I'm buying a fully grown pear tree!

[htuttle]

Anyone have experience with pear trees? The tree is in the backyard of a house I'm buying. It's about 30+ feet tall, and currently covered with hundreds of golf-ball sized pears. They look very healthy, if a little small, but I don't know how large pears should be this time of year (I'm in Madison, WI).

The person I'm buying it from doesn't know what variety it is, but says the fruit is usually ready to pick around late August, and is quite tasty. I'm thinking that means they are probably Bartletts, based on the maturity chart I found.

The tree hasn't been very well pruned over the years, so I was thinking about thinning it out a bit to promote larger pears. However, I also found a couple of articles that suggested that once a pear tree gets overgrown, they don't respond very well to pruning.

Has anyone dealt with a pear tree starting to go wild? Prune it, or leave it alone?

[Denninmi]

1. Golf ball sized is normal for most pear varieties now.

They will "size up" considerably in the last 4 to 6 weeks before ripening, which could be anytime from late August through mid October depending upon the variety.

Bartlett is definitely the most likely candidate, since it ripens then in our climate zone, and its by far the most widely planted variety.

Pears are never too old to respond well to proper pruning. Removing old weak and diseased wood will encourage new growth, which will be a lot more vigorous. Feel free to clean it up -- best time would be late March next year, although you can also do some moderate pruning in September/October this year.

[htuttle]

2. Thanks!

Sounds like I'm going to have to figure out what to do with all of them! :D

I'm really psyched about having a pear tree. I've been wanting to put in a productive garden, and starting with a healthy pear tree in the corner of the lot feels like a huge head start.

[beac]

3. Sounds like the hardest part will be

finding a partridge to go with! ;)