Hopefully it leads to some nice early harvests. I remember a few years ago when we had a spring like that. The boysenberries were great- much sweeter than all the years since.
Here’s how far along Magness is:
Hopefully I get a good set- there seem to be quite a few on the tree.
Our pears are at exactly the same stage. My Harrow Sweet flower clusters look just like your Magness.
If you have other pear flowers nearby, you might consider hand pollinating to increase your chances of getting those luscious pears.
I’ve got 6-8 varieties which should be flowering within about 10’. So, hopefully the bees take care of it. But if I don’t see them when everything opens, I’ll go and help out.
I planted a 3:1 Espalier Chojuro, Shinseiki on OHxF97 from Raintree last year. I barely had any useful lateral growth.
My small yellow pear blooms are now open with harrow sweet and Asian pears overlapping their bloom time. Hoping for good pollination since the bees and other insects are flying in this warm weather.
This is the state of my pears. With all the warm weather I hope they will open soon. 200 miles north and we are way behind you.
My pear grafts are waking up.
My pear tree is between 4 and 5 feet tall and it will be in its third summer. Should I let it to fruit?
I let my HS fruit the second year, one fruit. Not sure if it is one of the reasons my tree has grown ever so slowly. It is planted near a row of pines which, I think, plays a major role.
Yes Mamuang, I am afraid that it may slow it down. It is a dwarf tree and it grows slowly anyway. But it is so tempting.
Mine is on OHxF 97 which is not dwarf, but grow like one !!!
It won’t hurt much to leave a fruit. Definitely eases the mind to taste what your growing.
It may not have grown much, but it is very tidy looking. I’m working on a 3 tier espalier which is a bit less ascetically pleasing…
It started as a Shenandoah on OHx87, planted in spring 2014, after a year in a pot. I immediately grafted another variety on at the 4’ level.
I think it is either Glou Morceau or Passe Crassane.
“Pretty small wood and the label wasn’t clear. I’m not even positive it is pear. I’m using process of elimination to determine its identity.”
That’s the problem when you don’t use a pen which can take some water- it didn’t last. The good news is that it looks like it was really a pear that I grafted on. I may even get to sample it this year.
I grafted Santa Maria on as a 3rd tier (top?) last spring.
That’s a solid amount of blooms you’ve got there. When I look at a dormant tree, I’m never sure how many of the spurs will actually flower. Here’s an example with two almost identical spurs where it looks like only 1 will flower. Or the other is much later…
Bob,
As your aware as trees get older they develop more spurs. It’s good if they don’t all bloom in one year because the tree might go biennial which some trees do naturally. The yellow pear has been consistent yearly for me so far. I took a couple more pictures Bob though as your aware I only prune when necessary so my pears are not necessarily beautiful but they are highly productive. My belief has always been 2 year old wood is necessary for pears to produce fruit on large trees. Every year everyone around here trim off the fruit spurs for next year trying to keep the tree shapely. Harrow sweet will produce in one year so that would be a pear that could be heavily pruned.
Clark,
Do you thin them one per cluster like apple?
Tony
Tony I don’t typically worry about it unless it’s a pear given to overproducing. Harrow sweet I would definitely thin.
My small 4-in-one pear on OHxF333 rootstock is finally in bloom. The varieties are supposed to be Rescue, Highland, Bartlett and Orcas.
Very nice, how long has that 333 been in the ground? I have contemplated buying some 333 for rootstock in the front yard but I don’t want them to get too big, maybe 8 feet is what I would like.
This will be its third year. It is about 5 feet now. It could be bigger, but during the first two years I was trying to keep all 4 varieties in balance and I cut off all vigorous upright shoots in the center of the tree. At the end of the last summer I decided to let it grow as it wants so I could graft more varieties on it.
