I have a couple pear trees that I purchased from nursery/rootstock 5 and 6 years ago. The oldest was one of those 5-in-1 grafted trees, the other a Duchess. Both trees are fairly healthy (glossy leaves), and grow a little bit each year.
My concern is that I have never seen a blossom/fruit yet. Nearby apple trees started producing 2-3 year after planting. I have pruned them back in the past, but have not touched either one the last couple years.
Suggestions?
Eric
Pear trees do take a little longer than apples. How do they look this year? Not knowing where you live... are the bud still completely dormant? (mine will be until May) Even if still completely dormant, fruiting buds are easy to spot on a pear tree. They are MUCH larger that the other buds.
Steve
Lee's wrote:
Also keep in mind that full size trees take longer (sometimes a few years) to blossom than dwarf or semi-dwarf. You did not mention what kind of root stock these trees were on, but this can explain their taking longer to bloom than your apple trees.
Sherw>
If they were full-sized pear trees, they can take 10 years to start blooming :-( A semi-dwarf apple can bloom in just 2 or 3 years.
Are the branches growing straight up like on a poplar tree? You need to train the branches more close to horizontal. The branches that make a 45 degree (or more) crotch and bend down close to horizontal will be much stronger *and* bloom earlier. [I wish I had known this when I lived in Texas and had a few standard pear trees]
Best regards, Bob
You could try hanging reasonable sized weights (not enough to break them). Although I have never tried this myself, people use 'spreader sticks' to wedge between branches to force them outwards. I don't grow pears, but with my apples, plums, and peaches, I have not noticed this problem with vertical branches not producing. I think you may not have a problem, other than just waiting until the trees come to bearing age.
Also, you might check that the surrounding soil has enough potassium, adding some to encourage blossoming.
Sherw>
I tried weights one year in an apple tree. Just enough weight to see the branch come down a little. Unfortunately, I live in a windy location. A good wind came up, the young tree started swaying in the breeze, and the weights yanked out a couple of the branches. Only spreader sticks for me after that!
Steve
il Sun, 29 Feb 2004 18:38:16 GMT, "Lee's" ha scritto:
The other thing too is how to prune but keep the two-year-old wood. There is a big difference in pruning depending on fruiting wood age. You may be pruning off the 2-yr-old wood. "They bear fruit on short spurs and fruit buds on two-year-old wood." I once decimated my grape harvest for a year due to bad pruning.
"Pears produce a better crop grown with a suitable pollinator (another variety that flowers at the same time," i.e. early)
Oh and my book of wordsdoes also say pears can 5 to 6 years bear flowers. So maybe this year...
il 02 Mar 2004 18:55:02 +1300, "Loki" ha scritto:
I have two of those 5-in-1 trees, and the grafts look like they didn't take. If you look at the branches you can see where the grafts were inserted into the pear tree, but I've seen no signs of life from the grafted buds after several years. (snip)
This is going to sound strange but here goes. I had a non-producing pear tree in my yard for four years and went through the usual suspects, transplant stress, over/under feeding, too hot/too cold, lousy soil, soil too rich, to no avail. Maybe one pear a year and it would drop off in July. Then we got a cat and the cat used the tree as a scratching post. I figured, go nuts, at least the tree's good for something. The year that the cat began doing so I got so many pears that I had to thin the fruit twice so it had room to grow. Intrigued, I broke out a few 19th century English garden books and found orchard keepers used to beat their trees with chains. It puts stress on the trees and feeling endangered, goes the theory, they set seed (fruit) like mad in case this turns out to be their last year upright . Cat's now dead, but each spring I walk up with a sturdy flat wooden paddle and give the tree a therapeutic beating around the circumference of the trunk. I check carefully for nicks or gouges in the bark and repair if necessary. It usually isn't necessary if you use a wide implement with some flex in it, i.e. not an iron chain. The neighbours may talk, but that tree is a producer. If all else fails...
Our cat did that to a pear tree one year and the tree died the next winter. If your tree has settled down and has produced a good crop for 2 or 3 years, at least, you can probably stop the beatings. The way all this works is like this: When you beat up the trunk, you are causing damage that partially girdles the tree. This slows down the flow of sap from the leaves to the roots. (Remember that sap flows upward in the wood under the cambium and it flows the other way in the bark outside the cambium layer.) Disrupting the downward flow lets sugars (produced by the leaves) accumulate in the twigs. This accumulation of sugars promotes the formation of fruit (flower) buds.
Steve
Datam> This is going to sound strange but here goes.
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