Often, amateur gardeners can observe the following picture: they planted a pear seedling in the country, it pleases the owner for a year, three, six and already bears fruit well, when suddenly the leaves on it begin to turn red. In some cases, a young seedling can be saved, but sometimes a young pear just dries and dies slowly.
What is it? Why does the foliage on the pear turn red? How to deal with this? Let's see ...
Why pear leaves turn red
Scion incompatibility with stock
This case is the most hopeless. Now very few gardeners are engaged in scion on their own, many acquire ready-made seedlings. And it is very easy to get a low-quality tree. And all because pears in nurseries are grafted onto different rootstocks. They are clonal and seed.
A seed stock is a plant that has been grown from a seed. Usually seeds of wild forest pear are used for this. A varietal twig is grafted onto a wild game and a wonderful seedling is obtained. And here the variety that was grafted is unimportant - the compatibility is always 100%.
Another type of rootstocks is clonal. They are grown from cuttings. Cuttings can be taken from pear and quince trees, and some other crops are also used. Such rootstocks have many advantages: short stature, the ability to accelerate fruiting and enlarge fruits, the ability to grow a tree with a surface bed of groundwater. However, not always the clonal stock and the variety can coexist harmoniously with each other.
The most offensive thing is that such incompatibility can reveal itself at any age and with a variety of symptoms. The most characteristic of them is swimming on the bark where budding was carried out.
It is a pity, but in this case you only have to uproot the tree and change it to a new one. However, this fact does not mean that trees on clonal rootstocks cannot be bought at all. Of course you can. But this should be done in large farms, where the compatibility of rootstocks and varieties is really checked.
Lack of phosphorus
When, observing the foliage, you notice that the redness is uneven, spots, and first from the bottom, and the leaves are still beginning to curl - most likely the lack of phosphorus provoked this trouble.
You can heal the tree with the help of mineral fertilizers. From April to mid-July next year, it is advised to spray the pear every two to three weeks using an ammophos solution.
Constant flooding or nearby groundwater
Pears do not like excess moisture and systematically flooded areas. Therefore, redness on the leaves may well occur due to waterlogging.
How can we help a tree? If it is hindered by the accumulation of melt water or stagnation after heavy rainfall, it is necessary to make drainage grooves - they will take away excess moisture. When the pear is in the lowland, the only possible help is to transplant the tree higher.
Recessed landing
When we figured out how to plant a pear correctly, we paid attention to the fact that the tree does not tolerate deepening.Since at the same time, its roots often rot, and this leads to problems with sap flow and, accordingly, to reddening of the foliage.
When planting, you need to be very careful and try to ensure that the root collar (the section of the trunk that passes into the root) is located at the same height as the top layer of soil. If the seedling was planted not very long ago and you have suspicions that the planting depth is still too large, you should dig a pear around the perimeter and, together with an earthen lump, raise it to the desired level. Such a task is, of course, quite difficult, but doable. Some of the amateur gardeners also raised seven-year-old seedlings.
Pear diseases
Red leaves on a pear can be triggered by various diseases. But then they do not blush entirely, but show red spots. For example, such a defect can occur due to black pear cancer and certain fungal diseases.
Naturally, there is no joy in tree diseases. But, at least, we know how to deal with them. It is only necessary to correctly determine the specific disease of our pear, and begin therapeutic measures as soon as possible so as not to lose the plant.
