Inherited pear tree help

Am a real newbie to the Gardening world and need some advice with a pear tree we have inherited with our new house. 
We had some pears appear on this tree this year but all didn’t look too healthy, majority of the leaves have black spots on and there is a lot of dead wood on the tree. It was also smothered in Ivy which I have now cleared from the tree.  I have found a few websites which imply its infected with Blight but now I am finding it hard to identify a product or method to treat this. 

Do I clear the deadwood off and prune the tree and hope it survives or is there a fertilizer which I should spray the tree with.
Any advise suggestions would be very welcome.

For a start, the Black spots are Pear scab. Spray with a Fungicide recommended for fruit trees.

Any dead wood should be removed back to healthy tissue. Then wait and see what grows in Spring before doing anymore remedial pruning. Old trees are best not pruned heavily as they are often not healthy enough to sustain the new growth which comes after pruning.

Hmm - I habe black spots and orange spots on my pear tree and I had one measly pear this year, which looked rather horrible so I left it for the wasps. Anything I can do? The tree is rather high, it would be difficult to spray. 

Pray for drier, warmer Summers!

Berghill wrote (see)

Pray for drier, warmer Summers!

 I have been all year - I am still waiting

I thought I'd answered this - must be going mad.

It sounds like you may have rust - have a look here.

yup that's the one - weirdly no Juniper trees nearby. By the looks of it, it isn't really a major problem for the tree. Is it worth doing anything about it? Picking affected leaves is not an option, pretty much all leaves were affected this year. 

Hi, we moved into a cottage in May 2010 which had an old pear tree, also covered in ivy. We found the main root at the base and sawed through it and pulled off what we could but it was well up all the branches. The ivy has now obviously died off on the branches and is gradually dropping off, we just keep the root under control, could kill it off I suppose. We have a juniper bush growing directly under the tree!

That first summer the tree got scab and rust badly but the fruit was delicious if marked by the black spots - the rust didn't seem to affect the fruit but all the leaves got worse as August went on. I tried to collect all the leaves and burnt them. During the winter we lightly pruned the tree and went to the local garden centre and taking advice from one of the staff bought some fungicide which we sprayed on the tree on 4 separate occasions, starting in the spring when the first leaves started to unfurl and 3 further sprays at intervals of 2 weeks. We were rewarded with a brilliant juicy harvest last year (2011)and no disease. Unfortunately pears don't store but we were giving them away to everyone we knew because they were rotting before we could use or preserve them all, and the family and neighbours couldn't take any more! I was able to collect the leaves for mulching.

Last winter we pruned the tree a bit harder, then this spring because of the wet conditions we were unable to spray on a regular basis but managed the 1st 2 sprayings. We had some black spot and rust but nothing too bad. The fruit yield was well down on last year but still delicious.

My advice would be to go to your local garden centre to ask what is on the market now to spray it with. Ours cost about £10 for 2 small bottles of concentrate two years ago but it goes a long way and we still probably have enough left to use for 4 sprayings next spring and more, weather permitting!

I'll have a look in the shed tomorrow to see what ours is called, but at the moment it's dark, raining and bedtime!

Thanks - I will try the tree nursery near work - I don't trust B&Q which my nearest garden centre. 

Yeah, the black stuff is worse as it seems to affect the fruit. The rust doesn't seem to do much, other than being unsightly. 

Hi bubbleworks, the fungus control we have is by Westland and is called 'plant rescue fungus control', it's for fruit , veg and flowers so you could use it in the rest of the garden if the rust spreads. Although the juniper didn't show any sign of rust we sprayed that as well just in case.

Good luck - hopefully next year will be better for all apple and pear trees.

I moved into a house with a handsome pear tree a bit over a year ago.  While the tree is lovely, the pears are very disappointing - small, brown, dry and cracked - and only very few of them.  Is it the end of the line for this tree?

I tie a cease band round the fruit trees to stop pests (namely ants) spreading diseases and I try to avoid spraying with chemicals,(soapy water is as far as I like to go)and good pruning helps ,(dead wood and cross over branches e.t.c.).