You should be OK,.... if they flower in the same time?
Or someone within two blocks has another one.
Konrad

Konrad,

So you're saying a Ornamental can and will pollinate a Fruit Pear if they flower at the same time? If so, it'll be awesome because for some odd reason, the Ornamentals all bloom at slightly different times. Sometimes, a couple weeks apart.

THANKS!!

Crabjoe,
Please update me on this in a month or two and let me know how this worked out for you. I was curious about the same thing. Best of luck.
Pat

I really doubt it will work because European pears can't even pollinate Asian pears. It has to be cross pollination between asian pear varieties. Be sure to let us know if it works.

By the way, if you are short of space, you may want to try a 2-in-1 grafted tree. Good luck!

Scott

I googled this, and yes they can do EUROPEAN pears if they bloom at the same time. But no European Pears, ornamental or fruiting, will pollinate Asian Pears.
Carla in Sac

Carla,

Can you post the link to the info you found where it states only Asian pears can pollinate Asians? When I googled the issue, I couldn't find anything.

To all others wondering if I can get this to work or not... I Probably won't know for a couple years because I'm just planting my GIANT tomorrow and I don't think it will fruit until then. Even if it does fruit, there's no way for me to tell if it pollinated from the ornamental because there could be another pear tree some where around here. I live in the boon docks with a few orchards around. God only know if some might have a few Asian pears for personal consumption.

Thanks all..

I believe European pear pollen is compatible with Asian pears but their bloom times generally don't line up very well.

I've also read that some varieties of Asian pears are at least partially self-fertile.

From Penn State: "Our traditional pears can serve as pollinizers for Asian pears, but the two groups rarely have an overlap in bloom to provide sufficient pollination opportunities."

A simple google search of : pears asian pollinate european will give a bunch of hits.

Here is a link that might be useful: Penn State on pears

Well, maybe I'm wrong! I've found 3 pollination charts, two have them separate, and one says they CAN cross-pollinate.

Maybe it's just variety by variety?

Anyway, here are the charts:

http://www.raintreenursery.com/pollination_pears_asian.htm

http://www.raintreenursery.com/pollination_pears_euro.htm

http://www.fruit-tree.com/pearpollen.html

I don't see any contradictions between those charts. I imagine Raintree lists the charts separately to prevent them from becoming too large and unwieldly.