Grown for their lime-green, bronze or bronze deep-red fruit, dazzling spring flowers or glowing fall leaf, pear trees (Pyrus spp.) Make a striking addition to your lawn. Less temperamental and disease-prone than plum, peach or apple trees, pears seldom need pruning to make the most of their flower or fruit production. A pear tree with yellowing leaves is a pear tree in trouble. Speedy diagnosis and restorative activity give it the best chance of recovery.
Pre-Emergent Herbicide Damage
Pre-emergent herbicide sprayed to avoid weeds around pear trees often causes chlorosis, or yellowing, as leaf borders and between leaf veins. Leaf death might occur. Old leaves endure the most damage.
Nitrogen Deficiency
Smaller-than-normal leaf and yellowing old leaves dropping from their stems signal a pear tree with nitrogen deficiency. This rare condition requires lab leaf analysis. Scattering high-nitrogen urea fertilizer and watering it in the dirt around the tree corrects the deficiency. Repeat just with a rediagnosis of the problem.
Iron Deficiency
Iron deficiency produces green-veined, yellow fresh foliage. In severe situations, the stunted leaves are almost white, with yellow borders and suggestions. Root damage and poorly drained or compacted dirt multiply the consequences. Treat iron-enhanced fertilizer. Iron chelate applied to the ground, or iron chelate foliar spray, provide temporary remedies. Always utilize fertilizers, soil amendments and foliar sprays in the company’s recommended strength.
Potassium Defieciency
Calcium deficiency causes chlorotic leaf margins and interveinal tissues. Damage spreads, finally killing the whole leaf. It looks first on recently matured foliage that will wrinkle and curl over time. New growth dies back in the year. Potassium nitrate or potassium sulfate worked into the ground, or routine feeding with a potassium-enhanced complete fertilizer, restore potassium levels.
Managanese Deficiency
Manganese-deficient pear trees have green-banded, yellow fresh leaves. Since their manganese stores decrease, dead spots develop between their veins. This deficiency generally affects plants in poorly drained or alkaline soils. Incorporating a dose of manganese sulfate into the dirt addresses this lack. Manganese-chelate foliar spray temporarily relieves the symptoms.
Zinc Deficiency
Zinc-deficient pear leaves are small, pointed and narrow, with a solid-yellow shade. They sometimes have dead patches. Pear leaf opening in dense tufts in the ends of very slender limbs is a classic indication of zinc deficiency. Alkaline or phosphorus-rich soils and superficial cultivating practices all contribute to the problem. Zinc-enhanced fertilizer heals the lack. For rapid-but-temporary progress, utilize zinc chelate foliar spray or soil amendment.
Pear Psyllas
Pear psyllas, miniature, reddish-brown winged insects, lay yellow eggs that hatch into yellow nymphs. The feeding nymphs inject leaf-yellowing toxins into the pear tree foliage, threatening its development and fruit production. A late-winter spray of petroleum-oil implemented in January or February, before the adults lay eggs, controls psylla residents.
Pear Scab
Pear leaves with yellow spots progressing to dark olive-green suggest a scab infection. The leaf may crinkle, twist or fall as the fungus progresses. Scab strikes in spring, when rain or irrigation splash spores from fallen to healthy leaves. Management includes immediate removal and destruction of the dropped leaf and morning watering to shorten drying time.