As a Master Gardeners and Advisors, we receive a lot of samples of plant problems. Some problems are easy to identify but others can be perplexing and often confounded by inadequate information. 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 last 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…….
