In 2014, North Carolina Cooperative Extension celebrates 100 years of service, along with Extension systems in many other states across the U.S.
Among other activities and observances, Extension is undertaking a survey to evaluate ways in which its resources have been of value to individuals, businesses and communities.
If you have interacted with N.C. Cooperative Extension through presentations, publications, web-based information, meetings, site visits or other means, we hope you’ll take a few minutes to complete an online survey. Available at
https://survey.ncsu.edu/coopext/, the survey has 22 questions with some sub-questions but no essay responses. So you should be able to complete it fairly quickly. The survey will close on June 15, and all responses will be appreciated.
Recently we’ve received ‘Bradford’ callery pear samples demonstrating a couple of fairly common disease problems. The first is fire blight, which is a bacterial disease that isn’t particularly common on ‘Bradford’ pear but does show up from time to time. Fire blight is more common on edible pear cultivars and, can also be an issue with apples. Suspect fire blight if you see multiple branch ends (current season’s growth) turning brown to black, as if scorched in a fire, with a distinct “shepard’s crook” curling of affected branch tips. Sprays are available for fruit trees but aren’t as practical for large landscape ‘Bradford’ pears.
A second disease problem, recently confirmed through a digital image submitted to our Plant Disease and Insect Clinic (PDIC) at N.C. State, is a fungal rust disease known as cedar-quince rust or quince rust. Cedar-quince rust occurrence varies from year to year on ‘Bradford’ pear, but in my experience is certainly more common than fire blight on this particular tree. You’ll note small, somewhat spiky whitish to orange structures, known as pustules, on fruit or at the ends of new twigs.
It’s possible to control or suppress this pathogen on ‘Bradford’ pear using the same spray strategies as for home pear tree production. But the PDIC generally does not encourage fungicide sprays on landscape flowering or shade trees, and the Clinic’s comments on our recent sample questioned whether “controlling the disease on landscape plants is economical”.
Of course, with ‘Bradford’ pear and other callery pears, the discussion is complicated by the fact that the species (Pyrus calleryana) is extremely invasive in the southeastern U.S. and has become a tree of great concern among foresters, land managers and others. A note from N.C. State’s “Going Native” website suggests that as ‘Bradford’ pear trees mature and start exhibiting splitting and other problems, they should be cut down and replaced with alternative species. You’ll also need to treat the stump with a herbicide to prevent regrowth; see http://www.ncsu.edu/goingnative/howto/mapping/invexse/bradfor.html
Congratulations to Margaret Ross, livestock agent for Craven and Jones Counties, who recently received the 2014 Young Agent Scholarship Award from the N.C. Association of County Agricultural Agents. Margaret will cover the Green Thumb for June 14 with an article on plants that are poisonous to livestock. Among other activities for this summer, Ross has scheduled a couple of backyard poultry management classes for general public audiences. Contact her at firstname.lastname@example.org for details.
Tom Glasgow is the Craven County Extension director. Contact him at email@example.com.