[Lardman]

The raspberry bed has had it's last warning which was completely ignored - it's for the chop.

This gives me a south/west facing bed along a fence 25'x2' to fill and Im considering some espalier pears. I should really plant a Worcester Black but Im also looking at for at least 2 others for pollination. Any recommendations, varieties to avoid ?

[Middlesexbloke]

My dwarf Concorde, Conference and Williams pears all fruit prolifically, the Comice is a bit shy (but delicious).

[jaydig]

I have a Concord pear tree, and it is always laden with delicious, juicy fruit.

[Lardman]

I have bad memories of hard gritty concorde pears but that may just be a supermarket thing.  so I was leaning towards the softer ones.

My dwarf Concorde, Conference and Williams pears all fruit prolifically

Have you trained them formally or just grown as trees - I was looking at espalier on pyrodwarf as quince probably won't like my soil.

I have a Concord pear tree, and it is always laden with delicious, juicy fruit.

Are you on clay or sand where you are ?

[Middlesexbloke]

My trees are 'patio' trees bought a few years ago from a DIY store. They have grown fast into bush type trees but are all under 6 feet tall and easy to manage. The Conference and Concorde are loaded with fruit again. Not hard or gritty at all when ripe, deliciously sweet and quite smooth. The Williams are almost too sweet lol and very smooth.

[Paul Plots]

We have one pear tree - it was in the garden when we bought the place... nice shaped tree. Fruit? Plastered even more so than last year....

Can't offer advice about types to grow but interested to hear of soft sweet fruits. Mine are like concrete and only ripen when brought indoors. Hard to catch them at the right stage to eat. Solid to past it when no one is looking.

Any tips?

Or am I hijacking the thread again? Ignore if I am... apologies.

[Growster...]

We've just bought two William espaliers from High Banks, our lovely local garden centre.

One is going where we have a self-seeded apple tree which doesn't do anything, and has to go, (despite being christened Margaret), and the other will go against the church wall to the south.

It'll take me a week to prepare their new beds, but not just yet...

One will be called Daphne, but I can't remember what the other one will be called, I'll have to confer with Mrs Growster!

[Trikidiki]

I have three pears currently planted in the ground in the same area. Conference, Williams and Beurre Hardy. The Beurre Hardy gets smothered in scab, the Williams shows a fair amount of scab but the Conference is clean. Funnily enough, Beurre Hardy is the one of the three that is supposed to be scab resistant. I think I will have to declare the Beurre Hardy as ornamental for a couple of seasons so I can spray it, I don't get any edible fruit anyway.

[Lardman]

... Solid to past it when no one is looking.

That's always been my experience too, which is why I've not bothered about them before. I keep bumping into how lovely they are but it does seem to be soil, rootstock, variety, picking time and location dependent.  All very hit and miss.    No pyrodwarf and no Williams at Walcots   


Well that escalated quickly    I was on keepers website have a nose about and Beth, Onward, Winter Nelis and a Brunswick fig fell into the shopping basket    Shameful....

[jaydig]

I have bad memories of hard gritty concorde pears but that may just be a supermarket thing.  so I was leaning towards the softer ones.

My dwarf Concorde, Conference and Williams pears all fruit prolifically

Have you trained them formally or just grown as trees - I was looking at espalier on pyrodwarf as quince probably won't like my soil.

I have a Concord pear tree, and it is always laden with delicious, juicy fruit.

Are you on clay or sand where you are ?


The tree in my garden is on very sandy soil, but the one I have on the allotment is on heavy clay, and they both fruit well.  I have another pear at home, which is a Red Williams, and that has very soft, juicy fruit.

[Middlesexbloke]

Just grown my pears are free standing bushes. One tree is on Quince C, no idea about the patio ones! All doing well though