.

 

[WTNUT]

Well when the FB started last year or the year before, I did not know what it was. I know now! What did the critters do to your trees girdle them?

 

[WTNUT]

wow! Those trees had to be pretty good size. I am going to make sure all my 10 year plus trees have protection still in place.

 

[WTNUT]

For those of you who have been kind enough to respond would you try to keep a few feet of the trunk to graft next spring if there is a clean lateral down low to keep it alive? Or just take the entire tree out and plant a new one this fall.

 

[WTNUT]

Well I took everyone's advise and cut the pear tree this morning. I am attaching photos of the only branch that did not show signs of fire blight. If the tree survives this year, I will cut below the existing sprout and graft it next spring. I was in such a state of depression while cutting the darn tree that I made a huge mistake. I should have cut the tree a little higher on the trunk and then made a second clean cut. As it turn out, I peeled back part of the bark. Had I not peeled it back and cut higher, next year I could have cut the trunk off clean and grafted above the sprout in the photo and had a nurse limb. Then after the grafts took off, I could have eliminated the nurse limb. Oh well, we will see what happens next year. I did sterilize the saw and clean up all branches and leave and took them off the hill to burn as soon as they dry enough to burn.

 

[buckvelvet]

Sorry man, that really sucks but at least you know more moving forward about disease resistance. :(

 

[WTNUT]

Well the good news is that many of my younger trees are producing for the first time this year and my mature trees are loaded. We had a really really cold spring last year and I had a heavy crop year the previous year, so last years apples were far and few between. I have my first peaches this year, but I don't think I have any pears that are going to produce. They seem to take longer to fruit than all of my apples and peaches. Heck, I have some third leaf apples on 111 rootstock that have apples this year.

It will be interesting to see what happens to that one remaining sprout on the pear tree.