Anyone got a Conference Pear Tree?
Discussion
If you do, what time of year do you take the fruit from the tree and how big are they now?
We have a large pear tree in the garden, this is our fourth summer here. First year nothing, second 1 pear about an inch in diameter that we only discovered when the leaves dropped. This was when we realised it was a 'pear' tree. Last year 5-10 similar sized pears.
This year there must be a few hundred pears ranging from 1" diameter to a 1.75" diameter. I've no idea if it's a crap tree having a good year, or whether these will continue to grow and be an edible size in a month or twos time.
Could do with some pointers!
Thanks!
We have a large pear tree in the garden, this is our fourth summer here. First year nothing, second 1 pear about an inch in diameter that we only discovered when the leaves dropped. This was when we realised it was a 'pear' tree. Last year 5-10 similar sized pears.
This year there must be a few hundred pears ranging from 1" diameter to a 1.75" diameter. I've no idea if it's a crap tree having a good year, or whether these will continue to grow and be an edible size in a month or twos time.
Could do with some pointers!
Thanks!
We have an enormous pear tree that crops very heavily every other year. This is an 'off' year but it's still got a few on it up high. They start to fall mid to late September so that's when we usually pick them. Pick them when they're hard, wrap individually in newspaper and put in a dark drawer or the fridge - you should get a couple of months out of them that way. Impossible to pick them when they're ripe as they just fall off the tree.
They need to be ripened off the tree (preferably after a chilling period) to get the best texture/taste. Conference are normally ready mid to late September. Unlike some varieties that do not need to be picked at exactly the right moment (colour change + lift & they break off), they are not too fussy about ripening (they may take quite a long time if picked very green). So essentially if they are big enough to eat (or cook), you can start to pick them. I do it in stages, by removing the larger ones the smaller remainders will get bigger faster. I put them all in a fridge and then bring them out in batches to ripen. They will ripen in the fridge eventually, but it slows then down. Can usually keep a supply going to Nov. If they get to the point on the tree where you notice the skin subtly lightens/yellows, they need to come off immediately or they will just go nasty soon after.
Crumpet said:
We have an enormous pear tree that crops very heavily every other year. This is an 'off' year but it's still got a few on it up high.
Apple trees can do this as well, if you want to even out the crop when it's the heavy year you go up and take half the blossom buds off, it then produces fruit a bit more evenly.227bhp said:
Apple trees can do this as well, if you want to even out the crop when it's the heavy year you go up and take half the blossom buds off, it then produces fruit a bit more evenly.
I'd love to, but when I say 'big' I really do mean BIG! Not sure how long pear trees live but I have a picture of my Dad standing in front of it when he was a boy and it was huge back then (50+ years ago). It would be quite some job trying to halve the blossom on it! It dwarfs our two story house and must have a canopy diameter of 15m or so. The amount of fruit it produces on a good year is staggering and all you can hear throughout October is the thud of pears dropping! It wouldn't surprise me if there's a metric ton of fruit that comes off it.paulrockliffe said:
If you do, what time of year do you take the fruit from the tree and how big are they now?
We have a large pear tree in the garden, this is our fourth summer here. First year nothing, second 1 pear about an inch in diameter that we only discovered when the leaves dropped. This was when we realised it was a 'pear' tree. Last year 5-10 similar sized pears.
This year there must be a few hundred pears ranging from 1" diameter to a 1.75" diameter. I've no idea if it's a crap tree having a good year, or whether these will continue to grow and be an edible size in a month or twos time.
Could do with some pointers!
Thanks!
Ours has been a good year too but if you've got a few hundred then you're probably not going to get the best out of them. You really need to thin them at the start of the season by half or so to allow the remaining pears to grow and be worth eating. We have a large pear tree in the garden, this is our fourth summer here. First year nothing, second 1 pear about an inch in diameter that we only discovered when the leaves dropped. This was when we realised it was a 'pear' tree. Last year 5-10 similar sized pears.
This year there must be a few hundred pears ranging from 1" diameter to a 1.75" diameter. I've no idea if it's a crap tree having a good year, or whether these will continue to grow and be an edible size in a month or twos time.
Could do with some pointers!
Thanks!
You might find next year you don't get any as the tree will be spunked out and take a year off to recover.
The way we do it is.
Mulch with organic matter in autumn (manure, coffee grounds, leaf mould or whatever) so it's well fed.
Blossom in spring, go over it with a cheap paintbrush or the missuses make up brush on the flowers to pollinate them.
When the flowers go over and start to form pears, thin them by half.
Keep it watered and once a week give it potash or tomato feed to fatten the fruit.
Keep a look out for thin new sprigs of growth on the tree (Google water shoots) and snap them off so the growth goes in the pears, not the tree.
Harvest them in a few weeks time as posters above have said.
And if you have a dog like us, harvest the low hanging ones first before the dog eats them.
stewjohnst said:
Ours has been a good year too but if you've got a few hundred then you're probably not going to get the best out of them. You really need to thin them at the start of the season by half or so to allow the remaining pears to grow and be worth eating.
You might find next year you don't get any as the tree will be spunked out and take a year off to recover.
The way we do it is.
Mulch with organic matter in autumn (manure, coffee grounds, leaf mould or whatever) so it's well fed.
Blossom in spring, go over it with a cheap paintbrush or the missuses make up brush on the flowers to pollinate them.
When the flowers go over and start to form pears, thin them by half.
Keep it watered and once a week give it potash or tomato feed to fatten the fruit.
Keep a look out for thin new sprigs of growth on the tree (Google water shoots) and snap them off so the growth goes in the pears, not the tree.
Harvest them in a few weeks time as posters above have said.
And if you have a dog like us, harvest the low hanging ones first before the dog eats them.
Thanks, that's really useful. It gets plenty of water, but is growing in the middle of the lawn so doesn't get any feed. It's been abused because I didn't think it was capable of anything useful, but now it's shown it's true potential I'll make a start by pruning it properly, killing the lichen that's all over it and clearing out some deadwood and hopefully next time it's ready for action I can coax some proper fruit out of it. I'll need to get the ladders out as it's about 5m tall now, so I'm not sure how the paintbrush thing will work!You might find next year you don't get any as the tree will be spunked out and take a year off to recover.
The way we do it is.
Mulch with organic matter in autumn (manure, coffee grounds, leaf mould or whatever) so it's well fed.
Blossom in spring, go over it with a cheap paintbrush or the missuses make up brush on the flowers to pollinate them.
When the flowers go over and start to form pears, thin them by half.
Keep it watered and once a week give it potash or tomato feed to fatten the fruit.
Keep a look out for thin new sprigs of growth on the tree (Google water shoots) and snap them off so the growth goes in the pears, not the tree.
Harvest them in a few weeks time as posters above have said.
And if you have a dog like us, harvest the low hanging ones first before the dog eats them.
Crumpet said:
227bhp said:
Apple trees can do this as well, if you want to even out the crop when it's the heavy year you go up and take half the blossom buds off, it then produces fruit a bit more evenly.
I'd love to, but when I say 'big' I really do mean BIG! Not sure how long pear trees live but I have a picture of my Dad standing in front of it when he was a boy and it was huge back then (50+ years ago). It would be quite some job trying to halve the blossom on it! It dwarfs our two story house and must have a canopy diameter of 15m or so. The amount of fruit it produces on a good year is staggering and all you can hear throughout October is the thud of pears dropping! It wouldn't surprise me if there's a metric ton of fruit that comes off it.The plot thickens maybe.....
I've just bought two more apple trees, two more plum trees and another pear. While looking at different species I came across the Winter Nellis. A small pear that ripens in December and looks as lot like the small pears I have. A long shot maybe, but these are supposedly the nicest pears a chap can grow, so this may work out very well, though I won't get my hopes too high.
My pears are nowhere near rope, but they are slowly getting bigger still, especially right at the top where don't night be 5cm diameter now!
I've just bought two more apple trees, two more plum trees and another pear. While looking at different species I came across the Winter Nellis. A small pear that ripens in December and looks as lot like the small pears I have. A long shot maybe, but these are supposedly the nicest pears a chap can grow, so this may work out very well, though I won't get my hopes too high.
My pears are nowhere near rope, but they are slowly getting bigger still, especially right at the top where don't night be 5cm diameter now!
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