If you are going to get the Shinko, a good pollinator is Shinseiki. They bloom at the same time in my yard and my son-in-law's yard (both Houston). The shinko is good as long as you don't get too much rain near ripening. They will be bland with the rain.....dry periods good. Shinseiki is better in my opinion, but it needs a pollinator. Shinko fruits without a pollinator, but much more fruit with a pollinator. Shinko does get blight....I lost mine after about 8 years due to blight....it was bad that year. I replaced my shinko with Tennosui. First time fruiting last year. Was not impressed with fruit. Mine were not crisp and low flavor. Tree may still be too young. I prefer crisp pears and my favorite is Southern Queen, sweet, flavorful and crisp. I may replace my Tennosui with it's sister, Southern King if the fruit don't improve. The Akers (acres) Home pear is very good. It is excellent flavor and sweetness after a week or two off the tree. No problems with blight, but it does have rot problems. You may have to spray.....don't know about San Antone. I think the rot problem may be why it is not pushed much anymore here, but it is excellent. I pulled mine due to rot and it is a melting pear and I like crisp.

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

I have two of those trees that I planted last year. One of them bloomed twelve or more flowers at every bud on the tree. I had over 500 pears on one little tree! Anyway I thinned mine to one per cluster. I read that you should not have more than one every six inches on the tree. You need to stake these tree too. They are very limber for the first three or four years. Mine just about bent in half. I had it tied from last year with just twine. It rotted and broke in the wind. Then heavy rain bent the tree over. Thankfully it didn't break. Growing fruit will slow the growth of the tree too.

Combo trees have their own issues. In particular the most vigorous varietie/s end up dominating the tree at the expense (or death) of the less vigorous grafts. Of these plum varieties I have only one which is Santa Rosa. It has grown quite vigorously for me here and produced a small to medium number of juicy but bland fruits. I don't know of any commercial production of asian plums around here, but there are orchards of euro plums (prunes). Although I have had mixed success with euro plums, the fruit quality has been very good. I have a Fuyu Persimmon but it hasn't bloomed or produced yet. It seems quite happy so far, although it seems to leaf out quite late. Asian pears do quite well here as do euro pears. Coddling moth will be a problem. Have you considered a Desert King or Latarulla Fig? No pollination or insect issues. Apples do quite well here as well, but again Coddling moths are a formidable problem. How about growing Marion berries? The world's most delightful cane berry and grows here as well as anywhere in the world. Or thornless blackberries. You could also post your question on www.homeorchardsociety.com for some more local expertise.