Solitary chicken - need advice

[chickencam]

We have some huge pears on our relatively small tree this year but the leaves are affected by orange spots that have grown into orange disks about the size of a 10p coin with finger like feathery protrusions coming from them that are about a centimetre or so long. I have had a quick look online and couldn't find any images that matched.

[sjp]

have a look at this link https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=236 I think that's the right disease It was really bad around my neck of the woods last year it's not been to bad this year

[Cat tails]

It's most likely pear rust. It's a fungal infection in the leaves of the pear. Mine had it last year too. Not so much this year. The host is actually plants like junipers, not the pear itself.

You need to clear out any fallen leaves. Don't put them on your compost heap, but throw them away in a bin. The best thing would be if you can find it's host plant, which might be any juniper in a circle of about 100 m in any direction.

You can treat your pear tree in two ways, if you can't get rid of the host.

1) spray with a sulphurous solution when the tree is just budding and repeat every few weeks for about two or three times

2) remove any affected leaves as soon as possible

 

I didn't do either but just made sure I removed all fallen leaves. Seemed to work for this year.

[chickencam]

Thanks, this is very interesting because it is right next to a juniper I have been thinking about removing the juniper because it is getting too big and nothing grows around it. We have quite a small garden so can't afford to keep plants that cause problems.

[Cat tails]

You can check if your juniper is affected by looking at the inner branches. They might look a bit snotty and sticky. Covered in a yellowish substance. This is the fungus which actually doesn't affect the juniper, but only the pear.