[janiejakemum]

Hi

Just thought i'd post up a quick question just incase someone knows whats going on.  

My dad has a conference pear tree, i cant remember how old it is but its quite substantial.  This year and last year its been the same in that it gets absolutely covered in blossom but only produces a very small amount of fruit i.e about 7 pears! last year it was very much the same.
 
The tree looks very healthy and as i said is literally covered in blossom but very little fruit follows.  He went to his local garden centre who couldnt really answer him, they worked out that the tree is self polinating so its not that - my dads neighbour has a pear tree that produces huge amounts of fruit but criminally the guy never seems to pick and eat any of the fruit.

Does anyone have any ideas what could be going on??

Thanks for any comments

[gobs]

Oh there could be plenty of reasons and one would need a lot more info to find out, but lack of adaquate pollination is always a good guess for a start.

Supposing that everything else is OK, the tree is healthy of a bearing age, in a good, sunny position, with adaquate feeding routine, flowers are not spoilt by something, even self-fertile trees benefit from pollination and according to my reference Conference is only partially self-fertile.

Cold weather during flowering can damage a lot of blossom and ruin fruit set, also bees won't be out.

Also consider, that about 20 fruit from a 100 flowers can be called a good set in pears.

[Trillium]

I wonder if the tree could use a bit of pruning to open it up a bit so wind can also pollinate as well as bees.
When it's flowering time and frost is expected, throw some fleece over the very top of the tree (2-3 person job) to deflect frost. Should help.
I also find that some trees will produce flowers but haven't enough nutrients to carry fruit so possibly a good top dressing of compost would help (lay it this year for next season's fruit).