its my unlearned fruit tree opinion that if there are ANY crabs in the 'hood ... that you are all set ...

am i wrong oh fruit gods ...

there is a fruit forum.. and i have never seen some of those experts here... if you dont get a plethora of answers from the tree peeps ...

ken

LOL I couldn't figure out if I should post to the fruit or the tree forum. Thanks! I'm really hoping just two fruit trees would do it all because it sure would be nice to have thr fruit but just not too much darn fruit lol

They can only help each other if they bloom at the same time - I don't know if they do or not. You could try getting just the two (apple and pear) and if you don't get good fruit set then add two more later?

There are multiple ways around this.

As Ken said, if there are crabapples nearby, they will provide the pollen.

I have a single Asian pear tree (Shinko). It is advertised as partially self fertile, and many people believe that the ubiquitous ornamental pears will pollenize Asian pears. There are several ornamental pears in my neighborhood, and my Shinko tree sets a lot of fruit, and they have to be thinned.

Many fruit catalogs sell multi grafted fruit trees. That is, one tree that has 3 or 4 varieties grafted on as the main scaffold branches. Multi grafted Asian pears and apples are among them. Try Raintree and One Green World on line.

If you can't find the apple variety you want as part of a multi graft, and you are not getting fruit set from nearby crabapples, you can graft a branch of another variety yourself. Same goes for the Asian pears.

Another option is to plant two apple trees (or Asian pear trees) very close together. This is often described as planting two trees in one hole, but in reality they are a foot or two apart. You can see a description here:
http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/hiDensity_simple.html
and here:
http://www.davewilson.com/homegrown/BOCpix/4in1hole.html

Alex

Thank you so much for the great info!!

I have planted the multi-grafted trees and had really good luck with them setting (too much) fruit. Perhaps you could buy a tree that is just the right size for your situation and then buy scions for the type of apple you really want.

Is there any possible way to espalier the tree? You might have no trouble fitting in a couple of apples AND a couple of Asian pears using this method. It's really quite easy to do and a lot of fun.

Rolf

Oh I LOVE the Espalier trees. I've never heard of it but I am reading up on it now. If I have a correct facing wall I think that would not only look great but right, it looks like fun!

You don't need a wall - espaliers make great fences as well and you can use them anywhere. Great to delineate a veggie garden or potager.

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