pears

Question

I have pears that look as if the terminal blossom did not know where to form and, thus, they are spaced randomly around the pears. I was told it was just scab. No!…not scabs actual bottom ends that have formed everywhere on the fruit. They have the hard stony area that you would expect at the bottom end of a pear, except in many different spots throughout the pear. Most are terribly misshapened, but the taste is very intensely sweet! I will send pics later. This is the second year in a row. We had many blossoms, but many of the young fruit withered and died, but we still had a good number of pears.

Thanks
JR

Answer 1

The symptoms you describe, where the fruit has abnormal growth and the hard stony areas form in multiple places instead of just one, sound like they could have been caused by a virus. Viruses will take control of a plant’s genetics and change how it grows, so abnormal growth is their most characteristic symptom.

A viral disease called stony pit sounds like it could be what your pears have. Look over these articles about it to see if the symptoms match:
http://postharvest.tfrec.wsu.edu/marketdiseases/pearstony.html
https://extension.psu.edu/plants/tree-fruit/diseases/pear-diseases/stony-pit