How Do I Stop Pears From Growing, But Keep The Tree?

November 10, 2006 1:49 PM

How do I stop pears from growing, but keep the tree intact?

I have a beautiful pear tree in my yard that produces a lot of fruit, but I don't want the pears anymore, yet I don't want to cut it down either. We have sprayed the tree for bugs, and for the most part, the fruit is left uninfested, but the pears are not really that good to eat. They just become bird and bee/wasp food and make a real mess in the yard when they rot and fall down. Is there anything I can do to stop the tree from producing fruit, but not kill it?

posted by Shfishp to Home & Garden (7 answers total)

I'm assuming your tree is bare now. When the weather is dry, prune it back vigorously. I did this to my pear tree last year and there were hardly any blossoms and no fruit this year.

Read up on this for yourself, but I believe that some kinds of fruit prefer to grow on the previous year's freshly grown branches. I know this is true for grapes and blackberries, for example. So pruning away the fresh growth reduces the potential for fruit-bearing.

The downside is that you will lose blossoms in the spring.
posted by Araucaria at 2:29 PM on November 10, 2006

You should be able to spray or otherwise treat the tree with hormones that will keep it from fruiting.
posted by lekvar at 2:33 PM on November 10, 2006

pick the fruit off the tree while they are still small and throw it the fruit into compost pile.
posted by Stynxno at 2:34 PM on November 10, 2006

This is all I can find, but it claims to work on pears.
"Florel® brand Growth Regulator is registered to reduce or eliminate undesirable fruit development on many ornamental trees and shrubs..."
posted by lekvar at 2:40 PM on November 10, 2006

Some areas have organizations that will pick the fruit and give it to the needy among us. Sometimes it doesn't even matter if the fruit is tasty as some will preserve it as jam/jelly/etc and either give it away or sell it to finance their other operations. This is one in my area.

And, yes, Florel will work. The problem in my eyes is that it ties you into a spraying regimen and puts a fairly toxic substance in your yard(see here). If you decide to DIY anyway, then please use the appropriate safety precautions! Many homeowners don't.

If you decide to prune, either get a professional pruner to do it, or only take off the fruiting spurs or tips(you don't state the variety). If you "prune it back vigorously" you will more than likely create an ugly tree. Either way you will lose the flowers. Alternately you can pick all the fruit any time after the last flowers turn to fruit but before they ripen.
posted by a_green_man at 3:21 PM on November 10, 2006

Give up and enjoy the bird concert. I have a huge, old pear tree that bears a lot of (delicious) fruit. I don't spray it, so there is the bug factor, but a guy from a horse farm comes to pick up the fallen fruit every couple of weeks. Can you find a horse farm nearby? They will surely pick up the mess for free. In the meantime, I invite friends over to sit on the deck and listen to the lovely bird concert.

OK, I'm whacked and this doesn't solve your problem, but it also doesn't involve chemicals or hormones that might kill the birds.
posted by WaterSprite at 6:10 PM on November 10, 2006

I don't know how practical this is for you, but if you pick off all the flowers, this should keep any fruit from forming. You'd have to do this every year, though.
posted by jefftang at 6:12 AM on November 12, 2006