Pear trees that don't blossom....huh?

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I don't think I have completely lost my mind yet, but it seems to me that my pear trees are not going to bear fruit this year since they haven't blossomed yet. Mind you, they are in full leaf at this point. These are about 4-year-old trees...one variety is "Orcas" and another is an Asian Pear. The first year that I had them, they pollinated, and at least the Asian Pear produced a lot of fruit. I remember them having blossoms, and I remember one other year that they had blossoms but didn't pollinate because it rained and was cold, plus we didn't have any bees around.

Don't pears get blossoms before leaves? Any idea why there's no blossoms? btw, the cherries and apples have had a lot of flowers this year. I just can't remember about pears!

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

Answers

Hey Sheepish, my pears have blossomed and set fruit. I think the blossoms and leaves appeared at about the same time. Still, I think you might be out of luck for pears this year. :-(

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

Some pears(and apples) produce a good crop only every OTHER year.

This year our asians flowered early,and the frost got them.It was there first year to flower.No fruit on. About everything else has fruit on ,but not the pears.

I tried to find cultivars of everything,that flowered later, to avoid our notorious 'heat up quick and make everything pop then send a sneak attack frost' weather problem, but pears just plain old come out early.

Alot of rain and overcast would prevent bee activity too.Big problem here for us last year on all squash/pumpkin pollination.Hardshell gourds flowering at the same time were unaffected,bc they are night pollinated.

Interestingly enough,Sheepish,I look for cultivars that do well in the Pacific NW to plant here.We have high humidity and resultant disease incidents. Higher than central & western KY. Weather systems hit the Cumberlands and dump on us,well,usually.Usually we have more lush growth than to either the east or west of us. Not this year.

Additional question for everyone.What pear varieties do you like? Nick loves seckel or sugar pear and the asians.I don't like pears at all so I have no opinion! Immagine that!

Seckel is fire blight resistant, and naturally dwarfing so that is a plus.And very tasty,according to the bossman. Asians are not resistant to fireblight tho the root stock I chose is. Nick just clipped and burned fireblight off a pear and an apple this week.Big problem here.

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001


Yeah, but where did the blossoms go?? Did some kind of insect eat them before they ever showed up? Or is there some kind of soil deficiency? I mean, these trees went from bare to leafed out...no intermediate stage...

-- Anonymous, May 14, 2001

Well...I guess I should read questions instead of skimming them,shouldn't I?

My guess is...in order of likelihood: First,it's the off year and they didn't flower. Second ,weather conditions wiped them out as they were emerging.Third a bug ate them? Fourth,you were at the hospital and preocupied with mom's health and missed the few flowers that made it,but did not set?

Did you neighbors have similar problems as well? Do you have a hort. person at Extension you can ask about what went on locally?

I doubt soil conditions are the factor,since they apparently flowered and set before,however you can work in some wood ash or greensand for the potasium if you think that it might be a problem in your soils.Not too much wood ash,as it's alkaline.Have you gotten a soil test done on your land to give you a baseline for making soil decisions?

-- Anonymous, May 16, 2001


Sharon, probably any of the answers you provided would be a possibility. I think some neighbors have Asian Pears so I'll check with them and see how they are doing.

I haven't had our soil tested. However, we sit atop an old glacial moraine in the P. Northwest which = heavy clay soil, highly acidic. When I planted my fruit trees, I put in some good soil (mixed it up with native) added some superphosphate and B12 rooting stuff, etc. As I said, we had a great first year.

Maybe I did just miss the blossoms! But still no fruit, so it must be the off year?

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2001



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