Topic: on pear tree leaves ???

[GRACELAND]

on  pear tree leaves ???any ideas ??

[PondDragon]

Pear rust.

[johhnyco15]

indeed pear rust take off all infected leaves and burn them  as quick as you can itsa sortof fungus and once out of control can kill a tree i know this might sound drastic  but it spreads really quickly  hope this helps

[saddad]

I have two where it has got out of control... I'm going to stool them this Winter and hope I can get it under control next year... if not they are out..

[InfraDig]

How do you get it under control? Are there any effective sprays?

[saddad]

Apparently there are for commercial growers... but mere amateurs like us can't use them. Pick off and burn affected leaves is all I've heard.

[Deb P]

I have two quite old u shape espallier pear trees in my front garden, after years of them suffering rust I've made the decision to cull them. I didn't get any clean fruit off them at all and they are so disfigured.....shame.

[Russell]

I once had an infestation of pear rust on three 50 year old espalier pear trees at the back of my herbacious border. The varieties were, and still are, Conference, Doyenne de Comice, and Buerre Hardy. At that time we had an Agricultural Chemicals Advisory Scheme and it was the growers decision and responsibility as to what was sprayed on crops. It was then therefore quite legal for me to spray Armillatox as a winter wash and Dithane at intervals during the spring. This procedure was effective.
Nowadays we have a licensing system with the force of law. Neither Armillatox nor Dithane are licensed for amateur use and it is therefore illegal to use them or even to store them.
Armillatox is out of production now but vast quantities of Dithane are used on farms as a fungicide on apple pears and other fruit and vegetables particularly potatoes.

[6sixty]

I had this on some of the pear leaves. Just had to pick them off and burn them.
I noticed on other pear trees on the allotment, so i'll blame someone else ;)

[terrier]

Dithane and Mancozeb are freely available to the public. If it is illegal to use or store it, is it illegal to buy it? If so, how is it still for sale?

[lezelle]

Hi Ya, Very interesting, when I looked at the piccie I thought it was a spider of some sort but it's just the fungi particles. If other trees have it will it spread to clean trees? Can you plant new stock on ground where this has occurred? You are right Terrier how can it be illegal to use and store but freely available, doesn't make sense to me either.

[bionear2]

It moves to and from pear trees and juniper bushes, both are essential to it's continuance. My pears have been affected to a greater or lesser extent for years, but have also produced bumper crops sometimes too. I think if it were lethal, they would have died years ago. It would be illogical that something with such a life pattern would kill a host plant.

[saddad]

I agree, it's not killing the plants, they don't crop well because they don't like the site in my case. I'm hoping that by stooling them I can control both the fugal bits on the leaves more easily and encourage more fruiting spurs with better pruning.