Kieffer pear
- Thread starter buckdeer1
- Start date
Native Hunter
Well-Known Member
Sometimes just giving a tree more time to grow is all that's needed.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Bummer. Pear rust mites. They won't kill the tree or damage the inside of the fruit, but the fruit will look ugly. You don't want them on your property. Dormant oil in the spring will slow them down, but you need to spray a sulfur spray in the fall to really wipe them out.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
I know what you are saying, for hobby trees when a tree is diseased it's often easier to destroy the trees and buy trees that are more disease resistant. But in this case I think i'd try spraying these a couple times and see if I could wipe it out. I'd use Bonide Fruit Tree spray, not expensive and readily available.
https://www.keystonepestsolutions.c...JSWKLXy5BeJog7z5Z2-7OFBMHOE6e3-waAmQ5EALw_wcB
or Bonide Sulfur Plant Fungicide
https://www.arbico-organics.com/product/sulfur-plant-fungicide/natural-organic-plant-disease-control
Alternating the two would probably be a double whammy. Mixing 5 lb of micronized sulfur with water and spraying in late summer works too, and the sulfur is good for the soil.
This could also be Pear Trellis Rust, rust on pear leaves is a little hard to identify, there's many different versions, but these sprays will fix most of them.
It doesn't spread fast but those leaves are highly contagious to other pear trees, if you don't spray and kill it they should be raked up and burned when they drop.
Spraying fruit trees in early spring with dormant oil is a good practice with a harmless product that kills a lot of this stuff as well, these diseases hide under the tree bark and oil suffocates them.
https://www.keystonepestsolutions.c...JSWKLXy5BeJog7z5Z2-7OFBMHOE6e3-waAmQ5EALw_wcB
or Bonide Sulfur Plant Fungicide
https://www.arbico-organics.com/product/sulfur-plant-fungicide/natural-organic-plant-disease-control
Alternating the two would probably be a double whammy. Mixing 5 lb of micronized sulfur with water and spraying in late summer works too, and the sulfur is good for the soil.
This could also be Pear Trellis Rust, rust on pear leaves is a little hard to identify, there's many different versions, but these sprays will fix most of them.
It doesn't spread fast but those leaves are highly contagious to other pear trees, if you don't spray and kill it they should be raked up and burned when they drop.
Spraying fruit trees in early spring with dormant oil is a good practice with a harmless product that kills a lot of this stuff as well, these diseases hide under the tree bark and oil suffocates them.
Last edited:
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
Are either of these harmful to bees?
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Yes, those Bonide products will kill bees, a problem with chemical insecticides, most of them kill all insects. . Micronized sulfur with water won't kill bees but it will repel them for several days, don't spray sulfur on flowering trees, apricots, or rasberries.
One product to try would be Organocide® Bee safe 3-in-1 Garden Spray, an insecticide, miticide and fungicide that won't kill bees.
One product to try would be Organocide® Bee safe 3-in-1 Garden Spray, an insecticide, miticide and fungicide that won't kill bees.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
You probably inherited this problem when you bought the tree from the nursery.
Triple C
Well-Known Member
My kieffers look like they were hit by a tornado this year. Massive limb breakage on all the trees that were loaded with fruit. I guess they became conditioned to never having any fruit for the past 9 years due to late frosts. This year they were loaded. Some are so severely broken off that I question if they will survive. On the other hand...the good ole American persimmons continue to thrive and are once again, loaded with fruit this year. The more I do this stuff the more I like what grows naturally.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
I never heard of kieffers breaking from too much fruit. That's an interesting concept about them not building up strength because of no fruit all these years. Pears are known for their arched umbrella looking limbs from having such a heavy fruit load year after year, like the photo below. The limbs on your non fruiting trees were probably straight up?
Last edited:
KSQ2
Well-Known Member
A kieffer we planted 3 years ago has quite a bit of fruit this year (maybe a bakers dozen); I contemplated pulling them off, but left them just for the reason you mentioned. I'm hoping the limbs will begin building that strength.
Triple C
Well-Known Member
I never heard of kieffers breaking from too much fruit. That's an interesting concept about them not building up strength because of no fruit all these years. Pears are known for their arched umbrella looking limbs from having such a heavy fruit load year after year, like the photo below. The limbs on your non fruiting trees were probably straight up?
Here’s a pic of one of the trees taken on June 28th, just when limbs were starting to break. I was down this past weekend and this particular tree is pretty much limbless with both main leaders broken off. I’ll take pics this coming weekend of trees that are severely damaged. To your point, most limbs were pretty much vertical due to hardly ever having any fruit on them, even though I pruned them almost every year except this year.
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
That tree's a bit small tree to be carrying that much fruit and this is nature's way of pruning trees. That tree will grow out of this just fine, but like lak said, it'll look a bit ugly. Keiffers are never planted for landscaping trees anyway. A lot of keiffers have long vertical scars halfway up the trunk from branches breaking off.
Triple C
Well-Known Member
Many of my Kieffer’s look like this. These were planted from 7 gal pots in 2011 and 2012. First year late frosts didn’t kill the fruit. Guess the limbs just weren’t accustomed to the weight and load of fruit.
On the other hand...my native old faithful persimmon trees continue to flourish and as always - loaded with fruit. The more I do this stuff the more I like what Mother Nature naturally provides on her own.
On the other hand...my native old faithful persimmon trees continue to flourish and as always - loaded with fruit. The more I do this stuff the more I like what Mother Nature naturally provides on her own.
