Avoiding Common Tree Mistakes

3 Tree Diseases That Can Infect A Chanticleer Pear Tree

29 March 2016 by Chiara Brun

The chanticleer pear is a tall, narrow ornamental tree that flourishes with white flowers in the summer. The tree has a lot of visual interest since it never goes completely bare. The white flowers lead to red, purple, or orange leaves in the fall, which give way to naked branches that showcase the remaining hard, round, reddish fruits.

Chanticleer trees are great for yards with little space or that need edging trees along a road or median. Owning a chanticleer requires some maintenance such as tree trimming to keep the width in check and keeping an eye out for tree diseases.

Chanticleers in general are fairly disease resistant but crossbreeding with other types of trees still leaves some chanticleers vulnerable. Here are a few of the tree diseases you need to monitor.

Fire Blight

Fire blight is a bacterial tree disease with symptoms that start to present as the white flowers start to show up in the spring. Cankers or sore-like notches will show up on the bark. A watery discharge can run out of the cankers and cause streaks on the surrounding bark. The new flowers and leaves will then prematurely turn darker, wilt, and fall from the tree.

You can manage a blight infection by calling in a tree care service to cut away affected branches, leaves, and flowers as soon as they appear. The tree will need to ride out this growing season with the infection in place. Before the next growing season, your tree care service can apply a blossom spray to minimize the risk of the disease coming back the following year.

Leaf Scorch

Another bacterial disease that can strike the chanticleer is leaf scorch. The disease gets the name from the fact that the leaves will start to darken around the edges as if a match were held under the leaf until the rim started to burn. Affected leaves will then fall off the tree.

Leaf scorch tends to affect leaves near bark injuries, which the chanticleer is prone to do to the relative thinness of its bark. Hire a tree care service to regularly and safely prune your tree to reduce the risk of scorch forming in the first place. If scorch has already taken hold, keeping the tree healthy and chemical treatment can prevent the problem from worsening.

Cotton Root Rot

Cotton root rot is a fungal disease with symptoms that start to appear in the early summer to early fall. Initially, the symptoms can resemble those of fire blight or leaf scorch. The leaves and flowers will start to look damaged, darken, and then fall off. The key differences are that the root rot will cause the leaves and flowers to deteriorate from the top of the tree downward and the disease is simultaneously causing damage to the roots under the ground.

It's important to catch root rot early and call in a tree service immediately before the roots have died. If the roots have already died, the tree can't be saved and will need to be removed completely. If the roots are still in decent health, the use of fungicides and fertilization can spring the chanticleer back to health.

For more information on trees, contact a company like R. L. Elliott Enterprises, Inc.

Share