Rotting fruit is not inevitable if you own a rake and a compost heap and are prepared to do basic garden maintenance. And of course you will have harvested a lot too. It’s not an intrinsic fault of the tree if the owner doesn’t look after it.

They must be bad tasting pears if the wildlife hasn't taken care of them. I have an early apple that's ready and dropping apples now and there's a regular parade of deer, squirrels, rabbits, and even crows that come to eat the fallen apples.

^^^ Heck, deer in my neighborhood don't wait for the fruit to fall......they pick it right off the tree! Same with raccoons.

I grew up with a wide variety of fruit trees in the garden and if the trees are properly cared for, they rarely ever produced such quantities of fruit that they fell and were left to rot. The tree has just been neglected. As floral said, not the fault of the tree :-)

Any suggestions on what she should do to not neglect it? She said this happens every year, and she would rather it just be cut down than stink all the time.

From what I can tell, bugs destroy the fruit on the tree long before they could be eaten. I can literally see them rotten while still on the tree! And I'm only guessing that the smell is keeping wildlife away, too.

The smell would not deter wildlife. A few sessions with a rake and a wheelbarrow should clear the fallen fruit. Neighbours who make jams and jellies might want windfalls. She could get a person in to prune and maintain the trees. It does seem odd that the problem is so bad. What are the trees? How many are there? And how close are they to the house? I’ve been in many a neglected orchard and never experienced anything worse than a smell of fermentation.

in my MI .. bradford pears fall off the tree in mid to late october ...

why does she have all this fruit falling off the tree in july ... maybe due to warmer zone. earlier flower.. i dont know ...

but if it indicates a possible tree issue... then get rid of the tree.. problem solved ..

when you have 5 or 10 acres.. its nice to have lots of trees.. but many peeps in suburbia really dont need 80 foot tall pear trees dropping bombs of hard fruit at harvest time ... in their 50 by 50 backyard ....

if mom is too frail to take care of the tree.. then get rid of the tree..

ken

and btw.. this is one of the reasons i usually warn peeps all excited about planting a home orchard ... maintenance.. the 4 or 5 sprays per season.. heavy pruning for production.. etc ...

ken

It is not a Bradford pear. It is a fruiting pear and there are any number of summer ripening ones, including Bartlett. Ideally the fruit should be picked before fully ripe. If left to ripen on the tree they will become mushy and soft and attract sugar lovers like wasps and hornets, as well as other wildlife.

If the fruits are insect infested, that could also be stimulating the rotting and dropping. If you can find out the insect pest involved and how to prevent, that may eliminate much of the problem. If not, maybe it is simplest just to remove the tree altogether.

btw, Bartlett pears will never get to 80' tall.....15-20 feet is standard unless on dwarfing rootstock. And while pruning to be productive and healthy is necessary and should be done annually, spraying is entirely optional. Other than fireblight, Bartletts are relatively problem-free.

Routine maintenance is a fact of life in any type of garden and certainly so with ANY edibles. Vegetable gardens require daily maintenance during the growing season!!

You're right, @gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9), I think it's a Bartlett. The tree's been there forever, but Bradfords are kinda new here. They were all the rage for a few years, then the state ordered them all to be removed because they're invasive!

I'm not sure if Bradfords can pollinate a Bartlett, but that might be why it's suddenly having more fruit. She said it's never really had fruit before!

She has a wide range of problems, though, and I guess this one is pretty far down the list. The real problem is that her (now deceased) husband handled all of the home maintenance himself, but instead of fixing problems he really just patched symptoms for as cheap as possible. I can't tell you how many water pipes I've found that were wrapped in duct tape!

The biggest outdoor problem, though, is water.

1. There's a slight downward slope from the road to the house, then the slope increases at the front of the house. It's angled in such a way that there's no sun at all for about 8' in front of the house, too. So what happens is that water drains from the road to the house, then hits the foundation and has nowhere to go! Then there's no sun, either, so the water just sits.

2. There are wild trees around the perimeter of the property, which block sunlight for most of the day.

3. She's never sown grass, and thinks that weeds in the yard are great because it's better than dirt. So she actively cultivates weeds :-O

Because of these three issues, the basement always has standing water in it. Her husband "fixed" it by installing a sump pump, but of course it only works when water is high enough. So there's always water.

That water has led to mold throughout her house, which led to part of the floor caving in. We had that replaced, but the water problem still exists so it's going to happen again if we don't fix it.

And, of course, there are mosquitoes everywhere!!! I don't even go to her house unless I have on tube socks, pants that cinch at the ankles, and a sweatshirt. There's no heat pump or AC, so I'll sit there in a 90 degree house with pants and a sweatshirt! LOL

The only solution I've thought of is to cut down all of the trees, then dig up the entire foundation and install a French drain to divert water away from the front of the house. Then wipe out the weeds and sow grass the next year. But that's gonna end up being about $10k (out of my pocket, she certainly doesn't have it) when I really don't know for sure that it'll solve the problem.

How many, if any, concrete blocks/bricks are there above grade on the front of the house. Are there enough blocks to allow raising the level of the ground so that the front slopes toward the street.

It sounds as if the house is a liability. Is your mother deeply attached to it or is she open to moving somewhere more suitable? Fruit trees seem a minor irrelevance in the overall picture. Let a new owner deal with the problems.

I'm with floral. Your mother has maybe just hasn't thought about it, but unless she is really averse to moving, it's surprising all of the more elderly people I know that have moved and then told me they can't understand why they didn't do it sooner.

One in particular is 97 yo. (wifes aunt) lost her husband about 5 years ago. She sat in that house all alone, didn't sleep well at nights worrying about things.

About a month ago, she moved into a nearby assisted living apts. where she knew a few people that were living there already. She's so happy now, everyone visits, plays bingo, cards. And when she wants, she can go back to her private apartment, with extra bedroom, kitchen (she still likes to cook), custom bath, and that's exactly what she told me when we saw her about a week ago.

Something to think about.

And if you figure out how to convince her to move, please share it here. DH’s aunt, age 86, is sitting in the family home while it crumbles around her. Her deceased husband (a great guy), MCGuyvered everything together while he was alive, but now - she said, last week when we were there, that the ceiling was leaking over the refrigerator. Again. 🤯

We’ve suggested moving, of course. (Money is not an issue.)

”Oh no! I can’t do that!” 🙄

She acts like she'd love to move, but I know she won't :-/ They bought the house in the 70s so there's a lifetime of memories there. And she gets deeply attached to things... there's sooooo much junk laying around! One day she's gung-ho to throw it all out, then the next it's "no, I can't throw away the box of dirty rags!" LOL

And sadly, I don't think she'd be able to sell it if she tried. Tax value is only $60k, and I don't think there's a lot of demand for an old dilapidated house that needs at least $15k in updates to flip. And even if she did, that wouldn't be enough to pay for a new place.

We've often laughed that we should "accidentally" burn the place to the ground, cause it's worth more from insurance than selling it! LOL

My dad's the same way, though. He's in hospice and staying with my sister, but refuses to consider selling the house and using the money for assisted living. It would be infinitely better for him and easier on everyone, but nope!

So anyway.

How many, if any, concrete blocks/bricks are there above grade on the front of the house. Are there enough blocks to allow raising the level of the ground so that the front slopes toward the street.

The front of the house is really too far from the road for that, I'd have to raise it like 4'!

But it's not a bad thought... once we cut back all of the trees I wanted to Round Up the lawn and sow grass, anyway. So I could realistically put a ditch closer to the road instead of a French drain right at the house, then have someone grade the front so that it slopes towards that ditch rather than towards the house.

I suspect that would be a lot cheaper and easier than a French drain all around the house!