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Pear tree leaves / fruit dying #832453

Asked May 28, 2023, 7:39 PM EDT

Hi. We live in Eugene. We have an unknown species pear tree. We bought our house 8/2019 and that summer the tree was laden with pears! Summer of 2020-now, we haven’t had any fruit. I will send some pictures. In late March and April we get a tree FULL of blooms. Then the tree leafs out. Mid May the leaves still look pretty health but by Memorial Day, the leaves are now falling off the tree and are covered with little yellow dots. By end of June, the leaves will have turned black. Can you help us figure out what is plaguing our tree and let us know if we can fix it? Thanks. The first 2 pictures were from today 5/28/23. The last picture was dated 5/17/23.

Lane County Oregon

Expert Response

At first glance, it looks like early symptoms of rust, which usually starts as yellowish-orange 1/4-1/8 inch spots on the upper surface of leaves. There are two main rust diseases of pears in Oregon, Pacific Coast Pear Rust (Gymnosporangium ibocedri) and Trellis Pear Rust (G. sabinae). Rust fungi typically have two different hosts, the primary host (e.g. your pear tree) that will display severe symptoms and a secondary host (e.g. your neighbor’s incense cedar or juniper) which may only display minor symptoms and effects. Distinguishing between the two species of rust requires careful examination. Trellis Rust causes acorn shaped aecia on the lower leaf surfaces later in the season (for more on both species, see https://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/host-disease/pear-pyrus-spp-pacific-coast-pear-rust and https://pnwhandbooks.org/plantdisease/host-disease/pear-pyrus-spp-trellis-rust-european-pear-rust)
The photos you sent appear to be early symptoms, so please continue to monitor the trees to see how the spots progress, that will provide more clues as to what you are dealing with. For rust, the main control is to remove alternate hosts (ex. cedar or juniper) from around your orchard, though this is not always possible if the host plant is on a neighboring property. Control sprays need to be applied while the tree is blooming (when you see orange marmalade-like stuff on cedar trees), so it is too late to spray this year. Furthermore, there are no chemicals registered for home use, so you may have to hire a company that is licensed to apply a commercial pesticide (see: http://npic.orst.edu/pest/selectpco.html). This year, clean up and dispose of fallen fruit and leaves.
One other pest to consider are mites, which can cause reddish to yellowish-green blisters on the leaves. The spots turn black and leaves may drop prematurely. However, the spots in the photos I see are more yellow-orange which indicates rust.

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