Possibly as early as next year. Get it in the ground now.

You will probably get a couple next year. THey seem to grow pretty fast for me. Mine is a couple years old and I had to thin it a lot. The limbs were all bending down from the weight.

I have Kieffer pear trees that have been in the ground for about 5 years. They are about 18' tall and 3"-4" in diameter. I still have not seen fruit from them. Vegetatively they are growing like gangbusters.

I stand by the old saying the first year they sleep, the second year they creep, and the third year they leap. So by the third year you should expect a decent crop. A lot has to do with how you take care of it. Water it plenty, give it some fertilizer in the spring but not in the fall. A nice layer of compost and wood chips around it to hold the moisture helps. It will pay you back with years of fruit and plenty of it if you do those things.

ForestAndFarm standard trees take 5-7 years to bear as well here in Kansas and Dwarfs take about half that time. Most trees sold are dwarfs now but I can tell by the height of yours you are going to get a big fruit crop from your standards when they start bearing. I've heard people say standards live about twice as long as dwarfs as well though i'm not sure if that still holds true.

My trees are in a wildlife setting and probably don't get the level of care others do. However, they are growing like wild fire. I think ClarkinKS is right. It is probably a function of the standard rootstock.

Yes,, it is a standard. I thought it was a dwarf when i brought it.
Even if it doesnt fruit next year will there still be flowers in spring?
also, do the leaves change colors in the fall like the bradford pear?

My Kieffer pears had flowers early this spring but no fruit. I don't recall them producing flowers when they were younger but I may have missed it.

The kiefer I have has yellow leaves in the fall whereas a Bradford or callery pear has red leaves typically. Pear don't begin to flower until they get older. The flowers when pollinated by bees or other insects become fruit.

I planted 4 Keiffers on calleryana rootstock 5 years ago. I got a couple pears at 3 years, a couple at 4, and 10 or so ea year 5

How should pears be fertilized? I have Keiffer, Bartlett, Moonglow, Pineapple and Apple trees - they are all newly planted this year. I plan to mulch them - anything else I should do? I am new at growing fruit trees........thanks!

Judith

Judith,

Mulch is perfect that's all they usually need. If your ground is poor a fertilizer spike will help. Let us know how they do. Pears are a lot of fun to grow.

My Kieffer pear from Home Depot in Hooksett, NH went into the ground in Manchester (Zone 5b) in late spring 2017, Right now, fall 2018, it still has 13 of its 18 pears. They are large and basically unblemished. Squirrels and birds attacked my plums, peaches, and apples, but not the pears, so far. The Luscious pears were a bit too ripe almost a month ago, but these Kieffer pears are not ripe yet. They are tender enough to bite now, but not yet sweet, here. Not bad, but not sweet yet. I will leave them a couple more weeks. My tree was about 8 ft tall when I planted it, and is about 12 feet tall now, in about 18 months from purchase. Since my Heritage raspberries have gotten 10' tall, i suspect this pear tree also will get taller than predicted. That's it, the skinny thing in the center of the picture, as of September 9, 2018.