Craig Black

Hi Grady and James. Thanks for your replies and your interest in my post. Grady I live in Hobart in Australia on a relatively large urban block of 940 sq m. My goal is to grow as much food for my family as possible with the small area that I have available.

James thank you for your information! I still consider my trees to be quite young. They are most likely 3-4 years old. I guess it is possible for heartwood to develop at that age. I hadn't considered that possibility. Now I won't butcher them in an attempt to save them😌

Hi everyone, I'm fairly new to fruit trees so I think I'm still making plenty of mistakes. The photos here are of an espaliered pear and double grafted plum and the dead branches I dissected. Recently I cut back some dead wood from these trees. Unfortunately it appears as though the brown stuff has invaded living tissue which I don't want to chop off if I can help it. What is wrong with these trees?  Is it contagious? Do I need to chop down further to get rid of the brown stuff and if so how much further down?