Dennis:

I have pear trees that took over 10 years before they began to set and hold fruit. First blossoms can take nearly that long. And my trees were carefully pruned and the branches spread every season to give them every possible advantage.

So yes, I would say a decade. Shouldn't take two.

Not all varieties are that slow, of course. And there can be variations due to rootstock type and location. Pears in the south seem to be a little more precocious. But pears in general are a waiting game.

Don Yellman, Great Falls, VA

I thought that shipova needed a pollinator?

I am pretty sure the Shipova is going to need either Mt Ash pollen or pear pollen to set fruit.

If I were you, I would start doing bark inversion on that beast before it gets any larger. This helps to starve the roots to a degree, making the tree stressed, but in a good way, and inducing fruiting much quicker.

Another thing that can help bring a reluctant tree into bearing sooner is to chop off alot of it roots -- basically root pruning, during the dormant season.

Here is an example from real life: Normally apple seedlings take from 7 to 10 years to bear fruit from seed, but with vigorus dormant root pruning (or other season-long stress) a one year old rootstock can be grafted, grown for 2 summers, and will be full of fruit the fourth summer. I've got just such an apple tree on standard rootstock in my garden right now. It has 5 apples on it and it is only around 4 feet tall. I expect that the apples will further drain energy away from tree growth, further stunting it. I plan to dig that puppy up this next winter and prune all its large roots off, just leaving its fine roots, then replant it. It'll only take 5 minutes.

So if you do the bark inversion now, and chop some major rootage off every dormant season, it won't be long before that shipova tries to make fruit. Remember the pollenation thing tho!

Here is a link that might be useful: Bark Inversion

Another method is to graft it to aronia. My shipova had been growing for 5-7 years. I grafted it to 3 different aronia bushes. I now have a great crop of shipova 4 years later. Last year they only flowered. On aronia they seem to flower just a tad earlier, going in line with late pears and normal mt. ash also. The shipova tree still shows no signs of flowering even.
John S
PDX OR