Pear trees that produce bushels of fruit and avoid disease

The problem with deer is I simply cannot fence off that large area. What I’m doing now is working though may be impractical for many people. Pear orchards were grown on big trees for many years before modern techniques.

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If you can not surround the plot Clark, you have to find some way to scare off deer, otherwise, the trees are doomed to grow vertically, and that’s a problem, because they are made inaccessible to all, Clark.

If trees are very old, I suggest you go replacing them with other varieties (well the French) and holding off the deer.

I had a pear crop this year (and a large peach crop) My dear wife told me one day, perhaps we should pick them each early; well I demurred because I became busy and the raccoons and squirrels got practically all of them. Sometimes orcharding seems hopeless.:weary:

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Yes, you’re right Patrick, there are too many obstacles that often we despair, but to people we like fruit growing, we can not throw in the towel and we must continue fighting against the odds. In my case, for example, most fruit, donated to non-profit associations, my family does not like fruit, and you think I’m an idiot, if maybe it is, but that’s my passion.

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I like the tree how it is. It is highly productive in the same space it takes to grow a dwarf that produces much less. Standards are really the best option in that spot.i have several other standards and they produce large amounts of pears.

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My orchard has no deer fencing, but I keep my trees at a height where much of the fruit can be picked without a ladder and a short step ladder will elevate me to the rest- trees are kept under 14’ tall.

But how high deer go to eat foliage and fruit varies from site to site, and my deer tend to be a lazy crew. Maybe that is because hunters in my neighborhood thin out the bucks before they get very old and large.

At any rate, it seems the coyotes, which in the east coast look like full blown wolves compared to the CA coyotes I was raised around, are really beginning to thin out the population. At some areas near me deer are back to the populations they were decades ago when there were lots of poachers.

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Crows got all of the pears from one of my pear trees. I tried the fake crows and chasing them and the other produced more pears than I can handle.
BUT … many of the pears show black dots on parts of the skin that I assume is perhaps what’s left of the fire blight that I sprayed for … or perhaps some other kind of disease.
Whatever it is, it looks like it’s only skin deep.
It’s a Flemish Beauty and the fruit is almost too sweet.

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Flemish Beauty sounds wonderful. A good harvest like that is always nice. The pears might be so sweet because of lack of moisture or increased heat. Sorry to read about the crows being such a problem.

This year the deer were not a big problem but in past years I’ve caught them on their back legs jumping to pick pears very high up in the tree. They only do that pear robbing trick on my lower land so far. Glad to read you don’t have that problem Alan. You said it best that every area has individual challenges and benefits exclusive to a specific area. People down the road from me had a pear orchard killed with Fireblight. It was only 10 trees or so but I’m sure it was devastating. The pears here take a lot of work and a lot of knowledge to bring them to fruit. That’s why we really don’t have pear orchards like they do in the north. I’m getting the hang of raising them but to raise pears sleep with one eye open in Kansas.

Boy oh boy … the heat.
Brutal this year

.

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I fear that what you describe is a condition called “Spotted” I leave a file for you to take a look at the photos.

Sorry, the forum rules, do not let me upload the file with photos, I will try to upload other photos.

In this link I guess you can view photos.

https://www.google.es/search?q=fotos+moteado+peral&espv=2&biw=1366&bih=643&tbm=isch&imgil=djnJ-Cpf_a5pMM%3A%3B_N6FFMFaApW7BM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fagroislas.com%252Fk2-categories%252F318-moteado-del-peral-y-del-manzano-venturia-pyrina-aderhold-y-venturia-inaequalis-descripcion-danos-y-control-integrado&source=iu&pf=m&fir=djnJ-Cpf_a5pMM%3A%2C_N6FFMFaApW7BM%2C_&usg=__Hj3E4t2Y6aF0C5OSt9AgZL_4RTk%3D&ved=0ahUKEwjb3sGKqu7OAhWFAxoKHZrcC70QyjcINQ&ei=YjTIV9ulEIWHaJq5r-gL#imgrc=djnJ-Cpf_a5pMM%3A

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Could be. Pictures look right. But couldn’t find anything about “Spotted” disease or whatever. Are we talking anthracnose?
These spots only appear to be on the skin and they don’t spread or sink.

It is not the same, the anthracnose is the chancre, and the “Spotted” is another disease, scientifically known as “Venturia Pirina”, this disease usually occurs in wet and warm springs, and the highest level of inoculum coincides with rainy winters and cold. mainly attacks the fruit and leaves.

Yup. Looks and sounds like “pear scab”. Thanks a lot.
I’ll have to looks for controls for next year.
Found this on-line - “Late-season infections may be visible at picking time or may develop in cold storage. Such scab spots are quite small and dark and are referred to as “pinpoint” scab.”
That sounds like a good description of what I see.
The inside doesn’t seem to be affected.
Thanks again.

Brutal and made us feel miserable!

This is one of my newly grafted pears. Grafted it in June of this year. It will shape up by next year. This tree will be producing pretty soon if it’s not over pruned.


I just picked 63 pounds of Seckels and i should have at least triple that by the time its done… without any sprays.

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That’s an excellent harvest! Can you post some pictures of them? Not many people get those kind of numbers on seckles. Hope I can someday get my seckles producing like that!