flowering pear cross-pollinate fruiting pear?

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angeleyes1307 Cameron, NC Mar 04, 2013

My husband and I decided to raise some fruit trees and so I asked my him to stop by and pick up two pear trees of different varieties as he has the truck. He was more than willing to do so, but I forgot to specify they both had to be fruiting pear trees. He picked up a semi-dwarf moonglow pear and a cleveland select callery pear. Now the cleveland select seems pretty enough, and the reason I wanted two was not as much for the quantity of fruit but to ensure pollination. So my questions are first of all and most importantly - will it cross pollinate or is it too different a variety?
Secondly and also importantly, is it the kind of tree I do not want near my gardens or chickens or children for any reason?

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Diana_K Contra Costa County, CA(Zone 9b) Mar 13, 2013

I think they are too far apart to cross, but I am not sure.

Callery Pear is a nice shade tree. There are several varieties available. You can get more info by looking up
Pyrus calleryana + the variety (if any).
Some varieties are more vertical, other spread out more. Give them enough space to grow.

As far as I know they are not toxic to birds or children. Some may produce a small, almost woody fruit that is not good to eat.

Another issue that you might look into. I do not know if this is a problem in this situation:
Many fruiting trees are subject to many pests and diseases. A closely related plant in the same garden or next door might act as a reserve source of disease or pest organisms that could infect the fruit tree.
This works 2 ways, of course. If the pest gets an early start in the non-fruited relative, the predators also get up to speed earlier, so might actually benefit the fruiting tree by keeping the pest population under control. If you spray the fruiting tree, you may very well be killing the beneficial predators. By not spraying the ornamental one this tree becomes a reserve population of the beneficial predators.

For more about this concept look into Integrated Pest Management.

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