New Pear Tree Bark Cracking and Splitting - Ask Extension
I helped plant a small orchard near Elsie, OR about a year ago and today while visiting, the owner pointed out that one of the pear trees, a Bosc dwar...
Knowledgebase
New Pear Tree Bark Cracking and Splitting #711534
Asked August 10, 2020, 10:06 AM EDT
I helped plant a small orchard near Elsie, OR about a year ago and today while visiting, the owner pointed out that one of the pear trees, a Bosc dwarf, had severe cracking and splitting along the trunk. Is this sunscald? Can anything be done to heal this damage?
Clatsop County Oregon
Expert Response
Based on the way the images were taken it looks like we are looking at the shaded side which means it is unlikely sun damage. Sun damage would occur on the south or southwest side of the tree.
Pears will have that rough bark look on the trunk but usually that is when they are much older such as year 5 and up. Being a dwarf maybe the if occurs earlier?
So, how does the top of the tree look? If it is growing just fine lets not worry about it. If it is not doing well then there may be other things at play here that I will not be able to diagnose with the information at hand.
Ha, yeah, that tree is just about five years old now, so I think what we are seeing is the mature bark. Thank you so much for the quick reply!
