I planted three bare root pears this spring, all of them were in similar shape regarding roots and size. Jung’s Hardy Wisconsin Dwarf Pear Karl’s Favorite Dwarf Pear Flemish Beauty Dwarf Pear
I planted them in compost amended soil by Raintree nursery recommendation in the same location and cut them back to about 2-2.5 ft from the ground. Jung’s Hardy Wisconsin and Flemish Beauty doing just wonderful. But Karl’s Favorite(middle one in the row) is definitely not happy. It was the last one to wake up and didn’t put any grows other then few leaves. Is there anything I can do for it so it starts to grow?
Edit- your ‘woodchips’ look to be from a cheapo chipper… the ones i get are quarter sized and have mixed in barks and leaves so that holds moisture really well and ‘composts’ well in my application. All of the woodchips that i added in March were gone… pulverized then i had to add another dressing in May… mine break down super fast… maybe add more living compost to your chips to get them going? That helps with nutrition to give more growth i think.
Yes, the wood chips quality is not the best, but soil under them is pretty wet, I checked. We just had 2 inches of rain 2 days ago. And the poor grass is not result of this year - nobody cared about it for last couple years, I wouldn’t consider the condition is drought. Even seasonal creek still running
Hi @anon89542713,
I have a 2nd leaf pear tree that looks almost identical to your Karl’s Favorite. Few sets of leaves here and there with no real branch extension.
In my case, the cause was severely butchered roots. Fertilizer and moisture didn’t help invigorate. I keep cheering for my poor little tree thinking it will turn the corner any time now.
Some trees are just weak specimens. I had a pear I planted last year that looked like yours at the very end of the season … it barely grew all summer. It is finally starting to grow a bit this year, basically it lost a whole year. The bare-root tree looked fine when I got it, but my guess is it was stored or shipped wrong.
Anyway it should make it through this year and will hopefully do better next year.
Anything to do on my part to help? The soil is wet, so watering not needed…
Did anybody try foliar spray fertilizer on poor growing tree? I would add regular one, but it is obviously having a problem to get the nutrients by roots, also soil is too wet to add more water with fertilizer
Good news is it’s alive and not dying back as you have growth all the way to the top.
I planted a 3-on-1 Asian pear last year. It grew modesty last summer putting on a few feet for each graft.
This year its just put out leaves like yours. For me I noticed some bare roots and suckers at the base so I added more soil and hit it with a bit of fertilizer. It’s responding but still slowly.
I’m patient.
I’ve heard quoted here “first year sleeps, second creeps, third leaps”. For me the pear trees are like this.
Stone fruit I’ve had 3-4 feet of branch growth the first year the bare roots were in the ground.
You planted 3 varieties at the same time in the same environment with no obvious sign of disease or pest damage.
I’d just let it do its thing and maybe try not compare it to it’s neighbors. You might make it sad
My pear is dead now. Looks like it developed fire blight very low to the ground where cut for another trunk was done in nursery. I received 1/3 of my order price as refund without promise it would be enough to replace this tree next year(a tip - it wouldn’t!). Now I need to decide if I want to replace it or just leave other two. I bought three because this is how they sold them for pollination and it was almost same money to buy 2 separate trees. Originally it was a following set planted 10 ’ apart: Jung’s Hardy Wisconsin Dwarf Pear Karl’s Favorite Dwarf Pear Flemish Beauty Dwarf Pear
Now when Karl’s favorite is gone, will the other two pollinate each other OK. I Karl’s favorite must have pear on its own, aside the pollination? @clarkinks , I remember you recommended it, but do not remember for what properties. Is it prone to fire blight or I just had bad luck or may be mix up of the trees? Was 10’ original distance is OK?
Karls favorite is moderately fireblight resistant. It is a great pollinator which is what i use it for. It works very well to pollinate my warren. Sounds like you have very high fireblight pressure there. Cant imagine Karls favorite dying quickly from fireblight. Had a green jade killed to the ground in a day last year so stranger things have happened.
It is but will produce more with a pollinator around. The more other people promote them the more everyone realizes they are amazing. They sell several different sized boxes.
“Warren pears are not commercially cultivated as each tree takes over five years to bear fruit, significantly delaying production. Warren pears are also deemed challenging to grow due to specific pollination requirements, localizing the variety to specialty orchards as a rare, gourmet cultivar.”
