Fruit TreesRosaceae
Pear Trees.
Cool seasonPerennialPollinator magnet
At a glance
The spec sheet.
- Direct sow / out
- Bare-root: early April
- Germ
- Purchased trees
- Days to harvest
- Fruit year 3–5
- Spacing
- 15 ft (dwarf), 20 ft (semi-dwarf)
- Depth
- Same as pot; graft union 2" above soil
- Square-foot
- Own orchard bed
- Qty target
- 2 trees for a family.
Plant
Best NJ varieties: Harrow Sweet, Blake's Pride, Bosc, Bartlett. Plant at least 2 for cross-pollination.
Care
European pears (Bartlett, Bosc) picked slightly early and ripen off tree. Fire blight is the main disease — prune diseased branches 6" below infection, sterilize tools.
Harvest
European pears: pick when hard but flesh gives slightly at neck; ripen in fridge. Asian pears: pick tree-ripe.
Canned in syrup, pear butter, sauce, dried, brandy pears.
Companion planting
What pear trees likes, and doesn’t.
Good neighbors
- Chives
- Nasturtiums
- Comfrey
- Yarrow
- Dill
- Junipers (rust host)
- Potatoes
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