Fruit and Vegetables: Grow Your Own

Re: Flowering times and pruning a 'family' pear tree

Michael — Wed, 23 May 2012 10:47:30 GMT

Hi Sue. I sent in the same type of question as you.

Headed : Lemon Tree Question. dated 22/05/2012.

I have had 1 reply which may help you.

Re: Flowering times and pruning a 'family' pear tree

sue1002 — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:25:57 GMT

Thanks folks, it seems like I could be waiting a while for the tree to start producing then even though the supplier advertised their family trees will fruit the following year but then I do know from previous experience of buying through Ebay not to take a great deal of notice of everything that is advertised...

It sounds like your Doyenne d'ete was a good choice of tree for you NRB

The only details I have of the Charneux OrangePippin is the following which is copied off the back of the plant label "Charneux (sun. 'Legipont', 'Kostliche von Charneu') Fruit: Fairly large, juicy, sweet, green-skinned, skin eventually turns yellow, dessert pear. Flesh:Very soft, sweet yet refreshing. Harvest: Pears can be picked from mid September and eaten two weeks later. Other: Not prone to disease. Pollination by: 'Conference', 'Clapp's Favourite'."

I originally went for the family tree because of the pollination issues, only having a small garden and no other pear trees in the area that I know of.

Re: Flowering times and pruning a 'family' pear tree

NRB — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:15:33 GMT

The phrase used to go:

"Plant apples for your retirement and plant pears for your heirs"

In other words: pears can take a very long time to come into cropping - certainly a few years longer than apples. In ancient times, it was jokingly said that you'd never live to see a pear tree fruit if you were the person who planted it.

However, modern rootstocks - especially the use of Quince for pears - has reduced the time taken to reach fruiting age. The variety grafted to the rootstock can also make a big difference; I have a Doyenne d'ete on P.communis (very vigorous) rootstock and it was eager to crop heavily as soon as it was planted as a maiden (it's a part-tip-bearer, so the one-year-old short side branches produced in its maiden year bore a good crop straight away). This is variety-specific. Its old alternate name was Jolimont Precoce.

I now tend towards precocious varieties with very vigorous roots, which speeds up establishment, allows both growth and cropping, and gives super-heavy crops much earlier in life than with dwarfs - and the tree will tolerate very poor growing conditions or droughts on account of the strong roots. In other words: I have the dwarf bit grafted on top, rather than dwarf roots.

Also as mentioned above: too much nitrogen feed will stop them fruiting and encourage growth. Winter pruning will do the same. Lack of potassium will also reduce the quantity and quality of blossom and fruit.

Re: Flowering times and pruning a 'family' pear tree

OrangePippin — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:26:37 GMT

It now looks as if the tree is in the process of reverting to a single variety, the Charneux - I suspect the Williams growing from the bottom will eventually be supressed by the vigor of the main stem and branches of the Charneux emerging above. This imbalance is always an issue with Family Trees, and the loss of the balancing vigour of the Beurre Hardy has probably not helped. There may not be much you can do to prevent that happening at this stage unless you are prepared to be quite ruthless with the Charneux. I'd be inclined to go with it, and let the Charneux take over, as it looks happy enough on its own, although that may cause pollination issues - I am not familar with Charneux, have you got any more details?

Re: Flowering times and pruning a 'family' pear tree

sue1002 — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:36:22 GMT

Yes, the shoot at the bottom is the 'Williams' variety and almost level with that graft on the opposite side was the Beurre Hardy.

Re: Flowering times and pruning a 'family' pear tree

OrangePippin — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:00:49 GMT

Is the shoot coming out from the base of the tree one of the family branches, or is it growing from the rootstock - I can't quite tell from the photo? Apart from that, there are plenty of leaves so the tree seems happy.

Re: Flowering times and pruning a 'family' pear tree

headfullofbees — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:52:32 GMT

My parent planted 3 conference pear trees before I was born.

I was 13 when they first fruited.

Re: Flowering times and pruning a 'family' pear tree

sue1002 — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:45:59 GMT

Thanks Ed, maybe I'm being just a tad impatient then

I've taken a couple of photos showing the view of it from two different angles and from these, it is obvious that the variety growing upwards (Charneux) is the strongest of the two. I don't know the exact root stock which was used but I was advised that it's fully grown height will be 8 foot, it was 5 foot when I bought it and it's currently standing at 6 foot.

I don't think I have any worries on overfeeding - apart from giving it plenty of water when it was first planted and throughout the last two dry summers, the only thing it's had is a mulch of homemade compost in March each year.

Re: Flowering times and pruning a 'family' pear tree

The Hedge Folk — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:09:57 GMT

Also, don't be tempted to over feed, this will tend to encourage vegetative growth instead of fruit.

Re: Flowering times and pruning a 'family' pear tree

The Hedge Folk — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:02:36 GMT

Hi Sue,

It's still early days, pears are generally slow to set fruit and the productive wood is usually 2 or 3 years old. It could well be another few years.

Formative pruning is necessary to build the structure of the tree, but it will produce fruiting spurs in its own time.

Pruning is basically the same for a normal pear bush (or half-standard, if that's what you have), although you do need to look out for one of the varieties growing much faster than the other one, which will need to be balanced out.

Can't really say any more than that without seeing the tree.

Flowering times and pruning a 'family' pear tree

sue1002 — Tue, 01 May 2012 11:35:43 GMT

I bought and planted a young family pear tree in December 2009 and wasn't expecting much from it the last two growing seasons but I would have expected it to come into flower this year.

The tree has grown and has produced leaves each year so this makes me think it's roots must have settled in nicely.

Never having had a pear tree before, I've looked in my fruit and veg growing book and see that pear trees flower before apple trees and as my Golden Delicious apple tree is currently a mass of flowers, it looks like I've missed out on the flowering of the pear again this year.

I've never pruned the pear, could this be a reason for the lack of flowers? and how do you prune a family tree please?

The varieties on the tree are Charneux and Williams, it did have Buerre Hardy on it but that branch fell victim to a fat pigeon landing on it and breaking that one off.