I have been trying, yes trying, to grow pears for about 5 years and finally I have had some success.
I bought a couple of cocktail pear trees back in 2009. They were Cocktail Pear ‘San Giovanni’ and Cocktail Pear ‘Lemon Bergamot’, both purchased from the Diggers club. These are listed in the catalogue as dwarf type fruit trees.
As our soil here in Melton is a heavy clay, these two little trees struggled for many years until Ben and I dug them up and planted them in two big pots two years ago. During the first year in their pots, they both flowered which amazed me because this was the first sign of fruit in their entire life!
In the second year in posts, both trees flowered, but one actually set fruit.
Our first pear
I think that the big difference was that they now get good drainage, and are maybe old enough to bear fruit without stressing out the tree too much. The hard clay really inhibited the growth of these trees, because I have two olive trees doing well in the same place these pears used to be planted.
Now that it is March, the leaves on the trees are starting to yellow, it is time to pick pears and apples. So while I was in the front orchard this afternoon counting my pumpkin crop that I am harvesting this weekend, checked out the pear tree and saw that the four pears were starting to yellow a little. It was time to pick them before birds decided to have them for dinner!
Cocktail Pears and a Jonathan Apple
They look delicious and are big pears, certainly a lot bigger than I thought these little trees would produce.
We have held off eating them for a couple of days to see if they ripen further. Because these are so special to me, I am going to cut one up and serve it on our 18th wedding anniversary on Sunday with some homemade Colby cheese. The others we will eat as snacks.
Close up of Cocktail Pears
So I suppose the lesson I have learnt from all of this is that if a deciduous fruit tree that is not growing very well, then think about moving the tree to a better place. If you don’t have a better place, then seriously think about placing them in a big pot.
It certainly worked for me. It also works for all my citrus trees that wouldn’t be able to handle the heavy clay either.
Do any of you have fruit trees in pots that are fruiting well? I would love to hear about them via comment.