Pear tree.. no blossom

[terrier]

I have a mature pear tree in my garden, at least twenty years old. Whilst it looks healthy enough, it produces hardly any blossom, some years none at all. It did produce a few fruits a few years ago, but nothing since. The fruits it did produce were quite small but ripened OK and tasted good but I've no idea what type it is. So.. is there a magical formula to get it to produce next year? I prune it back as per apple trees but in the late Autumn, could that be the problem? Thanks for reading, any advice welcome

[terrier]

[PurpleHeather]

It could be that you are pruning it too hard and the poor tree is desperately trying to regrow each year. Putting energy into that rather than fruiting.

I never prune. But if a branch is too big or in the wrong place it gets chopped off.

Try leaving alone this year and see what happens next. If there is no improvement, then decide if you are going to keep it as a feature or replace it.

The only other thought I have is that the variety you have could need several others to pollenate it in the area. I know Bramley apples need as many as five other varieties nearby to cause them to fruit.  But if there is no blossom to start with then that seem unlikely.

[cleo]

I also suspect it may be due to the pruning.

Losing blossom or failing to get a `set` are easily explained but no blossom at all?

[Robert_Brenchley]

If it's 20 years old it shouldn't need routine pruning. Give it a year or two and see what happens. If it still does nothing, that might be the time to consider major surgery to rejuvenate the tree.

[Stevens706]

I agree with Robert, because of it's age it might need drastic surgery, this should kick it into new growth, might take a couple of years to fruit again.

[goodlife]

Have you ever fed your tree? As with all the pruning it will use lot of nutrients from the soil to put new growth on and even if you haven't pruned too hard...it just might be lacking that bit of more to have energy for flowers...never mind fruit...
So...What I would do...this autumn give sprinkling of bonemeal covering  the area that is directly beneath the canopy(branch spread)..early spring do same but with balanced fertilizer ..like growmore or something similar..but keep into the application rates..as too much is no good neither..if you produce too much soft lush growth this will be prone for many problems...
..and yes..like others have sain keep the pruning to minimum...with mature tree like yours you should only need to take out any DDD(dead, deseased and damaged) wood and this would be best left untill after leaf fall...other than that just leave the tree to do it's best.. ;) ;D..just wait youl'll be thinning the fruit next..and that is another story.. ;)

[terrier]

Well I have been pruning quite heavily to keep the size down as it shares the space with a number of apple trees, maybe I've just got too many trees in a small space. This year I'll not prune it and give it a feed as Goodlife suggests. Thanks for your help everyone  :)