Raintree Nursery's Pear Growing Guide

[@abbeys9092]

We need a peach growing guide!

[@karengrice2303]

I put in one of your European sweet pears this year. It is getting some nice buds on it now. I’m pretty excited, Thanks for sharing this information with us!

[@loquat4440]

Standard american sweet or sugar pears are ayers and seckel. I am apparently not cold enough sufficient chill hours for seckel. I will try leaf removal this fall and see if that gets it blooming or not.

[@gardentokitchenwgarrycarte3963]

Thanks for the tips. A pear tree is on my list!

[@ninecreekfarm]

Would love a rundown on pruning pear cultivars. Seems that each cultivar sets fruit differently and requires different pruning behavior.

[@RaintreeNursery]

There are only two options here really: spur bearing and tip bearing. This opens up a conversation on why that matters, which is the practice of "tipping back" to promote extra flowering, a commercial practice that doesn't do the tree any favors. Obviously making heading cuts on a tip bearing cultivar will remove all the fruiting wood from the tree and not achieve any additional fruit set. Generally stick with standard pruning advice, maintain a good central leader, and don't worry too much about it.

[@briannacooper2628]

This is great! Thank you!

[@danvorhis386]

In Western WA, haven't yet seen any fireblight (Erwinia amylovora - a bacteria) on European-type pears - temps are cool enough to avoid that particular problem. But do see pear scab and leaf rusts (both fungi), and certainly blister mites and red spider mites. Asian pears sometimes see Pseudomonas (another bacterium)...

[@RaintreeNursery]

All accurate Dan. For our friends outside of Western WA however they gotta be on the lookout!

[@insidethegardenwall22]

Our European pears (Comice, Concorde and Bartlett in Olympia, WA) mainly have the leaf rust issue. Do you have a good way to tackle leaf rust in your area? I just remove the leaves with orange spots from spring to summer, which is a lot of labor. Would love to find a better way!

[@juliemcgugan1244]

I just managed to save my three year old pear tree from a fungal infection (by the skin of my teeth! It was really close!) I have noticed that it has begun to flower. It only started recovering three weeks ago! Should I make sure it doesn’t make fruit? I really want to make sure it put 100% of its energy into recovering, not fruit. I know how much energy that could take away from the tree.

[@RaintreeNursery]

It shouldn't even be flowering right now. I would remove the blossoms and save it's energy for survival.

[@juliemcgugan1244]

@@RaintreeNursery Yeah, this weather is very screwy, again, this year. Last year, the apple tree beside the pear tree flowered in October, because it was still so warm. Didn't get usual winter temps until January and in December, my niece was outside in the sun, playing with all of her new toys on my front lawn. Autumn-planted bulbs, onions, shallots and garlic had to wait until December to be planted, because it still felt like summer right up to November! And the during the winter, we had so little rain, our damns and reservoirs were only 40% full. We've had 30-45C temps since the first week of June and a hosepipe ban since soon after that. It still has not been lifted. I live in Peyia, Cyprus.

[@annamcmanus7841]

Hey I just moved into a house that has a smaller pear tree I just noticed it actually has fruit on it the bears are bell shaped and I’m not sure what kind they are are there ways of figuring it out?

[@juliemcgugan1244]

There are a lot of groups devoted to just this on Facebook. I don’t do social media Mcg, but have found such groups very helpful for my gardening questions; specie identification, pest/disease identification, variety identification. They are great! Upload your photos there.

[@ratipati2007]

Did you say Bartlet tree is self pollinating and does not need another variety? Please confirm. I have bought two Bartlet variety tree and was wondering I should buy another tree of different kind

[@RaintreeNursery]

Bartlett is partially self fertile in some regions. If you want to ensure success you will do well with another additionally variety, a mid season bloomer is best.

[@verawol3111]

I ordered a bye russet and a stuttgarter gieshirtle are these compatible? On Raintree it said the Nyerere russet was an early pear but I didn’t see if the stuttgarter was an early

[@RaintreeNursery]

Stuttgarter is also early blooming. The whole chart is in the Pear Growing Guide on the website.

[@verawol3111]

@@RaintreeNursery thanks those are the two I ordered

[@terrycornett3458]

Will this tree do well in containers?

[@RaintreeNursery]

Long term no, pear trees are large and need a large rootzone. Short term, 5 years or so, should be fine.

[@loquat4440]

You obviously do not know the zones 8b to 9b and warmer. Plenty do fine in zone 9a and zone 8 is not the limit for growing pears. Common pears are acres home, southern bartlett(not true bartlett), leona (Has other names), kieffers, orients, chojuro, Hood, florida Home, LeConte, Badlwin, Bis-Champ, Killer, Pine apple, and others do well into zone 9. There are at least three major groups of pears. There are perry pears used for perry cider. Most of the southern pears are hybrids.

[@mytech6779]

Be cautious with generic fertilizing advice, every property has a different soil and history. I learned this the hard way after I bought some "good valley-bottom" land and while deep and stone-free it turned out to be nearly barren sand partly due to the base soil and partly due to the prior owners' mismanagement stripping out all the organics. For some locations(like mine) the lack of fertilizer in the first year will result in stunted, weak, or even dead trees. While other locations may have a soil imbalance with a plenty of one nutrient and too little of another. While a soil test can help clarify issues, especially if planning to plant a large area(high initial investment costs), a simple observation of the area for a year or two can get a good ballpark. ie is the grass green and thick or thin and slow, moss, the health and growth rate of other bushes and young deciduous trees, any signs of specific nutrient deficiencies or excesses in vegetables plants.(especially those grown as major commercial crops as these have more data and photos online.) The proportion of sand to silt to clays, soil micro texture, can make a big difference in nutrient and moisture management style.

[@RaintreeNursery]

Thanks for your feedback, as a national company we can only suggest general advice that will of course not be specific to every area. In general we stand by the statement that trees should not be fertilized in their first year because nitrogen rich fertilizers promote wood and leaf growth at the expense of establishing a strong root system. For most growers what you've written here is far too complex for general growing advice, but again thanks for taking to time to write it all out.

[@mytech6779]

@@RaintreeNursery I just put it here as free info for those who want and can make use of it. Though I still think you should include a simple footnote that this is general advice and some soils may require adjustment of the fertilizer. And not all fertilizers are high nitrogen there are 4 or 5 other major nutrients(and a dozen minor); depending where you draw the line between major and minor.