I purchased a self fertile pear tree from Bakkers 5-6 years ago but it has never produced one pear, not ever even blossomed!. Any ideas or cold I of been given the wrong type of tree..... though teaves look to be like those expected from pear trees. I don't have a receipt or would of gone back to bakkers by now.
KT.
Bin it, your going no where. None production and no legal redress.
Digmore. :wave:
Is you tree looking otherwise healthy? Have you pruned your tree last few years/when? Have you fertilized your tree?...if so, with what?
By now I would have expected it to produce at least a single flower or two....unless somebody have been keen with secateurs.
One 'trick' you could try is giving it application of superphosphate fertilizer ..now in spring...and another lot later on summer-early autumn and if you could give your tree mulch with manure/garden compost as well.
If you tree is lacking vital 'stuff' from its 'diet' that should do it and I would expect some change to be seen next year....providing you don't prune any ripening wood out.
Do you know what variety your tree is?
... and is it on dwarfing rootstock? If not, it might not be ready to fruit yet.
It is a dwarfing rootstock and the tree and leaves are healthy enough. No disease on the leaves or wood.
Quote from: kt. on March 20, 2014, 22:13:28
It is a dwarfing rootstock and the tree and leaves are healthy enough. No disease on the leaves or wood.
I think it could do with the superphosphates then...it is totally unscientific identification without seeing it, but, it could be that there is too much other nutrients..like nitrogen..that would cause healthy looking growth but it won't encourage the flower/fruit bud formation.
What I have noticed with my trees..that pears do take longer time to come into fruit than apples anyway...and mine were shy croppers in first few cropping year as well. Now the bleeders try to do too much...and I have to 'hold their horses' to prevent over cropping... :BangHead:
Quote from: kt. on March 19, 2014, 22:56:08
I purchased a self fertile pear tree from Bakkers 5-6 years ago but it has never produced one pear, not ever even blossomed!. Any ideas or cold I of been given the wrong type of tree..... though teaves look to be like those expected from pear trees. I don't have a receipt or would of gone back to bakkers by now.
I planted a dwarf root stock pear tree in 2003 and it first flowered 10 years later - now very productive. Be patient.
I've got two pear trees at home. One in the back garden and one in the front garden.
The tree in the back garden was a £3.99 job about 5 years go from Lidls. No blossom until last year when one branch near the top had some. This year it was covered in blossom on every branch and I noticed yesterday it's got a lot of small pears growing on it.
By contrast, the one in the front garden came from a nursery. I don't know which one as it was a mother's day gift from my son. The following year it had a lot of blossom on it and produced about 3 pears. Two didn't grow well and the third grew to a good size then just disappeared. Probably some passing schoolkid took a fancy to it.
Since then it's had very little blossom and no pears, hasn't grown very much and is only about a foot taller than it was when I planted it 5 years ago.
The cheap tree was more of a twiglet when I bought it. I forgot about it and the roots dried out. Stuck it in the ground and it grew. It is now about 12ft tall and a nice looking tree. It's looking like it might produce quite a lot of pears this year. Not sure why the tree at the front of the house isn't growing - maybe because it's north facing and the back of the house is south facing. If it doesn't produce anything I'll dig it up at the end of the season and move it to the allotment. It might do better there.
As royforster says, you have to be patient. Tree could surprise you yet.
Golach, nursery trees are often in pots, which are relatively small. Tree roots are about as wide as the spread of the tree and pots in nurseries are never this wide. Therefore roots are seriously restricted.. Nurseries make up for it with extra fertiliser. When you plant out a pot bound tree, it takes years for the roots to grow back to normal. It helps spreading the roots a bit before planting, but that often isn't possible.
This may explain why the nursery tree did ok at first, then needed a lot of time to acclimatise to soil conditions. Bare root trees don't have this problem. They are usually sold as 1 year old maidens or as 2 year old trees. Trees in nursery pots can be considerably older and as such more mature plants. But bare root trees need longer before they come into fruiting - about 3 to 5 years after planting.
I hope this explains the differences you are seeing.
KT, depending on weather conditions, time to fruiting could take a bit longer still. They used to say 'plant pears for your heirs'. Give it a few more years. It may surprise you yet!
Just checked your location - North Yorkshire. Pears do better generally in the South and have a much harder time in the North. You may need a hardy variety and a sheltered spot to grow pears at all. It could certainly explain why it is taking longer on your plot. Are there other pears near you? This article might be helpful:
http://www.orangepippintrees.co.uk/articles/growing-fruit-trees-in-the-uk-climate
Thanks Galina. That would explain it. The nursery tree was in a pot when I got it and looked a much older tree. The Lidl's one was bare root. Hopefully the pears will grow this year. If they do, I bet they're far nicer than those bought in the shop which tend to be hard and dry but turn to mush very quickly.