What shape is the fruit? Is it round or pear shaped? I would graft another pear limb on the tree or plant another pear tree near by. I don't think it's a rootstock if the pears are silver dollar sized and fall off. Fruit falling off when it's small or not fruiting after it flowers is very typical with lack of pollination.

They look more like the shape of an immature apple, not much neck on them. I thought about hand pollinating some of the blossoms with some pear blossoms from a neighbors tree the road a mile or so but my tree blooms out two weeks before theirs does.

The shape suggests it may be rootstock instead of the named variety but the fact that they all fall off suggests that the tree is not self fruitful where you are. Many varieties of pears are self fruitful if conditions are warm enough in spring, but under the stress of cooler weather drop their seedless fruit.

I'd cut the tree down to 15' (if that represents most of the branches you may need to take 3 years, doing it gradually). Then I would go on line and learn how to do a simple splice graft and graft some of the vigorous shoots that arise after the hard pruning to a couple of varieties know to do well where you are.

it actually starts to branch out about 18 inches above the ground. I am not sure I could prune it off at fifteen feet. It looks like that might be a job for a bucket truck and a chain saw. The tree is difficult to work in, it has what appear to be thorns mixed in with the fruiting spurs. Maybe i should just cut it off about four feet tall and see if the stump will sprout out and graft onto that. My grandpa did this to a pear tree that he transplanted but it was not nearly as big as this tree. I have never pruned this tree and it has grown into a very large tree.

Derby,

You can cut it off at four feet and bark graft a bunch of varieties this coming Spring and have fruits in 3-4 years.

Tony

i may do that tony. I feel like I have given it plenty of chances to produce fruit to no avail. I probably should have pulled it up when the dog chewed it off and planted a new tree 18 years ago.

With the thorns you mention if it is the grafted part of the tree there was probably some kind of mistake. Common varieties of pears aren't real thorny but some types of rootstocks are.

The tree will likely sprout out again if you cut it low as you mention- bark grafting just provides security in case it doesn't on its own. The shoots that come on their own can easily be grafted the following season and will probably grow faster and pass any bark grafts you make.

I went out and looked at it tonight and I really think i can cut it off. The tree at four feet is already split into five or six trunks that r maybe four inches in diameter. I think can cut these off an graft as suggested. Maybe just leave one trunk keep the tree alive.

Derby

The way that tree looks. You can bark graft about 20 varieties on it if you wanted to.

Tony

If I had ur grafting skills tony i bet I could. Do u think I should leave one of the trunks ? When would be the time here in zone six to cut off the other trunks and bark graft on new verities?

You can leave one small branch as a nurse branch. You can topwork when the tree leafed out in the Spring.

Tony

This is the method mentioned above

Here is a link that might be useful: Rind graft

This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Thu, Feb 5, 15 at 22:01

I watched the video. It looked pretty straight forward, I really would like to get some grafts to take this spring. Thanks for the video link clarkin.

Sure your welcome! A cleft graft is another very useful method on a tree like this also. Let us know if you have questions this spring when you graft it.

This post was edited by ClarkinKS on Sat, Feb 7, 15 at 19:50

Those are some very big thorns! Are you sure the understock did not take over when the dog attacked it?

I will for sure. I really have high hopes for this pear tree.

Yes, I suspect that is what happened. Most years it blooms so early that all the blooms frost. A couple years ago it set a small amount of fruit but it all fell of when it was about the size of a silver dollar. That's when I suspected that something was not right

Derby
If you topworked your tree, it will look like my multi grafted pear tree in 3-4 years.

Tony

That would great. I really like pears and if I could graft them myself it would be even better.

Here is another angle of the tree with different varieties of fruits.

Tony

Same tree with about 15 varieties of Asian and European mixed.

Tony

Wow, that is really impressive. It looks like your tree produced a ton of fruit. And so many varieties , I didn't know there were that many kinds of pears.