What are the pest and disease control measures and methods for pear trees?

Pear trees are planted across a very wide area in our country, second only to apple trees. The fruit produced by pear trees is sweet, juicy and very popular. There are also many varieties of pear trees, and cultivation varies from region to region. During the actual growing process, pear trees often suffer from certain pests and diseases. Today let us take a look at what pest and disease control measures there are for pear trees?

I. What pests and diseases affect pear trees?

1. Pear ring rot

Pear ring rot mainly damages the branches and fruit of pear trees, causing the fruit to rot and resulting in serious losses. After the pear tree leaves out in the spring of the following year, the pathogen produces conidia that become the primary infection source. The pathogen begins infecting from the young fruit stage and continues until harvest.

2. Pear chicken-claw disease

Huangguan pear chicken-claw disease is a physiological disease of fruit trees. During the ripening stage it produces nearly round or irregular lesions on the fruit surface, causing a decline in the fruit's appearance quality. Its main cause is a deficiency of trace elements such as calcium and boron in the fruit.

3. Pear psylla

Pear psylla nymphs can secrete large amounts of honeydew mucus, damaging leaves and fruit. Generally, when the flower buds of pear trees begin to sprout in March, they start emerging from overwintering to cause damage, and outbreaks are more severe in dry years or dry seasons.

II. Pest and disease control measures for pear trees

1. Strengthen fertilizer and water management

Production practice has proven that when the tree is vigorous, the branches are full, and the leaves are dark green, pests and diseases are mild; when the tree is weak, the branches are thin and weak, and pests and diseases are severe. Some weakly parasitic diseases such as rot can easily occur when tree vigor declines and weakens, making the tree even weaker and even killing it. Vigorous trees also have a certain tolerance to pest mites; on trees with luxuriant branches and leaves and dark green foliage, even if pest mites cause damage, the leaves will not quickly fall. Rational fertilization, especially applying a sufficient amount of high-quality organic fertilizer as a base fertilizer, can promote the growth of pear trees, strengthen tree vigor, and improve the tree's ability to resist pests and diseases.

2. Deeply turn the tree plate in autumn and clear away residual branches and fallen leaves

Eliminating fallen leaves and dead branches is also an economical and effective measure for eliminating pests and diseases. Many pathogens overwinter in dead branches and fallen leaves. The removed fallen leaves or dead branches should be gathered and burned. Digging over the tree plate, combined with loosening the soil, not only promotes root growth but is also a good way to eliminate overwintering pests.

3. Rational pruning

In addition to regulating the contradiction between vegetative growth and reproductive growth so that the tree is vigorous and bears more fruit, the shaping and pruning of pear trees also has a certain positive effect on pest and disease control. On the one hand, during winter pruning, pests and diseases parasitic on the branches can be cut off, such as the egg masses of the lackey moth, the overwintering cocoons of the yellow slug moth, branches where cicadas have laid eggs, branches with rot, mummified fruit with fruit rot, and infected fruit clusters; after new shoots emerge, promptly cut off the diseased shoots of pear scab and the egg-laying shoots of the pear stem sawfly, and collect the cut diseased and pest-infested leaves and fruit, take them out of the pear orchard for centralized treatment, which has a great effect on controlling the development of pests and diseases. On the other hand, shaping and pruning improves the tree structure, makes branch distribution even, full and vigorous, and provides ventilation and light penetration within the canopy, which is not conducive to pest and disease infection and reproduction.

4. Tie grass to trap and kill pests, and scrape off old and peeling bark

Taking advantage of the habit of pests descending the tree to overwinter, in late autumn tie a ring of wheat straw, cloth pieces, etc. around the trunk to lure pests into hiding in it, and after winter begins remove and burn it. The peeling bark, rough bark and cracks of fruit trees are overwintering sites for pests such as hawthorn spider mites, aphids, pear star caterpillars, fruit moths and pear fruit borers. Scraping the bark can eliminate the overwintering eggs of many pests and reduce the base population of pests and diseases.