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This year both of our pear trees (especially our dwarf Bartlett) have a new foliar disease that I've never seen before. It looks a lot like edema with the bumps, but with a lot more discoloration and it affects the fruit, too. The darker discoloration was more common than the lighter not too long ago, I think (but they're both the same thing). The pictures aren't good; the leaves are a lot bumpier than they appear. We're getting rid of the most heavily afflicted tree tomorrow for unrelated reasons, but I'm still curious what this is.

Here are some pictures. It began around the time the blossoms were still on, I think.

Our pear trees are not close to each other. One's in the front and one is out back. They've both had fire blight before, but it went away.

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Brōtsyorfuzthrāx
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  • Shule, I don't think fire blight ever gets better or goes away. Are you sure these trees had fire blight? If I were you I'd get ahold of your closest Cooperative Extension Service. Would that be U of I? My University in Moscow, Idaho. Maybe even WSU? Cross my fingers. – stormy May 17 '18 at 09:26
  • I guess it could have been something similar. It made the branches/leaves turn quite black like they were burned, contagiously, and kind of gradually, but the trees seemed fine, if less productive, the next year. (Production seems more like normal this year.) Some of our apples had it more mildly. A landscaping friend said it was fire blight. I figured *maybe* it was the same bacteria causing this with different symptoms (that's why I mentioned it). I don't know which service is for my area. Probably U of I, if any. Do you mean the county extension office? – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx May 17 '18 at 10:18
  • Cooperative Extension Services have a University base. Not county. For you it just might be U of I but WSU has a powerful and wide spread Coop. Ext.... – stormy May 18 '18 at 00:40
  • The remaining tree was showing fireblight symptoms again. I'm guessing it was just latent last year. So, I cut it down. That's our last tree! – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx May 26 '18 at 02:39
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus This MIGHT be a safe replacement that i think you might love. Take note about the 'toxic' part of Elderberry, people need to heed these little details, but what a producer of berries. Have you had Elderberry? You shouldn't plant anything in the rose family as fire blight will be forever in that soil. Killing the bacteria of fireblight...Erwinia amylovora would kill all life in the soil if you had to grow fruit trees in the rose family. Elderberry makes a great 'grove'....a 'true' food forest. – stormy May 26 '18 at 08:50
  • What is the debris on the soil? That should be completely raked up but do not put in your compost. Check with your Ext. Service for what they recommend. I'd bury it all where I know its location. Do you need shade, wind screen? Robinia pseudoacacia, Black Locust does well where you live, right? – stormy May 26 '18 at 08:59
  • That's a leaf mulch that was purposefully put there (not by me, although I don't know anything particularly wrong with it). Mostly just bulbs/flowers grow there. The mulch helps keep the weeds out. We don't need shade, etc. right now, and aren't planning to plant any more shade trees. We'll probably plant more fruit trees eventually, but probably not apples, cherries or pears. Black locust grows wild here. Yep, it does well, although it has sometimes gotten some nice-looking locust borers on some trees. – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx May 26 '18 at 23:30
  • We already have elderberries. I haven't ever heard of fireblight infecting any fruit trees or bushes in the rose family besides apples and pears. I imagine quinces might be susceptible, but I haven't found it to be an issue with other things in the rose family in my research on the topic (e.g. the Prunus genus, roses, blackberries, strawberries, etc.) It hasn't seemed to have infected any of those in my experience, either, visibly anyway. I think it most commonly affects the apple tribe. – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx May 26 '18 at 23:46
  • Some species are resistant. Fireblight is a deal breaker. Streptomycin is all they use to sterilize a soil that one absolutely needs to plant another rose species. When replanting I would NOT use another rose species. Elderberries need a bit of pruning and the dark purple leaved species are breath taking. TONS of berries on one little tree. Just be aware you have that disease and even if you've got resistant plants, if those plants become stressed they will also become fireblighted. What do you think of robinia or does everything have to produce a food? – stormy May 27 '18 at 00:03
  • I think black locusts are cool, but the sun is nice to have for the vegetable garden, and big trees can be dangerous and expensive-to-remove eventually, especially with wind storms and such. It's not a large property. We'll probably just have flowers in that spot for a good while. Maybe a currant bush or something (maybe even elderberry bushes—I know they can get tall, but we want ours as bushes), but we're not looking for a replacement plant/tree at this moment. In the spot for the other, older pear tree we don't want any trees there since it's close to the water meter thing. – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx May 27 '18 at 03:38
  • What about the water meter thing, Shule? Talking about roots invading the water meter box? Trees are also great for wind breaks. And shade. Elderberry makes gorgeous small trees and I kid you not, the production of berries is almost scary. Your land is your home as well and mentally we humans need some human scale in our lives as well as definition...areas we know as 'rooms' each with their own personality, scale and creature comforts. How much land do you have? Talk later, okay? – stormy May 27 '18 at 06:02
  • I'll leave a message for you in the Garden Shed to continue this discussion. It won't let me ping you; so you can just go look it up. – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx May 28 '18 at 23:02
  • Go to chat, and read my messages to you. :) – Brōtsyorfuzthrāx May 29 '18 at 01:14

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