Oct 1, 2009
As a Master Gardener, you get a lot of samples of plant problems in your office. I recently received a sample of Bradford pear leaves (Pyrus calleryana) with very interesting symptoms. At first, I thought that the plant may have been picking up something that was toxic to it because it appeared that the leaf was showing dieback progressively from the middle of the leave out to the margins. At least I thought that was what I was seeing. However, upon further inspection and discussion with the owner, I realized that the dieback was actually a fairly quick but progressive drying from the margins inward toward the middle. The brown part at the mid-vein was from sunburn and was the last part to dry out whereas the margins dried very quickly without actually sun burning. It turned out that the woman and her husband were very ill for a month or so in the middle of summer and were unable to get out and water (they didn’t have automatic sprinklers). The point of the story? Snap judgments can be dangerous. To learn more about pests and problems with Bradford Pear…….