Taping concreet to the branches…that’s a new one to me, but I get the premise…the pineapple definitely needs some spreading…Irma came right through last year and other than a couple of snapped branches all of my fruit trees made it through relatively unscathed (knock wood)…
Placing weight in trees only does what the pears will do. The limbs are adapted for it. It’s the fact that fruiting pear limbs get spread this way is why fruiting pears have so much less problems with splitting than the flowering types. But if you can get on it now, you will end up with a much better limb distribution later.
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Hello there,
Is Southern bartlett pear tree a self pollinating variety or partially self pollinating or need another pear tree for cross pollination?
I have a pollinator for mine. I got it from Stark and the description says must have pollinator…
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I think most Southern Pears are at least partly self fertile, but I would get Southern Bartlett a friend. She’s kind of an early bloomer so I would look for something along the lines of a Baldwin, Acres Home, Winnie, or Florida Home. There is a fair amount of overlap with LeConte and Goldenboy, but she would do a better job pollinizing them than the other way around because they often miss her earliest more robust flowers. I would not match her up with Keefer or Orient.
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Thanks for the response! Just had a stupid question. Do you think another flowering pear will make a difference? I have Cleaveland pear in my yard other than the Southern Bartlett pear
If they bloom together they will cross pollinate. Few flowering pears bloom as early as Southern Bartlett, but there are exceptions. Flowering pears are an invasive species, so I don’t really encourage their proliferation. Note Southern Bartletts are very early and have a short shelf life. They are also very prolific. LeConte and Goldenboy would start ripening rat at about the time that all the Southern Bartletts you have stored in the refrigerator have gone bad. Goldenboy I self fertile and will overlap with a lot more varieties of flowering pears. God bless.
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LeConte has really big pears on it this year given that its only mid May. They are bigger than the pears on Goldenboy this year which is unusual. The two pears are extremely similar, but the pears on Goldenboy are usually bigger and sweeter. LeConte has really responded well the Epson Salts I gave it this spring.
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Goldenboy has a beautiful crop this year, but the pears are nowhere near as big or as far along looking as the LeConte pears. There has never been this much difference between the two trees before.
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Hey Marcus here are some pics of the pear grafts from scion you sent . Takes on Golden Boy , Baldwin and Baldwine . Winnie has done nothing . My skill with harder more mature wood is lacking . Thank you for your generosity .
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How is Le Conte with fireblight? I’m looking for something to bloom with my Moonglow. Any suggestions. I’m in East Texas.
Katy
Well, let’s try again with Winnie next year. For sure I should have a good amount of scion this coming winter.
After next spring I will have a better idea of LeConte and Moonglow are likely to bloom together. I grafted Moonglow into an Ayers this year. Next year it probably won’t bloom, but I will be able to see which trees it breaks dormancy with in my yard. So far I have not had problems with LeConte in my yard getting fireblight. I had a little bit of an issue with Goldenboy which is a very, very similar pear. I suspect that Goldenboy is a seedling of LeConte. God bless.
Marcus
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I have a big box store pear that was supposed to be Orient and it isn’t. I say that, it hasn’t bloomed and I have one that was supposed to be Kieffer and turned out to be Orient. So this Unknown pear has different bark and leaf differences than the Orient and the Kieffer that I have since gotten. Long story to say that I have a pear that I don’t know what it is. About the only pear they sell in box stores here are Bartlett (why I don’t know except people will but it by name), Kieffer, Moonglow, Orient, and occasionally Ayers. I’m hoping it turns out to be Ayers. It’s on third leaf for me and hasn’t bloomed and I’ve seen no evidence of FB strikes. I’m hoping that means it isn’t Bartlett. So…if I watch when it breaks dormancy and if is about the same time as when the Moonglow leafs out then maybe they will match? Moonglow bloomed like crazy this year and I want to say it and the Unknown leafed out about the same time. How long will it take Ayers to bloom? Would a Bartlett last three years without a FB strike?
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I wonder how some of these southern pears would fare at my z6b mountain property.
My guess is that they will do fine. They bloom at about the same time as plums, so they would get yacked by an early frost about as often. God bless.
Marcus
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I think this is Leconte…at least that’s how I have it labelled…however, looking at @coolmantoole pic from 16 days ago, mine don’t seem nearly as far along…thoughts??
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They are within the size range of mine. Mine are bigger than the ones of Goldenboy this year, so I think mine are just especially robust this year. The fruit on yours seems darker than the fruit on mine and more blotchy, but that may be an environmental thing. God bless.
Marcus
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was going to comment on them being blotchy…pretty sure that’s a result of all the rain we’ve had, but this is the first year I’ve had fruit on this particular tree, so I don’t really have anything to judge it by…
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My pears are not as blotchy this years as in past. Who knows why? God bless.
Marcus