Plums, and pear tree problem - Leaf drop

[Philplot]

The leaves on my pear tree have all dropped off.
I went away for a fortnight, and when I got back they were all on the floor.
Some were very pale in colour, and all the others had turned black.
Not a leaf left on the tree.
Seems to have spread to the plum tree, which is in direct contact with the pear tree.
All other plants/trees unaffected
Camera out of action at the moment, so no pictures.
Any ideas come to mind ?

[Guest]

The leaves dropped off my plum several weeks ago and my pear leaves are now dropping it is just that time of year. Is this not the case for yours? Is this really unusual for your trees?

[Alison]

Pale and black doesn't sound good. Obviously natural leaf fall would be more browny and is a bit early. Are they in the ground or pots?

[Philplot]

The plants are in 200 litre pots.
Leaves fell far too quickly for an autumn fall.
Nobody there to water them, so that may have worsened things a little.

[Jay22]

The leaves on my plum tree started to fall a while back and the pear is now starting to drop it's leaves. Maybe combination of lack of water and time of the year as I missed a few nights watering and they are in pots? Hope so anyway!

[simon12]

Its not any help to you but my plum has been slowly dropping leaves for a few weeks but the pear hasn't yet.

[orangepippin]

I think trees grown in pots might be more susceptible to dropping their leaves quickly, particularly if they dry out.

[Guest]

Can you see buds on the trees? If they look reasonably ok I would just put it down to them having a wobbly moment

[Philplot]

Can you see buds on the trees? If they look reasonably ok I would just put it down to them having a wobbly moment

They have fresh buds on.
A few opened with fresh blossom, but quickly withered away.

[Guest]

A few opened with fresh blossom, but quickly withered away.

Oo er, ok a big wobbly then.

[Noosner]

Dunno if this is helpful, but nearly all the leaves of my new pear tree, which ended up staying in a pot for longer than I expected before I could plant it out, turned yellow and dropped off within a few days.

I read up about it and apparently it can sometimes happen to trees in pots if the plant gets a shock, e.g. if the weather changes suddenly. Leaf fall, which is on the cards anyway, gets brought forward as the tree uses its resources to survive. It will probably be fine next year.

[Philplot]

Thanks for all the help everyone.
Looks like Noosers explanation matches what happened to my plants.
Cheers,
Phil