Can anyone tell me a pear tree growing guide

elivings1 · October 10, 2021, 1:32pm

So I am getting 1 Comice, 1 Warren and 1 magness pear in the spring. I was wondering how do you grow pears? Is there sprays mandatory for them like a peach or a cherry? When I look up pear trees on youtube pruning guilds just show up and when I search pear growing guild permaculture stuff comes up.

BlueBerry · October 10, 2021, 2:04pm

Maybe you intend to search for “guide” rather than “guild”?

dimitri_7a · October 10, 2021, 2:38pm

Pears grow pretty easily on their own. Just make sure to follow a fruit tree planting guide and water appropriately the first year.

Biggest thing unique to pears is that they REALLY like to grow vertically so you should focus on spreading branches and pruning to reduce upright growth the first two years unless you want to be harvesting on a ladder.

You don’t need to worry about spraying until you get fruit and see what your pest pressure is like.

mamuang · October 10, 2021, 7:24pm

I grafted many (20+) varieties of Asian and Euro pears to my existing pear trees. I have noticed that all have overlapping bloom time. This happens to pears grown in colder zones like zone 6 and lower.

I have Magness that has set fruit and Warren that has not had a single bloom after 6 years.

I don’t think you will have a problem with bloom time for cross pollination. The problem will be how long it will take for your Warren to start blooming. Maybe, your Magness and Comice could produce the same year. I just grafted Comice this year.

Have you used the forum’s search function ?
It is the looking glass symbol on the top right corner. If you put in key word like Warren pear, you will get several threads about it.

I tag @clarkinks for you. Clark grows a lot of pears.

The biggest issue for pears are fire blight. The rest are not as bad.

elivings1 · October 10, 2021, 8:13pm

Yeah I have searched for Warren Pear. It sounds like it takes quite a bit of time before either warren or magness produce fruit. Someone said it was something like 4 years on quince rootstock.

clarkinks · October 10, 2021, 9:08pm

@elivings1

Some pears do not require great skill to grow. @mamuang and I know Warren, potomac, ayers, Harrow delight, Harrow sweet are relatively disease resistant and easy to grow. There is little more to growing them than digging a hole wide and deep enough for the roots to be spread out. It’s best to plant the pears with a few bucket full of compost or aged cow manure mixed in. I like to top dress young pear trees with several inches of wood chips on top of the ground 3 feet around them to keep the roots moist. Watering pears that first year once in awhile is very important to the trees long term success. Pears such as Bartlett aka Williams, anjou , bosc, comice can be alot of work. They grow well in locations free of fireblight. If you grow the wrong type of pear for your location it can be a lot of work and the work be for nothing. Many pears such as doyenne comice or concord require a location free of fireblight to be successful. Most locations have lots of disease so in order to grow pears successfully its best to stick to the disease resistant types. Keep in mind Harrow pears produce very quickly , taste good, and are easy to care for.

Your tree will typically come with a growing guide if ordered from a place like Starks or gurneys. Typically the guide says the same thing which is

" Soil pH. Pears grow best in slightly acidic soils with a pH ranging from 6 to 7. Before planting your tree, you should consider doing a soil test to determine the pH of your soil and amending it to meet the needs of your pear trees. Because we have an apple tree successfully growing 15 feet away from where we planted to the first pear tree and 30 feet from the second, we’re confident our soil pH will meet the needs of the new trees.

Drainage. Pear trees prefer well-drained soil where water does not stand for long after it rains. We planted our trees in an area with a natural mixture of clay and sand soils and backfilled each hole with the soil from the buckets the trees came in from the nursery.

Choose a sunny location. Plant your pear trees in a sunny location to maximize fruit production. Additionally, make sure the area offers good air circulation. Locations away from other trees and large structures are ideal.

Ensuring pollination for fruit production. You have to plant at least two varieties of pear trees, to ensure cross-pollination and fruit production. The trees should be spaced 15-20 feet apart when planted. Lastly, make sure the varieties you choose are compatible with each other."

" After you’ve met all the growing requirements, you’re ready to plant your pear trees. Pear trees should be planted during the spring in a location that meets all of the above needs.

Dig a hole no deeper than each tree’s root ball and about twice as wide. Mix in compost and peat moss or other organic matter with the soil you removed from the hole so that it makes up about 30% of what’s being backfilled. Before you backfill the hole be sure roots are straightened out rather than bent, in a circle or ‘J’ shape. Also, make sure the tree is straight. It may take two people — one to hold the tree and one to backfill. When you backfill the hole make sure the soil reaches the same spot on the trunk as it did when the tree was in its container. The graft union — the swollen area where the trunk meets the rootstock. As you backfill, remove air pockets as you fill in with dirt. Once the hole is completely filled, tamp the surface dirt down gently and water the tree thoroughly. If the soil settles, add soil later to ensure it’s at the appropriate level.

Producing Fruit

It will take 4-6 years for your pear trees to produce fruit. However, meeting all your tree’s growing requirements from the start will improve your yields in the future. After planting perform regular spring pruning and periodically check soil quality to ensure optimal growth and eventual fruit production." - How to plant pear trees to produce fruit - Farm and Dairy

So your likely going to ask but what if you love comice and your heart is set on it? You certainly can spray with copper or antibiotics to inhibit bacteria growth aka fireblight and other diseases. It can be done it’s just much more work. I’m not the type to tell anyone what to do but rather giving you options. By the way my soil is very alkaline and my pears grow great here contrary to the guides saying otherwise. I’ve never found pears to be picky. Plan to protect your pears with fencing over winter from rabbits , voles, rats and other rodents who will chew around the bottom of the tree and killing it. Rodents are not the only problem pears will need fenced off from deer and other animals. Some locations have pests such as porcupine, bear, moose, elk and the list goes on. Your orchard may need fortifications which are best to have in place before you plant.

elivings1 · October 10, 2021, 10:53pm

I did not know that Comice was susceptible to fire blight. I changed it to Dutchess.

elivings1 · October 10, 2021, 10:55pm

Also it sounds like it will not have a issue pollinating the magness or Warren right?

clarkinks · October 11, 2021, 2:47am

This will get you started on matching pear pollination Online pollination checker for fruit trees

Type in the pear you want and it will locate pollination partners

As an example Harrow delight is part of flowering group 3

So orangepippin will tell you these Varieties that will pollinate Harrow Delight in their catalog are

Aurorain stock

Producing Fruit

Aurorain stock

Flemish Beautyin stock

Harrow Crispin stock

Honeysweetin stock

Hosuiin stock

Niitakain stock

Shenandoahin stock

Shinkoin stock

Shinseikiin stock

Shinsuiin stock

Winnals Longdonin stock

Yoinashiin stock