Video: Pruning pear trees – how to tell the difference between fruit bud and wood bud

Dan Neuteboom describes the difference between fruit bud and wood bud on a pear tree. It is important to recognise the difference so that when pruning, you leave the fruit buds in position to ensure a good crop.

It can be difficult to get pear trees into production early. Pears tend to form fruit bud later than on apple trees. How do you prune the tree if you are not sure which is fruit bud, and which is wood bud? It’s best to delay pruning until the moment that you can easily see the difference. From mid-March to early April, you can see that the fruit buds are large and round, while wood buds remain smaller and more pointed. So it’s best to wait until this time to prune the tree. You can cut away the shoots that are filling up the tree, leaving the shoots with fruit bud and ensuring that they have maximum exposure to light. Click to watch.

Sealing pear stalks

A reader writes: “Dear Dan, in Italy I saw pears sold like this, with the stalks sealed with wax. Is there a reason for this?”

Pears are best if picked slightly immature. This means that moisture loss can still occur via the stalk, once the pear is separated from the tree. Therefore with certain varieties there is the risk of shrivel of the fruit near the stalk end. Sealing the stalk may help to reduce this problem.

Read more information on harvesting and storing fruit here.

Onward

Read an article about the Onward pear variety on our main website.

Browse our list of fruit tree varieties

Invincible

Read an article about the Invincible pear variety on our main website.

Browse our list of fruit tree varieties

Peaches, apricots, pears, gages, a great year

Golden Glow, photo courtesy of coblands_plants/flickr.com

This has been a fabulous year for peaches and apricots. The flavour and the size of the fruit have been outstanding, and likewise the yield. In addition, it has been a year that has proved to me again that the disease called “peach leaf curl” is not difficult to control, even without the use of chemicals.

The apricot harvest has been completed, and, with us in Suffolk, the outdoor peaches are not quite ready yet. The flavour of the fruit is still increasing, particularly as the difference between night and day temperatures is now exceeding 10 degrees Celsius.

Young walnut trees are also beginning to crop with the help of very good quality leaf of deep colour and an open structured tree .

Pears are wonderful size. Unfortunately many little birds like to make small holes in some of the pears, which means these pears won’t keep very long. All the same, if you like to store pears, then the overriding factor is temperature. It has to be 1 degree Celsius for good results. Anything higher and the pears will ripen very quickly. Early ripening pears such as Beth and Williams are best used within days after picking. These are not suited for longer term storage.

The green gages equally have been a true delight. These do not ripen all at once and if several varieties are used , the picking time can be spread out over a period of 4 to 6 weeks depending on the season.

Browse a list of fruit varieties here.

November tips – protect pears and plums from bird damage

A bullfinch, photo courtesy of Paul Starkey/flickr.com

Even though the trees will be looking bare, it’s important to apply cotton threads to pear and plum trees as soon as the leaves have fallen. This is a good method of deterring pigeons and bullfinches who otherwise will eat the fruit buds, essential for next year’s crop, in pears and plums. Ordinary cotton is fine, just wind it around the tree (slip the spool onto a rod or dowel to make things simpler) so that the threads are about six inches apart. What happens is that the bird flies towards the tree, doesn’t see the thread, touches it with its wing, gets a fright, and flies off. No damage to the bird is done, and it helps your tree!

Read our month-by-month list of tasks in a garden orchard.