Sootyblotch and flyspeck is a descriptive term for a condition of darkly pigmented blemishes and smudges caused by a number of different fungi affecting fruit including apples, pear, persimmon, banana, papaya, and several other cultivated tree and vine crops. Sootyblotch, which also affects apples, is very common, so if you have pears in your home orchard, you need to know about the fungal disease. Read on for information to help you identify pears with sootyblotch, as well as tips for pearsootyblotchtreatment. Sootyblotch and flyspeck (SBFS) is for management purposes one disease that blemishes the surface of apple and pear fruit. Infectious spores of the many fungi that cause SBFS come primarily from wild plants along orchard borders. Ms. Johnnie Crona. Control of PearSootyBlotch An annual pruning opens up the tree to sun and wind, allowing interior fruit to dry. When many fruits are competing for space, the pears touch one another and remain wet in those shadowed areas. A model for sootyblotch and fly speck, an important disease for Michigan apple and pear growers, has just been added to Enviroweather (www.enviroweather.msu.edu), a Michigan State University web site weather-based system for making pest management decisions. About the diseases. Affecting apple, crabapple, and pear trees, sootyblotch and flyspeck of apple are separate diseases, but both are normally present on the same fruit. Save for later Print. Sootyblotch appears as sooty smudges or olive-green spots on mature fruit. Flyspeck appears as clusters of 10 to 50 sharply defined black shiny specks on the fruit surface.During wet growing seasons, losses of 25% or more can be found even in orchards treated with fungicides. Sootyblotch usually infects pears during periods of early spring rain and continues into the summer. Prolonged cloudy weather and frequent rain showers make it worse. Appropriate fungicides include Thiophane methyl used in combination with ferbam or mancozeb. Sootyblotch and flyspeck occur on fruit surfaces and result in economic losses due to less attractive appearance. Sootyblotch fungi form dark mycelial mats whereas flyspeck fungal agents are well characterized with black, sclerotium-like bodies on. Sootyblotch and flyspeck (SBFS) fungi produce superficial, dark-colored colonies on fruits, stems, and leaves of many plant genera. These blemishes are economically damaging on fruit, primarily apple and pear, because they reduce the sale price of fresh fruit. The pear fruit is sometimes affected by the sooty disease which occurs so commonly on the apple in a wet season. It is rarely troublesome to the pear - grower. Sootyblotch and flyspeck are separate diseases that often occur together on apple and pear fruit during late summer.The fungi that cause sootyblotch and flyspeck overwinter on twigs of apple, pear, and many different woody plants commonly found in hedgerows and woodlots. Sootyblotch and fly speck are the two most common "summer diseases" of apples in the Northeast; they are also problems on pears. Apples and pears with symptoms of sooty. blotch were collected in summer and early autumn 2006–2010 from trees grown in fungi-. cide non-treated orchards and small gardens located in various regions of Poland.
