Gadenin日本語Get the appDormant season: pruning and structure
With the leaves off you can see the whole framework, and this is the only time of year that is true. Prune free-standing trees now, on a dry day: dead, damaged and diseased wood first, then crossing branches, then anything growing into the center. Take no more than a quarter of the canopy, and read the fat rounded fruit buds so you know what you are leaving.
This is also the season for the structural jobs. Plant bare-root trees whenever the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged. Check every stake and tie for chafing or strangling and loosen them. Cut out juniper twigs with rust galls before they swell in spring, and remove any scabby, cracked shoot tips from last summer.
Late in the dormant season, lightly cultivate the top inch or two of soil under the canopy to expose overwintering pear midge larvae, then mulch two to three inches (5-8 cm) deep over the root zone, keeping a clear collar around the trunk.
| Stage of the year | Key jobs | What decides the crop |
|---|---|---|
| Dormancy | Prune, plant, mulch, check ties, cultivate for midge | Framework and light for the next ten years |
| Bud burst to green cluster | Weekly inspection, frost forecasts, remove suckers | Nothing yet, but this is when problems are cheap |
| Bloom | Frost cover on cold nights, hand pollination if cold | The entire crop is set or lost in this fortnight |
| Petal fall to natural drop | Pick off midge-struck fruitlets, hang codling traps | Fruit numbers and pest load |
| Early summer | Thin to one or two per cluster after natural drop | Fruit size and next year's flowering |
| Mid to late summer | Summer prune, water in dry spells, open light to fruit | Sugars, color and finish |
| Harvest | Lift test, pick in stages, handle gently, chill | Whether the fruit is buttery or mealy |
| Leaf fall | Clear leaves and windfalls, note the season | Scab, rust and midge pressure next year |
Bud burst to petal fall: the two weeks that decide everything
Pears break bud and flower earlier than apples, so from the first green in the buds you should be watching night temperatures. Open blossom dies at about 28F (-2C) and a set fruitlet at about 29F (-1.5C). Have row cover ready before you need it and cover small or trained trees before dusk on any night forecast near freezing, uncovering in the morning so insects can reach the flowers.
If the bloom period is cold, wet or windy, insects will not work and you must hand pollinate. Move pollen from a compatible partner variety onto the sticky central stigma of freshly opened flowers with a soft brush, and repeat every second or third dry day until petals fall.
Rub out suckers from below the graft and any water shoots on the trunk while they are still soft; they pull off cleanly now and need pruners and leave wounds later. Do not feed heavily at this point. Soft nitrogen-driven growth at bloom is exactly what fireblight and psylla want.
Petal fall through summer: thinning, water and light
Three or four weeks after petal fall the tree sheds its own surplus fruitlets. Do not thin before that natural drop finishes, or you will end up with too few. Once it is over, thin to one or two fruit per cluster, four to six inches (10-15 cm) apart. Skipping this in a heavy year gives small fruit, broken branches and a tree that flowers poorly next spring.
While thinning, cut open a few dropped fruitlets. Hollow, maggot-filled ones mean pear midge, and every affected fruitlet still hanging should come off and be destroyed now, not left to drop and put larvae into your soil. A dead brown center with a russet ring and no maggots is frost, and there is nothing to do about it this year.
Water deeply in dry spells, especially trees on quince and anything trained against a wall, where the soil at the foot stays dry even in rain. Five gallons (20 L) once a week beats a daily sprinkle. In mid to late summer, shorten this year's side shoots to three or four leaves to convert growth into fruit buds, and take out a few leafy shoots shading heavy clusters so the fruit finishes properly.
Harvest and the close of the year
Start lift-testing as the ground color of the fruit begins to lighten. Cup the pear and tilt it to horizontal; if the stalk parts cleanly, it is ready. Pick in stages over one to two weeks, sunny outside fruit first, and get them off the tree firm. A European pear left to soften on the branch goes brown and mealy at the core, and picking a few days early costs you nothing while picking late costs the fruit.
Handle them like eggs, keep the stalks on, give them their cold period, then bring in only what you will eat in a week and finish them at room temperature. Test ripeness at the neck beside the stalk, never at the belly.
After leaf fall, rake up and remove fallen leaves and any remaining windfalls; they carry scab, rust and midge into next season. Then look back over the year while it is fresh.
Record four things each season: the dates the tree was in full bloom and any freezing nights inside that window, when and how much you thinned, the date each tree passed the lift test, and how long the picked fruit took to ripen indoors. Two or three years of those notes will tell you more about your own tree than any general guide can.