OCCURRENCE AND GRAFT TRANSMISSION OF A DISEASE SIMILAR TO PEAR BLISTER CANKER ON SHOOTS OF THE JAPANESE PEAR CV. ‘CHIKUSUI’

In 1991, a disease similar to pear blister canker broke out on shoots of the Japanese pear ‘Chikusui’. The characteristic symptoms were blistering, splitting and cracking of shoots, with bark necrosis.
Surveys and some graft transmission experiments were conducted to determine both the extent and cause of the disease.
The symptoms were found on 64% of trees of Japanese pear ‘Chikusui’ growing in the Hiroshima Prefecture.
They generally appeared on the basal part of the shoot, and were formed when the average temperature was higher than 18°C. In some graft transmission experiments using 23 cultivars of pear, the disease was expressed within 3 years of grafting only on the Japanese pear ‘Chikusui’. The disease was different from pear blister canker because it did not induce symptoms on the European pear ‘Williams Bon Chrétien’, which is the most susceptible cultivar to pear blister canker.
The Japanese pear ‘Chikusui’ would be useful as an indicator plant for this new disease because it showed conspicuous symptoms.

International Symposium on Asian Pears, Commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Nijisseiki Pear

H. Nitta, S. Ogasawara

Pyrus pyrifolia, splitting, cracking, bark necrosis, susceptibility, pathogenicity

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2002.587.89