Pear trees

[hornzilla]

Anyone have or plant any on the property for deer?
I'm going to plant a half dozen. Have found some that drop there fruit as late as December.

[chubwub]

We did. The deer and other wildlife seem to enjoy them immensely. We also noticed that the deer do not chew on the tips of the pear trees or try to rub the bark like apple trees. Some say they will but for now they have left them alone and focused only on eating the pears. We bought moonglow pears which have a reputation for not being the best tasting and needing to be ripened off the vine but the deer ate every single one of them and the trees we purchased on sale from the box store produced tons of fruit that same year.

[hornzilla]

Where did you order them? I have been looking at Galloway pear trees. Said there late to drop fruit.

[chubwub]

We bought them on sale at Walmart, lol. We have a ritual of stopping by the Wal-mart on our way to the property to see if any trees are for sale that we might like to add. Just because they come from a box store doesn't mean that they are bad trees.

To be fair, my fiance did his fair share of landscaping, tree grafting and forestry work in his younger days and knows a good tree when he sees one and how to plant trees with a very high success rate even in the middle of a bone dry summer it seems like.

I think most of the pear trees will work. Moonglows are only supposed to bear until mid-August but ours were still dropping fruit up until late October.

The only pear tree I hate are Bradfords which I don't think really counts since it is only an ornamental. They smell like cat pee and look for excuses to drop branches. Just about as useless as a silver maple. I have also noticed that deer do not seem to like Asian pears as much as other varieties. When I used to live next to an apple orchard, the Asian pears would go completely untouched even after they had fallen to the ground and softened. My horses did not care for the Asian pears either but would happily gobble up every other variety of pear.

[throbak]

Dec 10, 2014 12:36:15 GMT -5 hornzilla said:

Where did you order them? I have been looking at Galloway pear trees. Said there late to drop fruit.

If you mean callory pear they are a invasive onimental you don't want them

[hornzilla]

No the Web site said Galloway and Gate pears were good for wildlife.

[swilk]

I bought lots of pear and apple trees in 2010 from, I think, Cummins nursery.

Ill dig through tomorrow and see for sure where I bought them.

Shipped bare root to me in the spring time ready to plant.

Unfortunately my place isn't kind to fruit trees because of the seasonal flooding but I did have several of each that lived.

Haven't had any pears yet but have had apples since the second year.

It was good working with the folks I bought them from.....very knowledgeable about root stock and the different varieties of fruit and maturity dates.

Price depended on how many ordered.....

I had visions of this beautiful orchard but the river had different plans.

[hornzilla]

Ok. Thanks. Let me know if you still have info from them.

[swilk]

I do remember being the first guy to get a particular "breed" apple tree.....he tried to put together a variety that would survive the flooding. Those particular trees are the ones already producing apples. They are doing great....

I'll let you know....

[featherduster]

Horn: are you planning on eating any of the fruit from the pear trees, if not then why not plant some type of red apple trees because they will attract deer just as well or even better then pear and you can enjoy some of the fruits of your labor. Just sayin.

[hornzilla]

Dec 11, 2014 6:18:34 GMT -5 featherduster said:

Horn: are you planning on eating any of the fruit from the pear trees, if not then why not plant some type of red apple trees because they will attract deer just as well or even better then pear and you can enjoy some of the fruits of your labor. Just sayin.

I have nothing against planting some apple trees. It's just my understanding that pears were a lot easier to take care of.
I also have 2 Golden apple trees in my yard that I can't keep up with. I must have feed 20 bushels to the horses this year. Lol.

[swilk]

I talked to both place but pretty sure I ended up buying from Cummins ... both were knowledgeable and helpful.

cumminsnursery.com/index.html

www.centuryfarmorchards.com/

[hornzilla]

Thanks again.

[chubwub]

Century farm orchards looks amazing. I had to close the window before I tried to impulse buy something.

[arsnider1]

Swilk,

Do you know the name of the apple that they said could survive flooding? One of my spots on the Wabash could use some more food.

[swilk]

I can look through and see if I can find the rootstock and variety .... everyone who knows anything about apple trees will tell you they dont like floods and will likely die. He never told me they would survive just tried to put together something that would without any guarantees.

[bullseye69]

My friend has 2 large pear trees in his yard and the coyotes just love eating the pears when they fall.