This life-cycle causes these trees to become very invasive, displacing native natural habitats. Unfortunately, the trees that grow from these seeds are not Bradfords but are trees that have reverted back to the thorny variety from which they originally came. They are not edible, but these fruits do contain seeds.Īfter fall freezes, the fruit softens and becomes edible for birds who then help spread the seeds. These small 1/2” diameter fruits are kind of like small, hard apples with greenish-yellow flecks and white spots. However, when cross pollinated, they can produce fruit. The Bradford was originally bred to be sterile and thorn-less. Ok, so that’s kind of a downside.Īll was well with the Bradford until something unexpected happened. While the flowers are pretty, they also have a rather unpleasant smell, oftentimes associated with the smell of fish. The Bradford Pear is known for the white flowers they produce in the spring. By the 1980s it had become the second most popular ornamental tree in America. Bradford Pears (Pyrus calleryana ‘Bradford’) were introduced to the United States in the early 1900’s as a way to help control fire blight of the common pear. Now, let’s circle back around to your Bradford Pear. Pear rust is harder to find on the cedars.įruiting trees have slightly different needs, and you can find a fruit tree spraying schedule in the Fruits, Nuts, and Berries section of our Lawn and Garden Help page on our website. However, you can always physically remove the larger cedar-apple rust galls from the cedars when you see them. The cedars can be treated in late June-July with the same fungicides. If you decide to try and prevent this disease, you will need to spray your broadleaf (not the cedar) from leaf emergence through April on 7-10 day intervals with a fungicide such as copper hydroxide, chlorothalonil, myclobutanil, or propiconazole (use as specified on the labels). It is a very interesting, if not creepy life cycle. These tendrils are full of spores which the wind is more than happy to relocate to your apple trees. One very interesting thing about the pear rust’s cousin is that the golf ball sized cedar-apple rust galls, when soaked by the spring rains, push out these long orange gelatinous tendrils. The Asian pear rust cankers are relatively small, but the cedar-apple rust galls are more likely to be golf ball sized. The fungal spores grow on the cedars until the next spring when rains cause the rust to release their own spores which are blown by the wind back to the Bradford and others. The fungal spores continue to grow on the leaves of the Bradford until June or July when they release spores of their own that are blown by the wind to a nearby cedar. Nearby is kind of an oxymoron since nearby could be within a mile or so. The fungal spots we see in the spring on Bradford Pear leaves were blown there by the wind from a nearby cedar. Asian pear rust is the culprit when it comes to Bradford Pears. Cedars or junipers are the host during one portion of the life cycle and other plants like Bradford Pears are the host during the other portion of the life cycle. The funny thing about these rust diseases is that they require two different host plants to prosper. You mentioned Bradford Pear, which is an invasive species, but first let’s talk about rust disease prevention. While these diseases are not terribly harmful to their host, they can diminish the vitality of the host plant and reduce production on fruit trees. There are a variety of rust diseases such as cedar-apple rust, Asian pear rust, cedar-hawthorn rust, and cedar-quince rust to name a few. It seems like rust disease was everywhere last spring. What can I do this year to prevent that from happening again? CS Last year my Bradford Pear’s leaves were covered with rust fungus.
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