Very small pears??

[cheops]

Not my problem but a friends. Her deceased father a few years ago planted a pear tree. She does not know the variety or anything else about it. This is the first year it has fruited. However the pears though full shape are very small indeed - about the size of an average tomato. Can anyone suggest why this should happen? Is this normal? Will the tree's fruit grow to normal size in future years? Should the tree be dug out and removed? I should add the tree itself is only about 5 feet high. Thanks.

[orangepippin]

A new 1-year old pear tree will typically be 5ft-6ft high, so it is surprising if after several years it is only 5ft - it sounds like it is not really growing, or perhaps it is a dwarf form, or perhaps it is in a container? A good feed and watering next spring will probably sort it out.

Some pears varieties are naturally small-fruited, and the fruit will be even smaller if the tree is allowed to over-crop. Next June, try asking your friend to thin each cluster of pear fruitlets to a single fruit per cluster.

[Pineberry]

It could be a variety like that, or the tree set too much fruit that was not thinned resulting in bumper crop of small fruits. Do not remove the tree, see what they taste like first. Size is not everything.
Next year depending how many fruits will set, thin them and the remaining fruit could be larger.

[Nicos]

Our early pears were small this year- just due to lack of rain/watering

[FB.]

Pears prefer a milder climate.
We had a late start to spring which makes a lot of fruits late this year - pears in particular are a bit small.
Not only that but in this area we went from severe cold to severe drought. Pears are very water-hungry and the trees will not grow nor fruit well if they go short of water. The modern semi-dwarf or dwarf Quince rootstocks don't cope well with challenging soils.

Young trees tend to produce quite small fruit until they are established because they haven't had the time to grow the large root system required to feed all those fruits (remember that resources put into fruit are lost forever while resources put into shoots and leaves are often retained in the tree - or at least somewhat reabsorbed by self-mulching when the leaves fall).

Given the small size of the tree and fruit, my guess is that it isn't coping well with being neglected - a common problem with fruit trees which aren't grown on the vigorous rootstocks (Pyrus.communis or Pyrodwarf for pears, MM111 or M25 for apples, F12/1 for cherries, Brompton or Myrobalan for plums).

[FB.]

Some varieties produce small fruit. I have a Doyenne d'Ete and the fruits tend to be about 5-6cm high and 3-4cm wide (2 inches by 1.5 inches). Size isn't everything.

[boundtothesoil]

However the pears though full shape are very small indeed - about the size of an average tomato.

My Conference pears were more than usually distorted in shape and small this year - I put it down to the odd spring-summer weather.

There is a very interesting Journal entry for 6th August 2010 by 'The English Apple Man' (see link below) discussing the ways and means of thinning pears and the very substantial benefits of irrigation on size increase, late in their development - well worth a read.

The English Apple Man, informing consumers about how the apples they buy*are grown, harvested and marketed

I put loads of water on in August and I'm pretty sure it had a positive effect.

[Nicos]

I put loads of water on in August ( and thinning) and I'm pretty sure it had a positive effect.

will try that next year if it's as dry as this one.

It goes against my idea of survival of the fittest plants- but we all need a leg up/helping hand from time to time!

[cheops]

thx for those replies. A lot of you put it down to possibly lack of water/watering. She lives in N Ireland so I don't think dry conditions would have prevailed. When FB said pears require a milder climate alarm bells rang - maybe this is the problem. The tree is in the ground and the soil is good, The other main suggestion from you was lots of fruitlets not thinned out. I don't know if this is the case - I will have to ask her. My guess is she will eagerly soak up all your advice and even after that if the tree continues like this she will persevere with it as her late father had planted it. Thanks to everyone and I will later put a small reply again stating if the fruiting was heavy or not and what her intentions are.

[veggiechicken]

A photo of the tree and its fruit may help

[cheops]

Yes a photo would help myself and others but I've just spoken to her on the phone and she says there was not an abundance of fruit setting which should have been thinned out - quite the opposite - only a few pieces of fruit. She says the biggest pear was the size of a large plum. She says the fruit is not longish like conference pears so my guess is it is a variety which needs a milder climate than N Ireland can offer and the tree will probably continue to struggle. She is gonna let things lie for now and see what happens next year. Thanks again to all for your suggestions/advice.