How to Grow a Pear Tree

Video Transcript

"Hi, this is Yolanda Vanveen, and in this segment we're going to talk about how to grow pear trees. Now pears are one of the most beneficial fruits that you can eat. They have so many antioxidants and vitamins in them, and they're just so healthy. The taste is just wonderful, especially if you have a little bit of pear with brie or a little bit with chocolate. It's just a wonderful, wonderful treat. But pear trees are actually easy to grow as well, and there are so many different types of pears. You have just the basic red pear or you can have the mikan or the Japanese or Asian pears which just taste really good, they're almost a cross with an apple, they're a little more crispy, and they just taste really, really good. But pear trees are just like other fruit trees, and they're very similar to apples. So they grow pretty much anywhere an apple tree would, especially in full hot sun with good drainage. And lots of room to grow 'cause they can get really big. And you can start them by seed, you can actually take the pear seeds from a pear and dry it and start it in the spring. It doesn't always work but it is possible. The easiest way is to grow from a root stock. And you can buy them at local garden centers or you can buy them in a pot already, but pear trees are really easy to grow. And all you need to do is when you plant it, make sure that the root part is covered but the plant part and the stem is not covered and that it will continue to grow. The best time to plant them is in the middle of winter or even late fall or in the early spring. 'Cause they'll start setting roots and getting established and then that way they'll be ready to grow when it warms up that spring. Sometimes it takes you know anywhere from three to five years to get fruit on your pear trees, and a lot of times if you have an older property you might have pear trees that aren't producing anymore, because really after twenty years they don't produce a lot of fruit. And there's nothing you can do about it, you can try to trim them out and get them to grow again, but really once they've passed their fruiting stage, you can't get anymore fruit. But if you do have a pear tree that's just out of control and it's growing like a Medusa, the trick is cut it back one third of the height every year. And it will bush out and grow much better. So if it's really out of control, cut down one third one year, then one third the next year, and that way you can control it a little more. And as it grows too, it doesn't hurt as soon as the fruits are finished, go in and prune out all the wild stems and leave just some base strong stems in the middle, at least five, three to five main branches off the bottom plant. And that way you'll get a lush plant for the next year, lots of fruit. And make sure never to cut it back more than one third at a time, and that way you'll have lots of pears for the next year."