Pear Trees Not Fruiting/Flowering
I live upstate NY and about 4 years ago planted three pear trees of different varieties spaced approximately 15 feet or so apart. The summer after planting there were flowers and a couple of pears and the following year some more pears than previously. However, last year there were virtually no flowers and no pears. There does not appear to be any kind of pest infection.
Suggestions./feeding???
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(post #12710, reply #1 of 13)
There's a good chance you were affected by a loss of honeybees in your area. There was a malady (exact cause unknown) that wiped out a largege percentage of the hives which resulted in a decline in pollination. To the best of my knowledge, the problem persists. Investigate alternative pollinators. There was a thread here awhile back about Mason Bees which are commercially available and work well for fruit trees.
Marty
"The plants have been good to us." Lester Hawkins
Marty
"The plants have been good to us." Lester Hawkins
(post #12710, reply #2 of 13)
This morning the local newspaper reported a large colony of wild bees had been found in an old oak tree in Raleigh. Given the estimated size of the colony they think it could be a true feral nest and not just recent escapees from a bee keeper's hive. Sounds pretty remarkable. http://www.newsobserver.com/926/story/996249.html
North Carolina - zone 7
North Carolina - zone 7
(post #12710, reply #3 of 13)
Are honeybees native here? I know that the ones used for honey and crop pollination are called "European honeybees. I don't think I ever thought about whether or not there were any here before the European version.
(post #12710, reply #4 of 13)
I think these would be wild (feral) but not native.
North Carolina - zone 7
North Carolina - zone 7
(post #12710, reply #10 of 13)
I live in St. Louis MO next to a botanical park and our MO Botanical Gardedn. We have NO bees!! I talked to one of the hortuculturists today and they are seeing the same thing. He said the only reason he has bees where he lives is because a neighbor started a hive and that anyone who does that will be doing all of their neighbors a huge favor. I'm interested in doing that .... has anyone any experience with bees?
(post #12710, reply #11 of 13)
Bees are dying off at an alarming rate. By "bees," I mean european honeybees, the kind you would need to have hives. People who've been keeping bees all their lives are experiencing hive collapse and there's no end in sight.
If you're really interested in beekeeping, do some research and find someone in your area that can teach you, in person, about bees, what you really need, how much it'll cost, how much work goes into them, and how the bees are doing in your area. We need all the bees we can get and then some. But, if it were me, I wouldn't sink the money into them with what's going on now.
Edited 6/25/2008 7:37 pm ET by Jeana
(post #12710, reply #12 of 13)
I guess we need to get the hummingbird feeders out.
(post #12710, reply #13 of 13)
The good news is that we have alot of other insect pollinators that aren't affected by this. The really bad news is for commercial growers who need vast numbers of insect pollinators to get good fruit/vegetable set. They need the honeybees alot more than we home growers do.
(post #12710, reply #5 of 13)
The lack of bees has nothing to do with whether any tree has blossoms, and if the tree that is supposed to have blossoms does not there will be no fruit, bees or no. Contact your local office of the Cornell USDA Cooperative Extension Service and ask about having a good, reliable soil test done. The lack of blossoms indicates a soil nutrient problem.
What is the level of organic matter in that soil? How well does that soil drain? What does the soil look and feel like? What does that soil smell like? How many earthworms are present in that soil?
West central Michigan along the lake shore
A sign of a good gardener is not a green thumb, rather it is brown knees.
West central Michigan along the lake shore
A sign of a good gardener is not a green thumb, rather it is brown knees.
(post #12710, reply #6 of 13)
Also, some fruit trees go in 2 or 3 year cycles. Some years they are so-so, the next they are covered with blooms/fruit, and the next year they may well be quite bare. This was always the case with the apple tree in my back yard as a kid. There was nothing wrong, it was just its natural timing.
zone 6 gardening in the woods with 30,000 deer
zone 6 gardening in the woods with 30,000 deer
(post #12710, reply #7 of 13)
Have you pruned them at all? Most cultivars are spur-bearers and are pruned to encourage the formation of these spurs from which the fruit is produced. Weather can have an affect on fruiting trees as well. Pruning is done between late autumn and early spring. Also, if it has been a very wet or rainy the blossoms have less chance of being pollinated. I have a five-in-one semi-dwarf pear tree and there have been a couple of tyears that it did not bear any fruit. I also fertilize with fruit tree spikes in early spring and then again in the fall. Hope this helps you out.
(post #12710, reply #8 of 13)
Thank you
(post #12710, reply #9 of 13)
"pears for your heirs"
no flowers means the trees have (re)entered a juvenile phase - coming from the nursery or out of pots the trees were constricted - response is to fruit - you planted them and took care - they rewarded you by deciding to grow trees -
cure is patience - also you can shape the trees by spreading limbs to 30 degrees or so - that will help initiate fruit buds - pears tend to be very vertical - upright growth is slow to initiate flower buds - bend the leader over and tie it down along with the limbs -
if you get dry in the summer, don't water - they need to stop vegetative growth - don't fertilize, prune only very lightly (bad crotches and such) - they will be perfectly happy to try to grow to world record size if conditions permit -
and then fruit for your grandkids -