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Planting Pear Trees

Pear trees fit well into an organic home-stead. Pear trees are quite hardy and grow wellon deep, well-drained loam soil with amplemoisture. A heavy mulch or permanent le-guminous cover crop produces the best growth.Avoid excessive nitrogen fertilization—it en-courages disease—but mulch or barnyard ma-nure is perfectly safe.

Planting and Culture: Dwarf pears aregenerally planted 12 feet apart in each direc-tion; full-sized trees, 16 to 20 feet apart. Nearlyall varieties require cross-pollination; any twovarieties that blossom at the same time willcross-pollinate each other. Pear trees are welladapted to espalier training, and thus are agood fruit for small gardens.

Pears are generally planted as one-year-old whips, which are headed back to 30 inches.At the end of the first summer, all except threeevenly spaced branches are removed. Each year, these are headed back moderately andthree or four shoots are left to make secondarybranches. Once the tree comes into bearing,only a little pruning is necessary. Removeenough wood to induce new shoot growth andthin to prevent overbearing.

Insects and Diseases: Fire-blight fungusis one of the most serious pests of pears. Veryfew trees are completely resistant and thosethat are usually produce poorer fruit.

Fire blight attacks leaves, flowers, fruit,branches, and trunks, making the infected por-tions blackish as if they had been scorched.There is no known cure for the blight exceptsurgery. Trees should be inspected for blightevery two or three days from blooming time tomidsummer. When it is found, the infectedportions should be cut out, using sterilizedinstruments. The cut should be made at leastsix, and preferably 12 inches back toward theroots. All material removed should be burned.

Pears are not bothered by many otherdiseases or insects, but occasionally scabs, psyl-lids, curculios, or codling moths may attackthem.

Pear scab appears as a velvety olive-greenspot on the fruit, becoming black and scabby atmaturity. On the leaves the scab makes blackspots. The disease is favored by warm, dampweather which also fosters blight. Remove anyleaves or fruit infected with scab, and keep thearea under the tree free of fallen leaves andfruit.

Psyllids are jumping insects which pro-duce a honeydew that invites infections offungal molds harmful to the tree. The insectsattack the blossoms and prevent fruit set. Thebest preventive measure is a thorough dormant-oil spray in the spring.

Varieties: Among the favorites of thedisease-resistant varieties are the Bartlett, Seckel, Clapp Favorite, Gorham, andOther blight-resistant varieties include _Moonglow and Magness. These bearsweet fruit. Colette is a dwarf variety inripens in mid-August to early September.ter Nelis is a tasty, yellow green pear tha:very large fruit. Beurre Bosc andD'Anjou produce hardy fruit.

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