Why does my asian pear (20 century) bloom in september?

[jimmy_sayavong]

I purchased an asian pear (20 century) from my local nursery here in Dallas, TX area two months ago. I noticed the tree started blooming around early september, now (late september) I have observed several little fruits on the tree. How this happens? According to the folks at the nursery, plus other internet sources, all asian pears including 20-century suppose to start blooming in early sprint?

Now we are about 2 months away from winter, what would happen to those fruits? are they going to survive the cold weather?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

[Kay Lancaster]

Plants occasionally "get confused" and bloom in the wrong season, especially if there's a temperature sequence that seems to tell the plant it's the right season for flowering. Sometimes, too, plants that aren't "doing well" will bloom out of season -- apparently the urge to leave your genes behind before departing for the compost pile can be quite strong. And then sometimes, they just follow the first rule of experimental biology: "under the most carefully controlled conditions, biological material does what it d*** well pleases."

Chances are the fruits set now won't make it. If you think the plant may be struggling a bit, you might want to de-fruit it now, in hopes it'll do better next spring.

Kay

[Backburner]

Hi!

Sounds like your tree was shocked into blooming. A guess, but perhaps the nursery received the tree from a third party in a cooler climate or did not take good care of the tree while it was in their nursery yard? Near to me here in Maryland is a stand of wild pear which are now blooming. They were probably shocked by the heat and drought which only broke recently. Some spring blooming magnolias aound here also will bloom out of season because of stress.

Likely the your pear fruit will not make it over the winter. In fact it might be a good idea to pull those fruits in order to keep the tree from expending energy on producing fruit rather than going into seasonal dormancy.

Hope this helps.

jimmy [e-mail] wrote:

[David Hare-Scott]

Wit global warming Dallas has moved the the Southern hemisphere

You tree is confused, it will probably straighten out next year

Probably not

David