just bragging on my pear tree

this pear tree is over 32 years old and every year we have to remove lots of baby pears before they start to rippen

this is after we picked most already

What variety is that?

we have always called a sand pear but i believe its a type of bartlett ill double check and get back to you on that

Your pear tree is lovely. I have planted 3 in my yard and am dreaming of having pears like yours some day. My oldest one is only 6 years old though and my crop this year is 8 seckel pears. But that is better then the 3 seckel pears I got last year plus one Orcas. I am hoping for a real crop next year on the seckel perhaps one on the Orcas. The third tree is a 4 in one and is much slower.
I should place a picture of yours next to each of mine so they will know what they should be when they grow up!

Most pear trees are quite slow at producing much fruit. One exception for me was Honeysweet which produced in a couple years or so...heavily after 6 years. It is self pollinating too.

Honeysweet. I wish I had room for another pear! Oh well. I think I might have some real production next year.

guineagirl, what an encouragement you are. I'm sure glad you decided to brag. I want to plant a pear tree, but have not seen too many grown in my town. We are a zone 4-5. Closer to 5.

Does anyone know if pears will grow in zone 4? Honeysweet sounds good. Do pears need pollinators? Paj and Indy, your both zone 5, so I bet I could grow them. I would like to find one for spring planting.

Many pears are hardy in zone 4, apparently not all. Honeysweet is a Stark cultivar, but is not listed in Plant Files. Guineagirl, if you are so inclined, it would be a service to all of us if you were to enter your tree and its picture in Plant Files. I checked the SSE Fruit, Berry and Nut Inventory and found Honeysweet listed as hardy in zones 5-8. One thing we have all learned is that zone listings are only approximate in many cases, but if you want to be sure, I recommend that you choose one that promises to be hardy in zone 4.
I only checked a couple of varieties, but found that one I have, Seckel, is good throughout zone 4. Seckel is an heirloom, very small and very sweet. It has taken about 6 years to start bearing and isn't bearing a whole lot yet. ( 8 pears this year, 3 last, hopefully at least 16 next year.)
It may take a long time for pear trees to bear, but they are very long lived trees. There are some in downtown Santa Fe that appear to be very old -- like 50-100 years. They are beautiful in the spring and still produce pears.
If you can stand the wait, and it isn't easy, I recommend pears. Honeysweet's early bearing is a really great feature, but it might be pushing it in Montana. Now I will state my usual refrain -- talk to your county extension agent. County agents keep up on which trees grow best in their areas.

Whoa!! That's a big tree! Here's a pic of my dad's tree, he lives in Al. Last summer he didn't have a pear on his because of the drought, but it made up for it this year.
I don't know that my son has ever been on a ladder, but he scooted right up this one to help bring some pears down. My dad had a stroke last spring and has no way of getting them down, so most of them will go to the squirrels... Now I have a huge box of pears in my kitchen waiting on me to make relish. :)

Susan

Paj, thanks for all the info. Seckel sounds good for me. I like a smaller tree and sweet fruit. I have other fruit trees that are producing, so if I have to wait years for pears, it won't be too bad.

Thomas Jefferson had a Seckel pear in his garden. It has been a distinguished cultivar for centuries. They are sweet and tasty.

The oldest living fruit tree in North America just happens to be a pear. They are amazing trees to say the least.

http://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/pyrus/endicott.pear.html

Thanks for the info. I had no idea that any pear tree had lived that long. They are indeed strong trees.

ok its often called the "sand pear" because of its course texture but its correct name is the Kieffer pear.

The hard-as-a-rock Kieffers may not be as highly regarded by pear lovers as the Bartletts, but they’re survivors and they produce where others will not. Kieffers are also highly resistant to fire blight.
Although most pear trees are self-pollinating, it is advisable to plant more than one variety to increase production, particularly if there are no other pear trees within a quarter mile of your orchard. Great for pear preserves and pear honey.

(Zones 4 - 9).

Kieffer pears are very good for cooking, because they don't fall apart. I have a few myself at my place in Mississippi. Keiffers poached in Port wine are divine!

I have a Kieffer, it was here when I bought the place and it certainly self-pollinates. The fruit can definitely be gritty, specially if left too long before picking, but the taste is fine.

I have an old Kieffer...might be 100 yrs. old. The April freeze killed all but one or two fruit.

Wow Guineagirl
That is some tree. Well, I can beat that as my cousin in Miss lives on my grandmothers place and it has a pear tree that is as old as i am ha and so it must be about 80 yrs old and is still loaded down with pears each yr. What kind I dont know. but probably they are canning pears. I have been looking for one here in zone 9a for Orlando and when I ask at the nurserys they say pears dont grow good here but that is a lot of bull as a neighbor had one in the neighborhood and it was covered with them every yr. They were hard too. Kids threw them at each other.
Sure wish I could find one for here. Fran

"Hard" sure sounds like a Kieffer.

I have had the misfortunate of being hit in the face by huge ones falling while I'm picking them.

I bet you can find a Keiffer and plant it and will have luck with it. The problem is fire blight which affects most pear trees in hot weather. But it doesn't affect all of them. Fire blight kills the tree when it is young and growing and is a terrible problem in warm climates. I was even told not to grow pears where I now live in zone 5a, but I am now growing several varieties. I have a farm in south Mississippi that gets big crops of those old hard pears in spite of what people say. They are gritty, but delicious. Obviously pears grow in the South, you just have to know which ones.
The Mississippi Dept. of Agriculture did studies on which varieties of apples and pears would grow there. Here are the results:

http://msucares.com/pubs/researchreports/rr22-12.htm

Basically Keiffer, LeCompte and Orient are the ones that survived and were productive. I found a mail order nursery in Crawfordville, FL. that sells both hard pears and soft pears for your area. They are sold out of keiffer but they have LeCompte and several other hard, disease resistant pears. You can get hit with one again if you plant one. They also have soft pears. -- see url below.

http://www.justfruitsandexotics.com/Pears.htm

Call them up and order one. Local nurseries are great!

Thanks a lot for the information. Their pears are 3 gal and you need two to germinate so guess I will pass it on. strange the one that was growning in this neighborhood only had one. Maybe when I am traveling down the freeway from miss next spring I will stop by there and get one or two. Mothers pears always had blight too as did my brothers but it never did kill the trees for at least twenty yrs or more and if I remember the one on my grandmothers old place had blight also and it was that old one. Fran









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Do any of you know anything or have experience with the ( Pyrus communis biscamp) Biscamp pear? There is so little information about it, but I have head that it is low chill, disease resistant, with excellent taste.
http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/search.pl?accid=%20PI+617602

My neighbor has a round bumpy brown pear that was growing when she moved into the house in 1945. They are delicious but hard as a rock. You have to cut them in slices to eat them.

Your pear trees are beautiful and I am jealous!!! Please look at this approx. 40 yo pear tree...and help me figure out what to do with it! It blooms every year, sets plenty of fruit. Some years the fruit splits open and we lose it to insects. Moreover, the tree itself looks as if it could topple over at any moment. Is it a fire blight, black rot??? Note the "ringed" (for lack of a better term) twigs...AND it looks like the lichen is eating the bark away...is that possible? HELP! Two more pics coming.

Pic 2 Pear Tree

Pic 3 Pear Tree

I would say your tree may be dying of old age.

I am not sure, but it looks like you have a lot of dead wood in the tree. It is always good to cut out the dead wood. Beyond that, I don't know. You could also trim back new growth a little -- if there is any. That might encourage it to grow more. Don't cut it back too much so it will grow frantically, but a few buds off any new growth from last year. It could indeed by dying of old age, but you could try those two tricks to rejuvenate it. No guarantees.

Nice article on pruning pear trees this week. Maybe y'all would know about this. A couple of years ago I got a Kieffer and an Oriental from the National Arbor Day Foundation. Yes, they were mere sticks -- you get what you pay for and all that. ANYWAY... they're now about four feet tall and are putting out leaves and blossoms along the trunk. No limbs have appeared yet. Should I just leave them alone? Pick off any of the places that are growing? These budding places are all up and down the trunk (which at the base is about as big around as my thumb). My tendency is to leave them alone as they're only a couple of years old.

Any suggestions? Thoughts?

Thanks!

Brigidlily - when you planted the whips, were they cut back at the top, or did you cut them back? The way to stimulate branching is to cut off the growing top, then side branches develop.

If you were in my zone, the time to do this would be now, because the trees would still be dormant.

I hesitate to recommend anything for zone 8, though.

Hmmm. I don't think they had been cut, but I don't know for sure. I have not cut anything on them at all, and they are most definitely out of dormancy now. Should I just cut the tip top off this winter?

If you don't do it before then, you should.

Pruning pear trees is complicated by their susceptibility to fireblight, which can enter the tree through a wound. Be sure to sterilize your pruners before each cut.