'Dwarfed' fruit on pears

16 years ago

Our local county extension agent is a horticulturist who discusses things horticultural on the radio and in the paper every week. This week she not so much answered a question as asked one, and I thought I would bring it to the board.

It concerns a number of very small pear fruit that were brought to her by different people last summer. Healthy trees were fully pollinated and set fruit happily, but the fruit never reached full size.

Fire blight and other diseases were ruled out on the bases of vascular health and simple visual observation.

The horticulturist suspected a calcium problem, caused not by a lack of calcium in the soil, but by irrigation problems during a particularly nasty hot spell -which is certainly plausible, but note she doesn't claim it's the case, just that it might be.

My pear took last year off all together and the pear I babysit seemed normal enough, so I have no personal experience here, and didn't see any of the specimens. But I thought somebody here might share their experiences.

Thanks for your comments. I appreciate your help.

Best,

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (4)

scaper_austin
16 years ago
Hello,
I would love to get more info out this dwarfed pear as I love a good mystery. Could it be that the tree was simply overcropped and not thinned enough. Also in my area old home by farmingdale #333 can dwarf certain pears. Calcium is a possibility as well. Any chance we could get more info?

Thanks,
Drew
marknmt
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi, Drew. Thanks for your response.

I will call the horticulturist today and see if she can come up with any more information.

I don't know what rootstocks the stunted pears were on, but I gather that more than one person brought samples in. There are a lot of unknown pears around here. But these were evidently from trees that had previously born normal fruits.

It's certainly a good possibility that the trees were overgrown and overcropped. Hadn't even occurred to me.

Thanks again- I'll try to bring more information later today.

M
Related Discussions
Dwarf Asian pear , dwarf apple and plum with very small fruit?
Q
Comments (2)
Wobur: Glad to hear you are getting some good fruit. After our last discussion, I was thinking you may have too much late frost to grow anything. I have had some problems here with small fruit on my outdoor plantings, mainly with apple. Fruit is much larger this yr. I applied more N fertilizer and more water. But that can have a downside, the fruit may not taste as well. In your case, I'd try thinning even more aggressively where the fruit is small. Asian pears in particular require a lot of thinning. Would you mind telling me about where you live in CA and what your elevation is? I like to look up the weather records for places like yours just to have an idea how things work in various climates. And I might want to move back to CA someday. The Fruitnut
...See More
semi-dwarf fruit trees
Q
Comments (16)
Brandon, I'm going to disagree with you :-) First, box stores are NOT nurseries - they sell plants only as a sideline and suitability, selection or even current condition are of minimal concern to them. They buy in bulk regionally and they buy cheap. Operations that specialize in growing and/or selling plants only are where the OP should be looking. And these places DO focus on varieties that are best suited for local growing conditions. Retail nurseries that want to stay in business for any length of time rely on customer satisfaction to do so - offering plants that are not well-suited to local growing conditions are not the way to encourage any kind of repeat business. Sure, they may offer some things that are of questionable value or hardiness but it is not going to be something as basic as fruit trees. And with fruit trees, heating and chilling requirements that match the local climate are of paramount importance.....if it is not going to produce fruit or ripen the fruit successfully in that area, what's the point of growing it? As to supply or varieties, the one source I mentioned offered 7 different apples, 7 different pears, 4 plums and 2 pomegranates.....not a bad selection to choose from in my book. And they include many of the varieties especially called out as recommended good performers for that area by the Texas Agricultural extension service. And FWIW, fruit trees sold by retail nurseries in my area, while sold as potted plants, were initially received in late winter as bare root stock.......much the same as one would purchase online (although admittedly on the larger end). They are potted as soon as received to maintain the root systems in as optimal a condition as possible. Failure of bare root stock of any kind is typically much higher than if one purchased the same stock potted -- there is just too much chance for damage to that exposed and vulnerable root system. IF local nurseries offer the plants in sufficient selection, then I would encourage anyone to purchase these plants before ordering online. Here is a link that might be useful: Recommended fruit varieties
...See More
Will a Bradford Pear pollinate a Fruiting Pear?
Q
Comments (9)
You have to admit though that the bradford pear trees are beautiful. With their natural full shape, their early and abundant white blossoms, their red foliage in the fall and their rapid, low maintenance growth. It is no wonder they are so popular. They look like lollipops to me - not my idea of a natural shape. And they are stinky (everyone's smell is different). And they are becoming a pest because they cross-pollinate now with some of the "other" sterile ornamental pears (like Cleveland Select). Look around, you can see flowering young trees in vacant lots and on the edges of natural areas now.
...See More
Garden Design Challenge - Fruit
Q
Comments (68)
I missed the fact that it was my turn, possibly because I've been working on my glögg recipe for several days, trying to duplicate the one I remember from my Swedish grandmother's house at Christmas. There are so many completely different recipes that it's taking quite a toll on us to try them all. Burgundy or sherry? Port or brandy? Whiskey or vodka? I'd like to have it right by Christmas, but that means starting the testing earlier and earlier each day. What space do we have left? I'm wondering if we can try hardy kiwi in this locale; although they are hardy to -25, the buds can be blasted by late cold snaps. They might succeed with some shade to the east, which would potentially delay the formation of buds. They could be grown along the fence, with the grapes, but I'll defer to northern gardeners who know if this is unrealistic. Alternatively, if our virtual homeowners are really into fruit, they should probably have some "real" strawberries. They could be grown in a long narrow bed inside the fence (we still have a fence, even though George has banished the deer, don't we? Or, maybe we have enough fruit for this garden. Do we also need to talk about the materials we're going to use, like paving and mulch, and about how this area will relate to the rest of the yard? Is it going to evoke an old New England farm yard and orchard, or be a more formal space? Will we include flowers and grasses, or will it be strictly devoted to fruit? Can we have a table and some chairs out here, where we (um, I mean they) can sit and enjoy this garden?
...See More
scaper_austin
16 years ago
Hello,
More info would be great. You know there are alot of things that could cause this problem but it is really strange that there are multiple cases of this problem. This is a true pear mystery. I wonder if anyone paying attention to this post has ever seen this before?

Thanks,
Drew
marknmt
Original Author
16 years ago
Hi Drew-

Talked to the extension people this week and learned:

1. There was one sample brought in, not several. But, there were several people describing the same symptom to the horticulturist anecdotally. There is a lot of room for error here, so after I learned that I assumed that there should be a large fudge factor built in.

2. The sample that did come in was sent to the Plant Pathology Clinic at MSU in Bozeman and they simply said it wasn't sick, but they didn't know why it was so small.

We did have a nasty hot spell during the summer. I think it hit 105 F several -a few?- days in a row, and a lot of things were showing stress. My apples did fine, but we were overwatering, if anything. (My youngish pear didn't fruit last year.) So it's easy for me to imagine that it was related to that, and the idea of insufficient calcium, or somethin' sounds plausible to me, but I'm ignorant in the matter.

Have I ever seen this before? Well, I only got into pears a few years ago, but I do think I've seen large pear trees, overloaded with tiny fruit, and wondering why it all was so small. Once again, it's easy for me to imagine that if you take a large tree, fail to prune it, let it overcrop and then subject it to extremes of temperature that you'll get undersized fruit.

But if that happens to my pampered baby I'll be a little less relaxed about it!

Best,

M

'Dwarfed' fruit on pears

Comments (4)

scaper_austin

marknmt
Original Author

Related Discussions

scaper_austin

marknmt
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

'Dwarfed' fruit on pears

Comments (4)

scaper_austin

marknmtOriginal Author

Related Discussions

scaper_austin

marknmtOriginal Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

marknmt
Original Author

marknmt
Original Author