Here is my attempt to pollinate my harrow delight at 9 pm at night in the rain with a Bradford flower cluster
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Wow, now that’s a dedicated fruit grower…!! My guess is you’d do just as well by going out at 9pm and peeing on the plant.
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Lol, you could be right. I had successfully pollinating a plum like this several years ago, although not in a down pour. Every thing was soaking wet, I just tried to touch the centers of the flowers together and roll them around a bit. I left the branch in the tree, maybe a bee will come by, I doubt the flowers will wilt on the Bradford today
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May you squeak buy as I have, but hopefully with fewer stressful close calls.
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Some of these pears don’t look as pretty as I like but it’s not always as much about pretty as it is about trying to get fruit. The quince branches shown below died back after several years due to delayed incompatability with kieffer. I grafted quince to pear instead of pear to quince and there is a difference!
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How old are the trees in your picture?
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Some are 20 years old but they are all different ages.
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How far apart do you space your pear trees?
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It depends on the type of pear and rootstock but some I space 20 - 30 feet and others 5 -7 feet. I have a couple that are 10-12 years old and not even 8 feet tall and 2 feet wide on callery. Pears typically get 20 - 30 feet tall on callery here due to my thick clay soil which has a dwarfing effect on them. This will be the first year a few of them are producing pears. We wait 15 years at times to taste a single pear. Many pears I have are 15’ tall on standard rootstock. I’m using Harbin and BET rootstock now for Asian pears so they have the extra vigor some of them need. I use bartlett, 333, 87, 97 and now pyro rootstocks as well.
LOL I get about the same range with my warmer longer climate and rich loamy sand based soil. However, I made a discovery this year. The pears in the front yard have been slow growing, so I’ve been paying attention for evidence of nutrient deficiencies. Towards fall I saw some signs of possible magnesium deficiency. I have to supplement magnesium on my muscadines every year, so that was not a shocking possibility. So this year when a gave Epson salts to my muscadines, I fed the same amount to my pears, and they have all shot off growing far more vigorously than before. Apparently that was all they were missing and even the ones that had grown well before were missing it. Note the two really old seedling trees on the back lot are over 50 ft tall. A common or Asian pear will get real big if it lives long enough. But I don’t let my younger pears get much taller than 15 feet. There is no point in having pears up in the sky. God bless.
Marcus
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Your pear trees looking good Clark. My pear trees are not that far along yet. Finally got a couple of warm days with the temp in the upper 70s for Friday and drop again on to 22 degree on Monday night. Hoping for a sustain heat wave soon!
Tony
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Tony,
This cold may help us. Let’s hope we keep most of our fruit this year.
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Improved Kieffer bloomed ahead of Douglas though Douglas started to bud first. Improved Kieffer once again is out in front
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Well, I don’t have that many blooms, but I’m pleased to report that my Orient pear has some blossoms. They just popped out yesterday, while the leaves seemed to have unfolded too.
The Pineapple has leaves on it, but I don’t see any blooms on it, while the Moonglow has leaves and it looks like maybe some fruit buds about to open.
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Great news on your orient pear! Moonglow has been slow to fruit here.
awesome…how many bushels are you expecting this year?
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