Under the Shade of the Unusable Pear Tree
October 17, 2011 7:52 AM   Subscribe

I have a decent sized pear tree in my backyard...in Minnesota...so the growing season is far too short to yield edible fruit from the tree. Can I simply: 1) cut it down; 2) dig up the roots of the tree; 3) plant an apple tree in the same hole; 4) and start getting apples after a few years? Or is there a lot more to it that I don't know that I don't know?
posted by TinWhistle to Home & Garden (6 answers total)
 
Best answer: If the pear tree is already well established, you might consider grafting other things onto it. It's a little involved, but might yield fruit faster than starting over from scratch. More in the ever-helpful gardenweb forums, too.
posted by jquinby at 8:04 AM on October 17, 2011 [2 favorites]




Should add that for most pears, one tree is not enough. You need two of two different types (that bloom together) to get cross-pollination in order to get the tree to set fruit.
posted by Patapsco Mike at 9:56 AM on October 17, 2011


Best answer: Came here to say what jquinby said. Any (eating) apple tree you plant is going to be grafted anyway. You basically already *have* half an apple tree.
posted by endless_forms at 11:08 AM on October 17, 2011


yes. If you want to dig up the one tree and add the other, there's no reason that won't work. I will assume that you know that step 2 might be pretty difficult, and you'll probably get a nice big hole that you'll need some dirt as well as an apple sapling to fill. You might want to evaluate the site (sun/shade, drainage, etc) and be sure that in yard-minus-pear space, the absolute best spot to plant an apple tree is where the pear used to be.

Patapsco Mike's comment on pear pollen reminds me - some tasty apple varieties need other less-tasty trees nearby to provide pollen for them, sometimes you can find two tasty varieties that work together. Here is a chart of what pollinates what.
One frequent solution to this problem is to graft branches of several different varieties onto one rootstock so that one branch pollinates the others. Example of mixed trees for sale if you don't want to do your own grafting.
Here is the apple catalog of St Lawrence Nurseries, a nursery in NY state that specializes in edibles that are hardy in cold climates. Good info there.
posted by aimedwander at 11:14 AM on October 17, 2011 [1 favorite]


Agreeing that you need at least two two pear trees for pollination, and also you do know that pears are better picked green and allowed to ripen on the counter, right?

http://www.pickyourown.org/pearpickingtips.htm

Also, in my experience pears are much easier to grow than apples, since I don't bother with pesticides. I always have a huge, usable pear crop, but the apples are always wormy. I'm in Zone 5.
posted by chocolatepeanutbuttercup at 1:31 PM on October 17, 2011


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