Unknown disease on pear trees

[SebsC]

Can anyone help? Our pear tree, as well as our neighbours, seems to have some sort of disease. The leaves have got large yellow patches on them and underneath the leaves are a sort of brown, spiky attachment. Ironically, the pears this year have been beautiful. Our neighbour has completely cut hers down but we are loathe to do this as it is such a lovely tree. Does anyone have any idea what it could be and how we could treat it? I will try to attach a photo but have never done it before so can't promise success!

[SebsC]

Managed to attach the photos

[SebsC]

Here we go, i think!

[keano77]

Yes, I've just checked our tree and we have the same thing. Are those eggs under the leaves?

[red devil]

Looks like European Pear Rust...http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?pid=236

[SebsC]

keano77 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Yes, I've just checked our tree and we have the

> same thing. Are those eggs under the leaves?

I have no idea - whatever they are, it is really rather horrid looking. I'd say it is on a good 60% of all the leaves. I don't know whether to take off all the affected leaves?

[SebsC]

Thanks Red Devil - that definitely sounds and looks like what it is. I'm off into the garden with my pruners to cut off all the leaves. I'm going to have a very sorry looking pear tree left!

[uncleglen]

Make sure you destroy the leaves because it spreads by spores

[steveo]

My tree is covered in it. However the leaves will drop soon anyway. I don't understand how cutting them off now is going to cure it.

[LondonLogCo]

All fruit trees need a grease band on the trunk

There's a common disease that causes the leaves to curl & or discolour. The bug crawls up the tree in the early season and lays eggs under the leaf.

Best treatment is to apply the grease band about 2 ft above the ground, this stops future invasions, as they can't breach the divide. You'll then need to spray the tree with a copper nitrate based solution

[SebsC]

Thanks for the advice London log and Uncle Glen. Not sure how cutting off leaves will work uncleglen but it's done now and to be honest, the leaves looked so horrid - at least now they're gone. Anyway, I'm off to google grease bands!

[uncleglen]

It's a fungus which spreads by spores. The spores are airborne and infect neighbouring leaves.

[SebsC]

Oh ok! Well all the remaining leaves seem okay for now, but I guess they could still become infected? We will see. Thanks for the info.

[LondonLogCo]

If it's a fungus, then spray with Bordeaux mix or similar

[SebsC]

Can I drink the Bordeaux afterwards?! ;-)

[LondonLogCo]

Do you have spots and leaf curl ?

And are you wearing a grease band

[SebsC]

Well, after a heavy night, I often have spots, can be a bit greasy and am frequently told it's bad enough to make your toes curl. Does that count?

[Alex K]

Remarkable that your neighbour elected to fell her tree because its leaves appeared to be affected by a disease... Du calme, and all that.

[pipsky2008]

It's pear rust

[SebsC]

Definitely pear rust! Looks exactly like the photos I've seen. My pear tree is rusty! Bit like me!