Make Your Pears Pearls

If you have room for only one fruit tree make a pear your plan!

Beautiful blossoms in spring, blissful shade under their drip-tipped leaves in summer and a bounty of sweet juice from the golden teardrop-like fruit in autumn. That’s a pear tree for you! Or the fruit can be a gorgeous green, ruby red or mellow yellow. One of the easiest fruit trees to grow in your backyard, you can also train it up a wall or include it in your pocket orchard in a tiny space.

PLANTING

• Bare-rooted pear trees are much cheaper than buying in a pot. Plant in winter when the roots are dormant and as soon as you pick it up so the roots don’t dry out.

• Soak in water while you dig a hole twice as wide as the roots, add organic matter and build a mound in the hole so the start of the tree stem sits level with the ground.

• Spread roots over the mound and gently backfill. Water in well, then prune back to about 5 or 6 buds.

• When planting from a pot, dig a hole twice as wide and the same depth as the root ball. Remove tree from pot and tease out roots. Trim back circling or tangled roots. Put in the hole and backfill with soil, firming down gently. Water in well and keep watering daily for several weeks.

PESTS AND DISEASES

CODLING MOTH Mulch soil in spring to prevent adults emerging from the soil to lay their eggs on the foliage. Or, wrap the trunk with a band of hessian to distract female egg-laying moths from leaves – keep wrapped for a few weeks, put in rubbish bin and then replace.

FRUIT FLY Hang pheromone-based traps to attract and kill male fruit flies. Collect and destroy any rotten fruit.