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Fruit & Orchards

is this actual fruit on my asian pear?

16 years ago

Hi! I planted a potted Asian pear tree about 2 months ago (20th century) and it's got some tiny little fruits on it. I know you need 2 different asian pears for pollination, and did plant a different pear tree (shinseiki) but not til after the first had long flowered. (The shinseiki was bare root when planted and I don't think it's even flowered yet.) But the 20th century has some little cherry-sized fruits on it. Does this mean it will actually produce edible fruits this season, or is this some kind of sterile fruit, if there is such a thing? I'm wondering if the 20th century might have gotten pollinated by something else. I'm pretty sure we have bradfords in my neighbor's yard, pretty nearby. But I'm also pretty sure those won't pollinate and asian. Any info is appreciated - I'm new to the fruit tree thing, as you can tell!

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Comments (4)

jellyman
16 years ago
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
kirsten27
Original Author
16 years ago
Ah, thank you Don. That makes sense.
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sprig
16 years ago
I think that fruit has just started to form on my brand new, 4 ft tall Shinseiki and Twentieth Century Asian pears. I have removed it all, per the advice the garden store (Behnke) guy gave me when I bought these trees 3 or 4 weeks ago. One thing I'm wondering about, though, is this: the Twentieth Century 's leaves look like they are partially bruised. I'm wodering if this is some condition, or if it's because I took them in the basement (there are windows though so they got light) one night when there was frost and left them in there for a week or more. The other tree doesn't have this though.
ladyslppr
16 years ago
kristen27,
I've had a few fruit trees over the years that routinely got fruit despite no pollinator in the yard. Bees can fly in with pollien from another tree and pollinate your tree even though you may not know where the pollinator tree is located. Problem with this system is that it isn't very reliable - you can't count on the bees making the connection each year when the trees are far apart, resulting in poor or no fruit production in some years.

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