Pear tree pollination

I decided to experiment and ordered an Orcas Pear from Raintree. According to the Raintree chart, a Seckel pear, which I planted 12 ft or so away would work as a pollinator. The Orcas had one nice big pear a year ago and this year it set only one, which eventually fell off. It appears to me that the big problem is that there isn't much overlap in their blooming periods. The seckel blooms first and the orcas blooms when there are very few blossoms left on the seckel. The seckel is about 5 years old and the Orcas 4.
I have a very small grafted 4 in 1 tree about 100 yards away. It has Seckle, Conference, and Highland and Bosc on it. Is it too far away to provide pollen to my Orcas?
I was thinking of trying to graft a branch of something onto the Orcas to provide pollen, but I may just be too impatient. Maybe the youth of the tree is the problem. The Orcas is really a beautiful healthy looking tree, as is the Seckel. The seckel has been having about 4 or 5 fruits on it per year. I have heard they are slow to bear.

100 yards is plenty close for a pollinator, and pears take 5-7 years to come into full bearing depending on what rootstock they are on.

One thing about the raintree pollination charts, is they are for Western Washington, and may not apply to the rest of the US (I live on the other side of the state, and their bloom times for apples are not even close to what I have in my yard)

Did you have any bee activity this spring? If not, looking into bringing in pollinators next spring may be something to look into (Mason bees are my preference).

This message was edited Jun 20, 2007 3:35 PM

We have lots of little insects that pollinate, but they aren't bees. We have some bees, though.
My trees are probably just not quite old enough yet.They are four and 5 years old each.
Glad to hear 100 yards is close enough for pollenation. That little tree ought to be able to pollinate plenty in a couple more years. It is really small now, but with 4 kinds of pear on one little tree, it ought to offer enough pollen for almost anything. It has started blooming, though.
I haven't seen any pollination timing charts for my area, only what trees pollen will fertilize which tree. No one says which variety blooms with which other variety.
And I haven't seen pear trees around my neighborhood, either. There are some about 1/2 mile away at my former house, but 1/2 mile is probably too far.

This message was edited Jun 20, 2007 10:55 PM