Planting and growing pears: description, types, watering, fertilizer, pruning and other subtleties of tree care (25 Photos & Videos) + Reviews

Pear - Planting and growing

Planting a pear and caring for it is an urgent issue for all lovers of fruit trees. Especially in the spring, when the earth has already warmed up. And in the markets, nurseries and garden centers began to sell seedlings. In autumn, the choice of seedlings is also rich. Therefore, if it was not possible to plant a tree in the spring, this can be done in mid-late September.

It is necessary to treat the choice of young pear trees as responsibly as possible. Of great importance is the preparation of the soil, and the subsequent care of the tree. You need to know how and when to water a pear, how and with what to fertilize, how to cut. The article discusses all aspects of growing pears in the garden. From buying seedlings to ways to propagate trees.

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Seedling selection

Despite the rich selection of seedlings in markets and bazaars, it is better not to buy trees there. The best option is to buy a seedling in the nursery where it was grown. As a last resort, you can visit the nearest garden center. Or buy a tree from a farmer friend who has been growing pears for a long time and knows a lot about it.

The choice of seedlings in garden centers is wide

Tips for choosing seedlings:

1. You need to have a short conversation with the seller before buying. During the conversation, it is easy to understand how competent the interlocutor is in this area.
2. Pay attention to the labels (if any). It is desirable that the label indicate not only the name of the variety. Description, indication of the breeder, photo of a tree with fruits - these are additional advantages in favor of a seedling.
3. If you buy trees with an open root system, take those that are younger than three years old. It is young seedlings that quickly adapt and take root well.

There are several ways to determine the age of a plant. If there are no branches of the trunk - an annual pear. Two-year-olds reach 1.5 m in length, from the root neck to the lateral branches about 50 cm.

Also characteristic signs of two-year-old seedlings:

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What seedlings can not be bought

Keep in mind that the seller may be silent about some defects in his goods. Therefore, you need to learn to recognize them yourself.

tree root cancer

You should not buy seedlings from which:

Suppliers who value their reputation usually reject diseased, damaged seedlings.

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Preparing for landing, choosing a place

The place for the plant should be sunny

If the plants are not planted immediately after purchase, they must be properly placed for storage. The roots of the tree must be kept in water for several hours. Then wrap them in a damp cloth and place them in a plastic bag. Put the tree in a cool place. Thus, the seedling will wait for planting, being in comfortable conditions.

In order for the pear to take root well, you need to choose the right place for planting it:

A hole for planting a tree is dug out in 3-4 weeks. This is done so that the soil settles. If planting is planned in the spring, it is advisable to prepare the pit in the fall.

The size of the recess should not be large. It is enough that the hole is slightly larger than the volume of the roots of the tree.

If the soil on the site does not meet the requirements, then a large hole must be dug. Depth - up to 1 m, width and longitude - 70 x 70 cm. About 10 cm of clay is poured onto the bottom, then twice as much compost.

Pour the pre-prepared soil mixture on top:

In this form, you need to leave the pit until the seedling is placed.

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Landing features

There should be enough free space between the trees

It is better to plant a pear in the fall, at the end of September. Studies have shown that such seedlings take root better than those planted in the spring. Such trees become more resistant to weather changes, diseases and pests.

But autumn planting also has its drawbacks. A tree that has not yet grown strong can become food for rodents and receive significant damage. Also, the seedling can freeze a lot in winter.

Moreover, if you plant a tree in the fall, then until the very spring it will be unknown whether it has taken root and what is happening to it in general. And if you carry out the procedure in the spring, then until the frost, you can control its growth and condition. If problems arise, there will be a chance to fix them.

If you plant a pear in the spring, this should be done as soon as the soil warms up. The main thing is to be in time before the movement of tree sap begins.

Planting in autumn

Soil mulching option

A support peg can be driven into the center of the landing pit, which will rise 0.5 m above the ground. A seedling is tied to a peg after planting.

A mound of soil mixture is poured near the support peg. A tree is placed on the mound, the roots are straightened. Sprinkling the roots with earth, the stem of the seedling must be shaken periodically to fill all the voids.

Having fallen asleep more than half of the pit, you can pour a bucket of water with a root there. Then continue pouring the soil mixture. When finishing planting, you need to check that the root neck of the seedling rises 3-5 cm above the ground.

At the very end, you need to carefully compact the earth around the tree trunk.Also form a circle around the pear with a diameter of 50 cm from an earthen shaft about 5 cm in height. Pour a couple of buckets of water inside the circle (even if it started raining at the time of planting).

The final stage is mulching and fixing the trunk to the support (do not pinch!). The earth inside the earthen roller can be mulched with what is at hand.

Planting in the spring

Trees need to be pruned regularly

Landing in the spring is practically no different from the autumn. It is advisable to cut the roots by 10 cm. Additionally, you can soak the roots in a clay mash.

After planting, the leaves, if any, are carefully cut off. It is advisable to cut the branches of 2-3 year old seedlings. All these procedures can be done during the autumn planting.

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Care

Attention to the tree is the key to a high harvest in the future

Pear plant whimsical and requires constant care.

The tree care package includes:

1. Regular watering.
2. Removing weeds around a tree.
3. Soil mulching.
4. Top dressing.
5. Pest protection.
6. Prevention and treatment of diseases.
7. Crown shaping.
8. Cleaning up carrion and fallen leaves.
9. Warming for the winter.

If everything is done correctly, after 5-7 years the tree will grow by 8-15 meters (depending on the variety). And, of course, it will begin to bear fruit to the delight of a caring owner.

Watering seedlings and grown trees

Proper watering

It is necessary to water the soil near the tree both during the planting process and during spring-summer. Norm - at least 3 liters of water per tree (preferably 1 sq.m.).

In the first year after planting, the tree is watered once every 7 days. Further, the frequency of watering is reduced to 1 time in 14 days.

The best method of watering is sprinkling. That is, it is desirable to install an installation that will simulate rain. Watering should be done in the evening, after the heat subsides.

If there is no possibility to put a sprayer, there is a budget option for watering. A groove about 15 cm wide breaks out around the trunk. Water is poured into this groove, but not cold, but settled during the day in a sunny place.

After each watering, the soil is loosened to ensure the supply of oxygen to the roots, and re-mulched. The main thing is that the soil around the trunk does not dry out, does not become covered with a crust. All weeds that grow under the crown of a young tree must be removed.

Pest and disease treatment

Treatment of wood from diseases and insects

Pears, like other garden trees, are susceptible to various diseases. It can be scab, stem rot, powdery mildew and other diseases. Also, trees are often damaged by a leafworm, green aphid, codling, pear sucker and pear mite.

Biopreparations or chemicals can be used to protect plants from diseases. It is better to give preference to biopreparations. Even despite the fact that such treatments will need more compared to chemistry.

Biological products are used throughout the season - from the moment the leaves bloom and until the harvest.Some gardeners even use such products to process harvested fruits to ensure their long shelf life.

If you use chemicals, you can limit yourself to 2-3 treatments. But the slightest mistake in dosage, non-compliance with instructions or safety measures, and the consequences can be sad. You can poison not only a tree, but also the soil, other plants, animals and family members.

To protect against bacterial, fungal and viral damage, Fitosporin-M, Gaupsim or other biological products can be used. To protect against insects - Actofit, Bitoxibacillin or Fitoverm.

Processing can begin when the air warms up to 16-18 degrees. In cold and heat (+32 and above), biological products are ineffective. The results of the treatment will appear in a week (if there is no rain). The procedure can be repeated after 1-2 weeks.

Organic fertilizers and green manure

Best fertilizer for pears - organic (humus, compost), mineral (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) and green (green manure). Organic fertilizer can be made by hand by creating a compost heap. Properly prepared compost can provide a tree with many of the necessary substances for rapid growth and fruiting.

Instead of mulch, you can plant other plants around the tree.

There is also another option on how to nourish a tree with minimal financial investment. You need to buy seeds of any green manure, for example, alfalfa, lupine. You need to sow green manure right in the garden.

Advantages of planting green manure under pears:

However, it is worth noting that there is a whole science that siderates harm neighboring plants. Therefore, each gardener chooses between mulching and green manure, based on their personal beliefs. But organic matter in reasonable quantities and introduced on time will definitely not harm the pears.

Top dressing with mineral fertilizers

Urea - one of the preparations for feeding

Pears need fertilizer, but in small quantities. Some gardeners recommend not applying mineral fertilizers in the first year or two after planting. Others believe that in the first 2-4 years top dressing is mandatory.

In the future, there are several fertilization schemes - in early spring every year, during the season every year, or in case of obvious starvation.

The signs of such starvation are quite obvious:

It is advisable not to bring the tree to starvation, and still feed it according to the following scheme:

1. In early spring (before the buds swell) - spray the pear with a solution of urea.
   

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2. If the first point was not completed before the start of sap flow, we apply nitrogen fertilizers directly to the soil. It can be a solution of urea (80-120 g / 5 l of water / 1 tree), chicken manure, saltpeter (30 g / 1 sq.m).
   

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3. Fertilization in May after flowering. For this purpose, a solution of nitroammophoska is prepared, a ratio of 1 to 200. One tree will require 3 liters of solution.
   

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4. The second half of June, July - foliar top dressing with nitrogen.
   

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5. In early August, phosphorus and potassium are introduced under mature trees.
   

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6. Mid-September - trees and soil are treated with urea as in spring.
   

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Young plants in the fall are fed for the last time with wood ash (150 g / 1 sq.m. for digging to a depth of 10 cm). After that, you can start preparing the trees for wintering.

Preparing trees for winter

Shelter option for annual seedlings

After the leaves fall, they need to be collected and taken out of the garden. Healthy leaves can be put into compost. It is desirable to burn the sick.

All young pear seedlings must be protected from frost. You can tie them with pine branches with needles down. And then additionally wrap with burlap.

Also, the shoots of young pears must be collected in a bundle, pressed against the trunk and wrapped with a rope. If the tree has already grown so much that its branches cannot be gathered into a bunch, you need to periodically shake off the snow caps.

Older trees need to be protected from rodents. To do this, the trunks of pears are wrapped in a cloth, which is pre-impregnated with solutions that repel rodents.

When snow falls, it must be raked up to the tree trunks, thus creating additional protection from frost.

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Proper pruning

Trees in the early years need to be pruned constantly

Everyone who plants a pear does so in order to obtain tasty fruits in large quantities. Without pruning, this goal cannot be achieved. If the tree is not pruned, over time it will have a mass of thickening shoots and branches, on which there is simply no harvest.

There are three types of fruit tree pruning:

Trimming the tree begins immediately after planting. It is necessary to determine which branches will be skeletal, and delete the rest. Two-year-olds usually have about 8 side shoots, of which only 4 are left - equidistant from each other, located at an angle of 45 degrees relative to the trunk.

The center conductor must be shortened by 1/4, but it must be higher than the rest of the branches.

The right time for pruning, the subtleties of crown formation

Trimming "on the ring"

Pear should be cut in spring and autumn. For sanitary purposes, damaged, dry, diseased or broken ones are removed. The right time for sanitary pruning is in the early vein before the buds begin to swell and in the fall after harvest.

Starting from the second year of life in the spring, branches that compete with the skeletal and conductor should be removed. Those that are located at an acute angle to the conductor, growing vertically from the branches. On each skeletal branch, you need to leave several fruit growing horizontally.

The cutting is made “on the ring”, that is, completely, without the formation of hemp. The place of the cut must be treated with garden pitch.

A year after planting, the central conductor is also shortened by about 25 cm. The length of the skeletal branches is reduced by 5-7 cm. It is necessary to ensure that the tree has a pyramidal shape, that is, the lower ones should be longer than those above.

Pear formative pruning ends when the tree reaches adulthood. Now it is possible to carry out only the removal of small shoots growing inside and damaged, diseased branches.

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Reproduction methods

There are several methods for propagating fruit trees.

There are four ways to propagate pears, the simplest and cheapest - through seeds. This method is called generative.It is used when they want to breed a new variety or grow a rootstock for grafting valuable cultivars.

More complex, requiring certain skills, methods of reproduction - with the help of layering, grafting or cuttings.

Reproduction by seeds

Can the plant be propagated by seeds?

The seeds of winter-hardy pear varieties are most suitable for growing rootstock. It is also desirable that the variety be zoned. Such seeds are sown directly in open ground in late summer-mid-autumn.

If seeds of winter varieties are selected for planting, you need to wait until the middle of winter without removing the seeds of their fruits. Such seeds should ripen in the fruit during storage.

After the seeds ripen, they need to be taken out and wrapped in gauze, forming a kind of bag out of it.

The bag should be placed in the toilet tank for several days. Thus, with each flushing of water from the seeds, substances that inhibit their development will be washed out.

After that, you need to act in the following sequence:

In early spring, seeds are sown, following a planting pattern of 10 x 10 cm, planting depth - 4 cm. During the summer, they must be watered and fertilized, as well as protected from weeds. In August, the seedlings are examined and measured; with a trunk diameter of more than 1 cm, cuttings can be planted on them.

Reproduction by layering

According to this principle, all plants reproduce by layering.

Reproduction by layering has several advantages. Firstly, all varietal characteristics of the donor plant are preserved. Secondly, a tree grown from cuttings begins to bloom and bear fruit faster than a tree grown from a seedling.

It is clear that a tree branch cannot be bent to the ground. But methods of reproduction by layering still exist. For example, you can take a box, line it with polyethylene, cover it with earth and place it on a raised platform directly under a tree branch.

In the place where the branch touches the ground, a couple of cuts need to be made on the bark. Treat the incision sites with any root-forming preparation. Then fix the branch in the desired position and dig in.

From above, the box needs to be covered with something or mulched. When it gets colder, the box is insulated with spruce branches. And when the snow falls, a snowdrift is thrown over the box. The whole process of root formation will take approximately two years, after which the plant can be separated and planted as usual.

Reproduction through grafting (copulation)

Grafting a varietal tree

In the role of a rootstock for a pear, seedlings of a wild or cultivated pear act directly, as well as:

Four weeks before the grafting procedure, the stock is sprinkled with soil to a height of 20 cm. A couple of days before the grafting, the stem of the stock is cleared of soil and shoots, and also watered.

Vaccination can be done in many ways, but the simplest is the one called "butt". That is, oblique cuts are made on the scion and rootstock in such a way that the plants are in close contact with each other when applied. When the procedure is over, the place of “docking” is wrapped with adhesive tape, film, electrical tape, plaster.

The fact that the scion and rootstock have grown together can be determined by the formation of new shoots on the scion.In this case, the time has come to remove the winding. Anything that has grown below the copulation site should be removed.

Reproduction by cuttings

Plant cuttings look something like this when roots begin to form on them.

The cutting process begins in winter - you need to choose a healthy two-year-old branch. If the branch is short (40 cm), it must be broken in one place (in the middle), while making sure that the bark does not tear. If the branch is long, breaks are made in several places, based on the size of future cuttings (15-20 cm).

Where breaks were made, the branch must be slightly bent and fixed in this form with any adhesive tape. After that, you need to fix the branch itself by winding it to a stick or wire. At the end of the first month of spring, the clamps and adhesive tape are removed, and the branch is cut in those places where it was broken and bent.

Next, you need to act like this:

1. Take a 2-liter dark plastic bottle, cut off the neck and pour lukewarm water into it.
2. In the water you need to place a few tablets of activated charcoal and a dozen cuttings cut down.
3. Place the container with the cuttings on a well-lit window sill for a month.
4. Water is periodically added, while simultaneously measuring the length of the roots of the cuttings. When they grow seven centimeters, the plants can be planted in the ground.

In the first week or two, planted cuttings should be protected from direct sunlight. Throughout the season, they will need to be weeded, watered and fertilized. The experience of many gardeners indicates that, with proper care, the cuttings will look like two-year-old seedlings at the end of the planting year.

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The most popular and delicious varieties

Pear can bear fruit almost all year round

If you plant pears of early, medium and late varieties in the garden, you can enjoy the taste of these fruits almost all year round. Even on the New Year's table, you will have a dish with fresh, fragrant, self-grown fruits.

Early varieties bear fruit in mid-July-early August, the middle ones delight with their fruits all autumn. And the later ones bear fruit until frost, and the fruits, if properly stored, can lie up to six months.

Early varieties

early pear

The early varieties of pears include "Early", "Early Summer", "Moldavskaya Early", "Mliyevskaya Early", "July Early", "Early Ripe".

Let's take a closer look at the description of one variety - "Columnar white-red." The advantages of this tree are its compact size and incredible fertility. In this case, the tree requires only half a square meter of area.

Along the entire length of the plant, which is about 2.5 m, juicy fragrant pears are densely located. Such a tree can become a highlight of a garden or even a balcony, since, in addition to food, it has undeniable decorative value.

The fruits of the tree are large in size and bright yellow-red in color. The pulp has a wine flavor, and its aroma is pear. The texture of the pulp is very juicy and soft.

Medium varieties

Muscovite

Autumn varieties include Bere Moskovsky, Yakovleva, Marble, Veles, Krasnobokaya, Moskvichka. The last variety will be described. The tree is winter-hardy, for its fruiting it is necessary to plant several more trees nearby (“Marble”, “Lada”) for cross-pollination.

The trees are medium tall, adults have a conical shape. The fruits are strongly rounded, yellow, may have a greenish tint, but without a blush. Fruits can weigh up to 130 gr.

The pulp of "Moskvichka" is white, fragrant, tastes sweet and sour. Among the advantages of the variety are the absence of carrion, excellent appearance, long storage, resistance to diseases and aggressive external environment.

Late varieties

Fruits of late varieties are stored for a very long time

"Domestic", "Saratovka", "Kondratievka" are varieties that ripen late. Consider the description of the autumn-winter variety Rossoshanskaya Late. This is a high-yielding variety that begins to bear fruit for 5-6 years.

The fruits are very large - 250-350 grams each, stored for a long time. The shape is rounded, the color is yellow with a green tint and a blush. The aroma is strong and very fragrant. The pulp melts in the mouth, juicy, creamy texture.

The tree itself is winter-hardy, medium-sized, not demanding on the quality of the soil. Grows well in soil with good drainage. Scab resistant.

Learn more about fruit tree care

Planting and growing pears: description, types, watering, fertilizer, pruning and other subtleties of tree care (25 Photos & Videos) + Reviews