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Fruit & Orchards

Thining asian pear fruit?

17 years ago

This year my three asian pear trees are loaded with tiny fruit, way more than I think the small trees can support. The fruits are mainly in clusters of anywhere from two to five fruits, should I thin each cluster to maybe one or two fruits? If all the fruit were to get to golfball size I would guess the fruit would weigh more than the trees. I assume I should leave the biggest one and cut the others off in each cluster. BTW, I hand pollinated these trees, but wonder if it was necessary as I even see fruit forming on the very top where I couldn't reach. BTW, the Hosui is growing the best, the Shinseki second best, and the 20TH Century worst. I wonder if it is because the 20th Century appears to have three different trees grafted together, a rootstock, then a short 5 inch section of something with rough bark, and then the top part which I figure is the 20th century. Or maybe its growing worst because its in the shade of a giant clump of Eucs planted on my neighbors property 50 feet away.

Comments (5)

jellyman
17 years ago
californian:

I thin Asian pears to the one best fruit per cluster, but that is only the beginning. As they grow, I thin off even more, since the clusters often grow very close to one another. Asian pears grow very large and heavy, and if they are not thinned to six inches or so apart, they will break limbs, and that is not good. I have had Chojuro and Shinseiki Asian pears reach one pound each.

There should be np need to hand pollinate Asian pears if you have more than one variety, due to their tendency to overset with no human intervention at all.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
lucky_p
17 years ago
Ditto what Don said.
And, if you don't thin, you'll end up with a jillion clusters of 5 ping-pong ball sized fruits which may break limbs just as badly as too many 1 lb fruits.
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kirsten: Yes, those could be tiny little fruits, and I don't know how they were pollinated. But that's not the important issue. Cut them off, now. A newly-planted tree should not be allowed to try to grow fruit. They will probably fall off anyway, but if you want your little tree to be healthy and vigorous for the future you should take them off immediately. Next season, if the tree grows well, you might allow it to keep a half-dozen fruits, with none of them in the same blossom cluster. Clusters of Asian pears should always be thinned to one fruit per cluster (and in fact thinned a lot more than that when they grow up) because these fruits become quite large and heavy. Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA
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Of the four Asians that I planted, back in '96: Chojuro is #1 - big, pretty fruits with great flavor, doesn't tend to overbear as much as the others. Shinko - close second. Heavy bearer, and needs thinning, but even without thinning the fruits size up pretty good(and will break branches), good flavor, but not as good as Chojuro. Niitaka - really overbears, and fruits will not size if you don't thin. Usually lacking in flavor - plenty of juice, but just sweet, with little character; they were good last year, but this year just so-so. Korean Giant/Don Bae - a real 'dog' for me. Never set more than 2 or 3 fruits in a year - they got huge, but were big watery, tasteless things. Kinda like eating a wet raw potato. I didn't shed a tear when fireblight killed it to the ground.
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try the fruit forum ...there are all kinds of fruit experts there .. ken
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sautesmom Sacramento
17 years ago
Do what I did last year--get a bunch of squirrels. They took care of my "excess fruit problem" in one night, removed every single one of my first year crop of Asian Pears for me. Very efficient little guys. In fact, I would be happy to send them to you to take care of your problem.
Carla in Sac
californian
Original Author
17 years ago
OK, I took your advice and cut a total of 200 baby asian pears off my three trees. I will go back again and thin them when they get a little bigger. While I was thinning them I noticed the fruit and leaves on the end of one branch were turning black and looked like they were dying so I cut it off.

BTW, are nectarine trees self thinning. I have a lot of double fruits where two nectarines are growing together like siamese twins, and it is hard to cut one off without damaging the other, or should I cut all double fruits off?
jellyman
17 years ago
Californian:

Nectarines have a natural drop, like most stone fruits (except cherries), but there is no reason to wait for it. Thin off the smaller fruits in favor of the larger, better positioned models. The big ones are less likely to drop naturally anyway, the moreso after they have been thinned. Thin off all the doubles completely. There is no reason to try to conserve half of a double unless you have an extremely poor fruit set.

I hope that little black branch on your Asian pear is not fireblight. Probably not in California, but you never know.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

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