Looking back on the 2016 harvest after the spring we had last year I’m both thankful and surprised. 2017 has been much the same in terms of roller coaster weather. I’ve noticed some trees have more blossom buds and others have much less. I’m grateful always for blessings such as a good fruit harvest because it’s never promised.
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I wouldn’t mind your problems. Everything looks great and is working.
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Clark, I have been thinking of getting a duchess Angouleme and making it a multi leader multi graft tree where each leader is a different variety. I have looked but cant seem to find when this blooms would you know if harvest queen and bosc be good pollinators?
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It’s an early blooming pear and overlaps kieffer and other early pears. My harvest queen has not bloomed yet but my guess is it’s later. Bosc is not a pear i grow right now. Bosc did not graft well to my callery. I may try in again in the future.
Clark,
How much an average Duchess pear weigh? I have a cluster of Duchess pear from my last year’s graft. The graft should be able to handle a pear a size of Bartlett.
I know Duchess pear is large. Not sure if I should let even one fruit.
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They will weigh a pound each but they can get bigger than that and frequently weigh 1 1/2 Pds. The largest I’ve personally seen grown in my area was just over 2 Pds. They are very fast to fruit. That is a good disease resistant strain of pear. Is there a way you can support it?
I probably won’t let to fruit then. one lb is very heavy.
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Ok thank you Clark I’m going to try it. Guess this will force me to learn grafting now.
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Clark, got a question for you about your Drippin Honey tree in the picture. The tree is very upright, is this by design because if deer? Did you prune the tree to that shape or is that just the natural shape of Drippin Honey?
I’m still trying to learn how to maximize the spacing of my asian and euro pear trees which are mainly on 87 rootstock. I’m thinking if I keep the trees to that kind of upright shape, I can get away with around 6-8 feet between trees on the asian types without the trees being crowded at maturity but would like get others opinions on the subject. I’m thinking European types may need more like 8-10 minimum spacing but not sure, thanks.
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Yes Asian pears are natural dwarfs and have a tendency to grow upright which is fine. Asian pears should be spread out as they grow. The production of fruit will eventually cause them to stop growing. On 87 you can easily keep the A. pears not more than 5-6 feet wide. European pears depend on type so honeysweet and Clara Frijs, etc. are small leafed trees but they can get tall if allowed to. Some of my E Pears you can keep 8’ -10’ apart on 87 rootstock with no problems. There are pears I’ve learned we should not try containing in very small spaces such as TS Hardy. Hardy grows very quickly and tends to grow out. There are sand pear hybrids and higher vigor course pure p communis pears that ihave large leaves such as duchess d angoulme, plumblee, Douglas, kieffer etc… I’m not saying these hybrid course pears don’t taste good but they are not melting in most cases though Douglas is a nearly melting dessert pear. I would not plant the large leaf hybrids or big leaf p. communis beside Seckel on say 4’ spacing because the large hybrid vigor will give them the advantage. The small leafed tree will wind up with shredded leaves and crowded. A. pears such as Korean Giant, Hosui, Drippin Honey, Charles Harris etc. leaves are big like the hybrids or high vigor European pears so don’t plant them right beside Seckel if it can be avoided. Seckel is a petite tree in my experience and must be kept away from the brutes or trees such as improved kieffer will swallow it up! If spaced at 4 feet as an example those hybrids spread out fast and crows each other. Red blushing bartlett does well as a big tree like my small yellow pear and they can cohabit with each other just fine. You don’t need that kind of spacing for harrow sweet because they have a tendency to produce fruit quickly and runt out. The branches of all the harrows grow laterally very soon which is characteristic of a E. pear getting ready to fruit. On a multi graft tree I learned a lot and trees such as Fondante de moulins Lille wind up with shredded leaves on a kieffer pear whereas something like TS hardy grows just fine. If you do graft those two together give the Fondante de moulins Lille half a tree or better yet graft it on top of say kieffer and leave the bottom of the tree kieffer and the top Fondante de moulins Lille and prune back the shoots that grow straight up from the kieffer trying to reach the top. Back to the original question if you don’t mind a ladder or picking pole European pears can be allowed to grow straight up and 12-15 feet or so wide and you will get tons of pears. Upright growth is a very efficient use of space and the deer can’t eat your fruit. They won’t get that big if they are Douglas , Leona, and other European pears on 87 because they tend to grow straight up. The class of pears just discussed won’t require 12-15 feet spacing if you prune. You can keep these pears at 8 feet just like the Asian pears. Put Seckel on the end if you grow it in a row with them because as mentioned the brutes will throw branches as they fruit and spread out over on the Seckel. Grow Seckel in the row with it’s own class of smaller leaf pears when you can like ayers, honeysweet, Fondante de moulins Lille, Clara Frijs etc…
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Thanks Clark for all the great information, got it bookmarked for future reference. Sounds like pear trees are a little like azaleas and probably many other plants in that you can get a pretty good idea of the ultimate plant size but looking at the relative size of the leaf
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@Chris_in_GA your welcome! Leaves give you ideals about the tree but Asian pears have big leaves sometimes and are very small trees at times due to fruit load and speed at which they produce. Pears yield can runt them out or slow them down which is what happens with pears such as harrow sweet that yields the next year or two after planting. Sugar pears such as Seckel are slow growing, smaller leaves, smaller pears . So leaves tell you something about a pear but it’s not always size = size.
I’m hoping next years harvest will dwarf this one. The 2017 was a huge harvest but not of pears. The aronia did exceptional this year so I actually came out better than I would have with a big pear harvest! This winter has been exceptionally dry and warm but I’m hopeful we will get plenty of the right conditions to have a good 2018 for pears.
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Hoping 2018 will be a little better harvest than 2017 and so far that appears to be the case. Feeling very blessed right now with a huge cherry harvest, lots of miscellaneous fruits such as gooseberry, mulberry, currants etc. . It has been a significant drought as predicted. The pear harvest should be better this year in 2018 than 2017 but not as good as 2014,2015,&2016. Maybe 2019 will be even better! Blackberries, Aronia, etc look great right now! Grapes are heavy this year with fruit. Apples are light this year.
2018 was kind to us and we are left with an excess of everything. We are very blessed and fortunate.Here comes the 2018 apple & pear harvest!
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The 2019 made all other harvests look small. We have had so much we are having trouble picking it all. Due to lots of broken trees and branches the 2020 harvest should be smaller.
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The 2020 harvest was completely wiped out by cold weather.
Hopefully, 2021 will be a good season for fruit.
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I agree. I am pleasantly surprised. I am getting apples on some trees that are finally producing fruit.
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