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Growing Pears Naturally

 
Steve Thorn
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I wanted to make this thread to help me keep track of and document growing my pear trees, with hopefully minimal work and maximum harvests!

They won't be irrigated, fertilized, or sprayed with anything, not even organic fertilizers or sprays, just naturally healthy soil, rain and sunshine!

They will be minimally pruned, if pruned at all. With minimal care, they can be truly enjoyed to the fullest! Bring on the yummy harvests!

Hopefully it can be helpful to others also!

If you'd like to stay up to date with the latest videos of what I'm growing and see monthly food forest tours, you can subscribe to my Youtube channel HERE by clicking the red subscribe button! I'd love to have you join me for this journey!

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
My YouTube channel

 
Steve Thorn
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The pear tree is blooming with nice clusters of flowers!

The whole tree is full of flowers, so we'll hopefully have lots of pears this year!

Pear blossoms have an interesting smell to me, somewhere between sweet and also somewhat smelly, it's hard to describe, but they look nice!

Are your pears blooming yet?

I'd love to see photos of your pear trees!
Cluster-of-pear-blossoms.jpg
Cluster of pear blossoms
Cluster of pear blossoms

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
My YouTube channel

 
Judith Browning
Posts: 9753
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Ours are done blooming now and hopefully have set fruit.  They are only three years old though.  
The first two photos are the Asian pear...I was curious at the blooms appearing right off of the trunk.  I don't think any pollinators were around when it was blooming.

The third and forth photos are of the Bartlett...

This is the first place we've lived where there has not been an old farm pear tree to pick from in the vicinity...we've always been able to forage them until now.
IMG_6067-(3).JPG
Asian pear
IMG_6068-(2).JPG
Asian pear flowers
IMG_6076-(2).JPG
Bartlett pear tree
IMG_6080-(2).JPG
Bartlett pear flowers

"We're all just walking each other home." -Ram Dass
"Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder."-Rumi
"It's all one song!" -Neil Young

 
Steve Thorn
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Those are some beautiful and healthy looking pear trees, Judith!

Thanks for sharing those photos!

Yes, it's so nice to have a few established trees when moving to a new home. I had to start from scratch also, but I'm finally harvesting some fruit now thankfully!

I hope you have some tasty pears to harvest soon!

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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Steve Thorn
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The pears are coming along good this year and we'll hopefully have some pears later this year!
Green-pear.jpg
Green pear
Green pear

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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Artie Scott
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Growing up we had an ancient pear tree that grew the most delicious pears!  As a kid I never thought to ask (or figure out) what kind it was. The pears were on the smaller side, quite hard until very ripe, and more oval than pear shape. A fairly thick green skin. So good though. I need to plant some pear trees this fall.

“All good things are wild, and free.” Henry David Thoreau

 
Steve Thorn
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Yeah, I love a ripe, juicy, sweet pear, they're so nice and refreshing!

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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Steve Thorn
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This pear tree was planted in a very wet spot, and has been sad and not growing much.

This dormant season, I mounded up soil from in front of it, creating a mini pond, and put the soil all around the tree. I also cut off the bark in sections from the main variety part of the trunk and covered it in soil to encourage it to put out its own roots.

It leafed out at first this spring, with super green leaves but no new growth, and seemed to be storing up energy. The leaves had never been so green before, and previously looked sickly and always looked like they were about to fall off.

It has now started to put out vigorous growth from the top section of the tree and is growing really fast. The new growth looks extremely healthy, and it appears that this pear tree is loving its modified area, and is super healthy and growing vigorously as a result!
20200627_173815.jpg
Pear starting to grow strongly again
Pear starting to grow strongly again
20200627_173720.jpg
Vigorous pear shoots
Vigorous pear shoots
20200627_173748.jpg
The main shoot
The main shoot

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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Steve Thorn
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I planted about 200 pear seeds about two weeks ago, sowing them directly in the ground. It would have been ideal to have done it at least a month earlier, probably more, but too much to do and too little time.

About 20 of them had already started to grow roots, so I tried to plant those gently with the root tip pointing down. These were harder to plant and took more time. It was much easier to plant the ones that hadn't sprouted yet.

I hope the germination rate will be good!
20210307_165454.jpg
Pear seeds!
Pear seeds!
20210306_164702.jpg
Pear seed with a root forming
Pear seed with a root forming
20210307_164019.jpg
Pear seeds with roots forming
Pear seeds with roots forming

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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Steve Thorn
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It's been almost three weeks since I planted the pear seeds, and some are starting to sprout!
20210325_072521.jpg
Pear seedling emerging
Pear seedling emerging
20210325_072541.jpg
Pear seedling with a small shoot forming
Pear seedling with a small shoot forming
20210325_072359.jpg
Pear seedling sprouting amongst a leaf and lots of stems
Pear seedling sprouting amongst a leaf and lots of stems
20210325_072641.jpg
Wow, I can really see how sandy the soil is close up
Wow, I can really see how sandy the soil is close up

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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Sonja Draven
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Love your stuff, Steve. Very inspiring. How did you get the seeds to sprout?

The wishbone never could replace the backbone.

 
Steve Thorn
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Thanks Sonja!

I kept them in a bag as I was eating the pears throughout the winter. I rinsed off the seeds and put them in while they were still a little wet and stored the bags in the fridge.

Looking forward to seeing how many sprout!

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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Sonja Draven
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Just a regular plastic bag? Paper towel or anything?

You mentioned that you should have planted them sooner. If I was going to try this, is it better to keep them until next spring?

The wishbone never could replace the backbone.

 
Steve Thorn
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I put them in a zip lock bag. I've found that paper towels seem to increase mold, and not using one seemed to work fine.

I noticed that they seem to sprout pretty early, but these germinated faster that I thought they would. I think you'd be fine to still plant them! Best of luck if you plant some soon!

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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Sonja Draven
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I haven't collected any yet. If I collect them now, do they  need the fridge time? Or is that just to save them? Sorry for all the questions. (And if you have a video you did about this and I've missed it, I'm happy to watch that instead.)

Thanks, Steve.

The wishbone never could replace the backbone.

 
Steve Thorn
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No problem at all!

I just kept them in the fridge to store them. If you buy them, they will have probably already have been stored in a fridge for a few months while waiting to be sold and should be ready to plant!

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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Sonja Draven
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Ooh good points. Thank you!! I'll start some with my other seed starts. :)

The wishbone never could replace the backbone.

 
Steve Thorn
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One of my young pear trees getting started this growing season and putting out lots of new side branches.
20210402_153526.jpg
Young pear tree
Young pear tree

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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John Skaggs
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We have a Bartlett pear planted maybe 6 years ago that is now about 25' tall.  I do wish I'd pruned it when it was smaller.  The fruit it getting tough to reach even with a picker pole.  Most blossoms seem to have weathered the frosts this year and some fruit looks to be set.  A bumper crop the last 2 years.
 
Steve Thorn
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This is the best pear seedling growing from the ones I planted this Spring.

It's about 6 inches tall, and despite growing in a very less than ideal area, with lots of competition from more vigorous wild nearby plants, it's still growing very well and seems to be very disease resistant and shade tolerant so far, and is starting to put on some good new growth!
20210619_095952.jpg
Healthy pear seedling
Healthy pear seedling

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May Lotito
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Currently I have four pear trees, one store bought Kieffer pear and three seed grown. They all look messy with lots of shoots with tight crotches. I tried to festoon a few long branches early and one simply broke due to the narrow angle.  Should I train the twig during the active growing season instead? Thanks.
20240104_140034.jpg
Pear tree
Pear tree
20240104_140110.jpg
Kieffer pear tree
Kieffer pear tree
20240104_140258.jpg
Broken branch
Broken branch

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

 
Faye Streiff
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I saved seed from a particularly delicious Anjou 20 years ago.  One sprouted and grew into a 30 foot tall tree with inedible pears.  Inedible for me, but the wildlife benefit and if any make it past the squirrels and crows to drop on the ground eventually, I can feed to the chickens.  If I were desperate could probably cook them and eat, but raw they are gnarly and rough with lots of those hard spots, making them tough to eat.  However, I’ve rooted a few cuttings, from some really good table pears, and those do great if I can get them to survive.  Hard to root but so worth it.  A seedling may take 15 years to bear fruit, a clone the first or second year.  Pears can’t take much pruning, they get fire blight too easily, so I only prune off branch rubs or erratic, wild branches that take away from the symmetry of the tree.  

With appropriate microbes, minerals and organic matter, there is no need for pesticides or herbicides.

 
Steve Thorn
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Looks like it may fruit soon, that's exciting!

Yeah in the warmer weather the branches will be more flexible and easier to train and less likely to break.

I'm almost at the point though where I've almost given up trying to train pear trees, they seem to just love to shoot straight up at the sky!

Do you remember what kind of pears you saved the seeds from?

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William Bronson
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I have had great success with festooning pear trees in the    winter, but I also broke a major branch.
It was connected by less than half it's width, and could not support its own weight, but it still produced fruit!

That said, I suggest bending the branches incrementally,using relief cuts on the outside of the bend, and notches on the inside.
I used  ratchet straps to pull my branches into place and rope/cord to keep them there until they "set".


My challenge has been squirrels taking bites out of fruit.
I harvested early to counter them, but my harvest went from unripe to mush.
This year I plan on wrapping the fruit in aluminum or stainless steel screen.

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Faye Streiff
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It was a Moonglow that I rooted cuttings from, and it seems to root more easily than some of the others.  The goats got into the orchard area and broke off a tall branch, 8 feet tall, which now lays on the ground,  I covered with good soil to hopefully let it root down so I can finish cutting off from the main tree and then transplant it.   It bloomed last year, but  didn’t get pollinated for some reason, or at least did not set fruit.  Poor little tree, that was the one I grew from a clone from my original Moonglow pear.   It is over 10 feet tall now, after a few years.  

With appropriate microbes, minerals and organic matter, there is no need for pesticides or herbicides.

 
May Lotito
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Steve Thorn wrote:

Do you remember what kind of pears you saved the seeds from?



There are only two types of pears sold in the store here so either bartlett or anjou.

Zone 6, 45 inches precipitation, hard clay soil

 
Steve Thorn
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I have three promising Comice pear seedlings that I'm excited about and they seem to be disease resistant so far, so hopefully they will keep that up and taste good like their parent.

I have a 20 year old Bartlett seedling that has been pretty disease resistant too so far but grows so slowly and still hasn't produced fruit because it was planted in such a shady spot that only gets about an hour of sun. I grafted a branch from it and made a new tree of it in a sunnier spot, so looking forward to hopefully tasting it soon.

Striving to grow things as naturally, simply, and cheaply as possible!
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