Gardeners willingly plant pear trees on their plots. They are valued for juicy fruits with excellent taste. Unfortunately, pears are often exposed to various diseases of infectious and non-infectious origin.
A signal that the pear is affected is usually blackened leaves. Further control of pear diseases depends on what the tree is specifically ill with. Weakened pears with damaged bark and branches are more susceptible to infections than healthy trees.
Pear noncommunicable diseases and their control
Non-infectious diseases occur in pear trees as a result of improper care or exposure to adverse natural factors.
- Hydrothermal burn - blackening and death of leaves in the second half of summer. Appears as a result of planting a tree in areas unprotected from the wind.
Solution: when planning the site, take into account the peculiarities of growing pears. For planting, take modern zoned varieties.
- Inhibition of growth, deformation of the fruit, their decline - these problems occur when there is a lack of nutrients in the soil. The composition of the soil is of great importance. On carbonate soils, the pear grows poorly, often exposed to chlorosis.
Solution: it is necessary to fertilize the earth, to make all the necessary microelements in a timely manner, to produce root and foliar top dressing on time.
- Damage caused by frost. Lowering the temperature to -25, -27 0 has an extremely negative effect on pear trees. The frozen parts of the tree gradually blacken and die. Particularly dangerous is a sun-frost burn, in which the bark breaks from sharp fluctuations in temperature. On skeletal branches and boles, necrotic spots form. Subsequently, the bark disappears, open wounds form on the wood, on which mushrooms and pest beetles can settle. Solution: at the end of autumn, whitewash trunks, boles, large branches. For 10 l of water, 2 tablespoons of copper sulfate, 1 kg of lime, 4 kg of clay, 3 kg of mullein, 50 g of soap, 6 ampoules of Epina, 2 tablespoons of stationery glue, and a tablet of Heteroauxin are taken. Coat the trunks twice, with an interval of 2 hours.
These are pears that are not transmitted from tree to tree, and the fight against them is not so much complicated as constant and painstaking. The stronger the tree, the better it resists other, infectious diseases.
For successful growth and development of a tree, a pear should be planted in a light, sheltered from the winds area, avoiding planting in lowlands, on slopes and in places with a high level of groundwater. Winter hardiness is enhanced by autumn application of potash and phosphorus fertilizers.
Infectious diseases of pears and their treatment
In nature, everything is interconnected, so factors such as drought, frost, inadequate care, and poor, heavy soils contribute to the development of fungal and viral diseases.
- Cytosporosis is a fungal disease affecting weak trees with damaged bark. Red-brown ulcers begin to grow on the cortex, on which tubercles with spores form. The bark begins to die, individual branches dry out, young and old trees can die.
Solution: the disease can be treated only at the very beginning, until cambium and wood are affected. Affected areas are cut to healthy tissues, then treated with copper sulfate and smeared with garden var. Infected branches are burned. In spring and autumn, the tree is treated with Bordeaux fluid.
- Scab is a very common fungal disease. It affects flowers, fruits, shoots, leaves. First, the lower side of the leaves becomes covered with oily spots, which begin to become covered with a brown velvety coating. On the fruit, the spots darken and crack. In spring, the scab affects stalks and flowers, which significantly reduces the yield.
Solution: purchase scab resistant seedlings. In affected pears, branches affected by scab are cut out. Trees are sprayed with fungicides.
- Fruit rot is the scourge of all stone fruit. The fruits are covered with brown spots, the flesh darkens, softens, its taste deteriorates. When stored, such fruits cause black rot.
Solution: it is necessary to regularly collect and destroy the affected fruits, to prevent the spread of pear moths and weevils.
Fruit rot, cytosporosis and scab are pear fungal diseases, and they are controlled by similar methods. Trees are treated with fungicides, leaf litter and mummified fruits are burned, trunk trunks are dug up.
- Viral diseases pose a great threat to the garden. If the pear was struck by a mosaic disease, the furrow of the wood, the witch's broom, the trees must be uprooted and burned. These diseases can be transmitted by sucking insects, so the probability of their appearance on the site is always there.
- The greatest danger is caused by pear bacterial diseases , and the fight against them is not always successful. They are distributed not only by insects. They are carried by rain, penetrate the wounds when grafting and replanting trees. This is a bacterial root cancer, bacterial cortical necrosis, bacterial burn.
Most of all, a pear is prone to a bacterial burn. This is a quarantine disease in which all parts of the tree are affected. Twisted black leaves do not fall, and the tree becomes like a scorched fire, for which the disease got its name. A bacterial burn can spread rapidly over a large area. The disease came from America to our continent relatively recently. Effective methods of control, as well as fully resistant varieties of pears, do not yet exist.