I have a problem that appears to be serious in my Asian Pear.
It starts in the petiole and young branches that appear black splotches of dried black ink.(Please see picture).



then it progressed tto the older leaves at the same time you can see black spots at the base of the leaves



Until it spreads out throughout the entire branch and die off of branches and leaves as well.



Sometimes mul tiple adjacent branches are affected but the majority of occurence were in a single branch at some random places throughout the plant.

If someone out there have any idea what this is please let me know.
It is scary to see a very healthy plant nice and green starting to die on you. If you can identify the cause and cure I'd appreciate it so much.
Benny

I can see the brown ooze that drips down in the first pic. That is the classic fireblight infection.

The best way to control it is to cut off 6" below the last known contaminated portion, then inspect the end of the removed cambium and see if it is brownish or blackish, and if that's the case, cut another 6" more.

I know this is harsh method but that is how to quickly control this disease.

Benny, fireblight this late in the season are transmitted by juice sucking insects. Primarily fireblights are spread by bees or butterflies during the blooms. The fireblight bacteria invades the bloom and then they get transferred down into the actively growing cambiums. Sometimes, in the middle of summer, a few apple or pear blooms would sprout following chilly nights in the summer, sometimes producing 2nd but usually useless crops, those flowers provide entryway for fireblight. At that time, the chrysantemums, roses, pycaranthus from your neighbors are the host suppliers of fireblight bacteria and when the bees hop from those ornamentals to your errant blooms, the tree gets contaminated.

So whenever you get sporadic blooms, snip them off right away, they don't make good crop anyway. Right now I am chasing after the sporadic blooms on my pears, apples, grapes. I usually let the next batch of blooms alone on my persimmons, but really go after and cut those from apples and pears.

Also, fireblight can be spread through the use of unsterilized pruning shears or grafting tools. Rinse your equipment with 70% alcohol, and after you cut the infected parts, wipe with alcohol laced cotton balls the cut branch and your pruning shear. This is the only method that is effective to prevent further infection, sometimes I cry that I have to fully cut the newly grafted cultivar which I grafted late and bloomed late and got the infection, but that is the proven way to prevent this type of disease.

Fortunately, citruses are not affected by fireblight.

Oh, thank you, thank you so much Joe. At least I know there is a cure and I am not helpless.
I am going to call my sister also about the cure since she has the same problem with her pears too.

Benny

Joe:
Am I right of saying 'sporadic blooms' are flowers that grow out of season? Maybe just 2 or 5 of them in the whole tree?
I've got them those flowers in my apples and pears too.
By the way, I harvest some of my green gage plums and white peaches this morning. Those darn birds are trying to beat me to them as in my cherries.

Benny, fireblight attacks apples, pears and rose bushes. There is no known cure, and you must cut out all infected parts just as Joe has said. Here is a web site to help you, at the bottom of each little section just click to go to the next section. http://www.fireblight.com/
Millet

The pruning tool should be disinfected between cuts so the fire blight is not spread. Chlorox diluted 1 part clorox to 4 parts water is the recommended dilution. The tools should be immersed in the solution for 4 to 5 second and then rinsed with water.

Buddinman is correct to point out to sterilize between cuts. I used bleach or chlorox before but it corroded very quickly my cheapo (non-stainless steel) garden equipments. So I resorted to using rubbing alcohol. Sometimes if I am in a hurry, I use blow-torch (used for soldering copper pipes) and flame sterilize the tools and also the cut or exposed portions of the branches, I burnt their surfaces literally which makes it dry and prevent infection better than paint sealants, but I cover the other areas with a fireproof insulation cloth (also from soldering copper pipes) during the torching process. This has worked quickly when doing pruning or cutting branches of apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, cherries during the wet winters, but cannot use this technique in citruses when grafting, needed the alcohol and peroxide for that.

Be very careful of the propane torch approach, it could burn you, your trees and your house when not handled properly. I use that only when it is wet or raining, but still one must be very careful.

looking back at some of your grafts, there is a big chance that you got fireblight by grafting from an inocculated tree. An inocculated tree may have the fireblight bacteria but is not showing symptoms yet, especially in dormant woods. You will have to inspect dormant scionwood sources, if it has darkish coloration on the cambium layer (sample by peeling off the bark), then I would throw the scionwood away and sterilize my hands and grafting tools.

Thank you Joe, Millet and Mr. Childers so much for all of your help.
Joe: You made me understand what a firelight is and its cure. I may have gotten that from my sister's scion since I don't have this last year. I was so ignorant about this. her's are so much worst than mine. I just drastically trimmed the whole tree and I followed your advice to the letter-inspecting all the cambium for brown bark and cut some more until it is healthy looking. Thank you again.
Millet: Thanks for posting the link and I did learn more about this desease because of that.
And Mr. Childers thank you for our advice which I did to my pruning equipment.
I had cut almost all of the main branches and plan to post them here soon.

Benny

Fire blight is a major pain in the behind. Last year every one of my pear trees and one of my loquats came up with it. Killed two of the pears outright. This year it wasn't as bad, but still took most of the fruit.

High nitrogen fertilizers make pears more susceptible so go very light, particularly in the early spring. I didn't fertilize my trees at all since last summer and it still showed up. Two years ago I didn't see any at all.

.....Alan.

What is the first, really first sign of fireblight?
Is the disfigured leaves'buds, the very young is a sign that that twig is infected?

Benny

For me the very first sign is the browning of the flower petioles. Then brown sap oozing from the flower petioles. This is always the first sign that I see because flowers are pushed out first in the season.

Later in the season, the wayward flowers will also have brown petioles. But now, tender stems can get infected, if the tender stem has been bitten by juice sucking insect, the brown coloration around the bite and the brown sap oozing then I know that the responsible insect have bitten off an infected tree from elsewhere.

Or if there is a drip of brown juice along the leaves or stems then I know there will be fireblight next.