It might be the jolly, bottom-heavy shape or perhaps the mellow, green-yellow shade. Whatever the reason, something about pears seems cheery. Pear trees (Pyrus communis L) offer delicate spring blooms and shiny leaves like apples and prunes, along with the delicious fruit. The United States produces about 900 metric tons of pears every year, with nearly 30 percent increased in California. Only a small percent of the whole pear production is sold new, but this wo not disturb you once your tree starts to fruit.
Choose a pear cultivar that thrives on your own plant hardiness zone and whose winter chill requirements match your winters. Should you select a cultivar grafted to a different rootstock to restrict size or increase hardiness, know the names and qualities of the two cultivars. Bartlett pears makes up 75 percent of the world’s pear production since they’re self-fertile and always produce juicy fruit. Decide before purchasing whether the pear’s fruiting time — early, mid or late period — is vital for you and if that’s the case, select a cultivar with that in mind.
Plant your pear tree at the spring or fall in a really sunny place in the garden with well-draining deep loamy soil. Avoid spots where water stands after a downpour. If you don’t pick a dwarf rootstock, your tree needs an area 18 feet square to spread its branches. If you decide to bet the tree, insert the wager before planting.
Check to find out if your pear cultivar is self-fertile or needs cross-pollination by another pear variety to fruit nicely. Plant another pear within 40 feet of this first if you have to cross-pollinate. Pears, like apples, rely on insects for pollination.
Prune the pear tree beginning at planting time to create it is structurally sound and a fantastic fruit maker. Cut the tree off to a height of between 2 and 3 feet tall and trim back any remaining branches to one grass to support low branching. After the first trim, just prune the tree while it is dormant.
Pick a contour for the tree; open core and central pioneer are one of the very frequent for pears. With open core, select four evenly spaced vertical branches as the leaders and remove all competing branches. Alternatively, prune from the central pioneer contour if you would like a more compact tree; choose one central trunk and four lateral branches spaced evenly around the tree and then remove all competing branches. The following year, select an additional set of posterior divisions several feet higher up the trunk. After the tree shape is established, prune off about 20 percent of this tree’s branches annually to maintain its shape and allow sunlight to the middle of the tree.
Feed the pear tree after in springtime with a fruit tree-specific fertilizer before you begin irrigation. Follow the label directions. Fertilize the tree throughout the summer using half the speed of fertilizer you used from the spring. Apply fertilizer in fall immediately after harvest. Apply the same amount of fluid you did at the spring.
Irrigate the pear tree just during the growing season. Use a drip system on a daily basis or water it deeply every two weeks.
Spray the pear tree with organic dormant oil spray throughout the winter. Dormant oil spray controls San Jose scale, aphid and mite eggs, and overwintering adult pear psylla. Spray the tree with a fungicide for fruit trees when new growth appears in the springtime and when the flowers have opened. After that, spray every 10 days before the spring rains stop. This controls pear scab.