A Pear Tree, and A Mystery

By Mary La France

A few years ago, I was gifted four fruit trees for my birthday: two apple and two pears. Those trees were planted in my side yard, and three survived. Up until last year, I could not tell you which was which, did I have two apples and one pear tree, or two pears and one apple tree? This past fall, while walking into my house, something bright green caught my eye. I walked over to one of my fruit trees and there were two small green pears! Mind you, I know nothing about fruit trees, but when I saw those small pears my interest was piqued, and it set off a chain reaction of planning and anticipating for this spring.

When I saw those two small pears, I was reminded of my Grandmother's house on McGee Road. There is this tall pear tree that grows in the front yard and every summer my Aunt calls us down to pick them up. We have to pick them up because the rest are all too high to actually pick. Last year, my Aunt made pear sauce, which is just like apple sauce except made with pears. The last time I got a jar of pear sauce from my Aunt I ate the whole jar by myself. How was I going to live up to these huge expectations, with just my one puny pear tree? That was when I started researching fruit tree care and tips.

The moment to tend to your fruit trees is not four years after planting them, or after they start producing fruit. The time to tend to your fruit tree, for me, was from the moment I received them as a gift straight from the nursery. They were about 5 feet tall when I got them, and they sat in their containers for a little too long while I debated where to plant them. Once they were planted though, I could have staked each branch with string while they were pliable to ensure they would grow horizontally, adding volume to the crown and opening up the lower branches to more sunlight. Thas isn't what happened.

Because I waited so long, some of the branches were growing good and horizontal, and some of them were growing straight up to the top competing with the leader, which is the top branch that adds to the trees height each year. This would have to be corrected if I hoped to achieve the same success as my Grandmother's pear tree. So, I ordered a set of pruning shears from Amazon and subscribed to fruit pruning videos on YouTube. I have also noticed a number of local workshops popping up right now where you can learn to prune fruit trees in an actual orchard. For now, I just used what I had and the information I was able to obtain online to attempt to correct my present situation.

The first fruit tree I started with was the known pear tree at the far end of the property. My initial thought was, 'look at all the branches, it looks so healthy.' Then I compared it to the pruning guide on my phone and went, 'oh, it's not supposed to look like that'. The first branches to go were the new shoots at the base of the tree, there should be only one pear tree here. Looking at the other branches I could see the leader, which should be the tallest branch, and the other branches should come out to take the shape like that of a Christmas tree, tall on top and wide on the bottom. I would prune a bit here, a bit more there, until I felt satisfied that it resembled the reference pear tree in the picture. I moved on to the other trees, doing the same process: assessing, measuring, and pruning.

I knew that I was not going to be able to correct four years of overgrowth in just one season. I was just happy being outside, feeling like a responsible fruit tree owner, shaping and creating art with the natural world. Now that I kind of know what I am doing, I am looking forward to getting more pears this year, and maybe finally finding out if the two remaining fruit trees will identify themselves, or not.