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most pears have dropped

pierre_de_gayepierre_de_gaye Posts: 182
in Fruit & veg
On our mature conference pear tree, which gave a fantastic crop of about 40 quality fruits last year (following normal thinning), there are barely 10 fruits on the tree this year.   

I had thinned out the fruiting spurs in late winter to 6 inches apart to avoid overcrowding etc, and I thinned the fruits as I always do to a pair per spur.

Things were fine until recently, where most of the fruits appear to have vanished for no apparent reason.

I have watered the tree extensively as I always do with all my fruit trees, and its roots are in the shade anyhow so it very rarely lacks enough moisture.

Surely it can't be biennial bearing, as it set a normal amount of fruit even before I thinned.

Not sure if anyone else has experienced something similar but hoping for some advice here.
The tree is around 7 years old.


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  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    I would normally think it was lack of water and the tree had dropped fruit to protect itself but as you say you have watered extensively, it can't be that. Maybe squirrels?
    We've got a couple of young ones and they seem to be trying everything they can get their hands on!
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • pierre_de_gayepierre_de_gaye Posts: 182
    No squirrels where we are, and we have a cat also.

    It's a mystery really, unless something to do with it being so hot in early summer, but it was watered well.
  • Lizzie27Lizzie27 Posts: 12,494
    In that case it's most probably the dry, very hot weather. My landscaper has just dug a couple of holes for posts and 2ft down, it's bone dry, despite a lot of rain in the last week or so.
    North East Somerset - Clay soil over limestone
  • I_clishI_clish Posts: 7
    pierre_de_gaye said:
    On our mature conference pear tree, which gave a fantastic crop of about 40 quality fruits last year (following normal thinning), there are barely 10 fruits on the tree this year.   

    I had thinned out the fruiting spurs in late winter to 6 inches apart to avoid overcrowding etc, and I thinned the fruits as I always do to a pair per spur.

    Things were fine until recently, where most of the fruits appear to have vanished for no apparent reason.

    I have watered the tree extensively as I always do with all my fruit trees, and its roots are in the shade anyhow so it very rarely lacks enough moisture.

    Surely it can't be biennial bearing, as it set a normal amount of fruit even before I thinned.

    Not sure if anyone else has experienced something similar but hoping for some advice here.
    The tree is around 7 years old.


    Same has happened to my mature apple tree. 

    We went for what seemed a couple of months without any significant rainfall.

    It doesn't seem to have liked it.

  • pierre_de_gayepierre_de_gaye Posts: 182
    I kept my apple flooded with water and it hasn't dropped huge amounts. 

    The pear was thinned as always so can't understand it.
  • Joyce GoldenlilyJoyce Goldenlily Posts: 2,933
    Hot dry wind can do a lot of dessicating damage to large trees and fruit bearers, although we water our trees as best we can, they really do need vast quantities of water, far more than we realize. I am pretty sure the roots of your pear tree will have been dry, trees protection to survive is to drop fruit first then leaves, followed by small stems and then branches ultimately leading to the death of the tree.
  • LynLyn Posts: 23,190
    Don’t underestimate squirrels,  if the fruit was there when you pruned it and it’s not there now,  something has removed them or they’d be laying on the ground. 
    Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor. 

  • pierre_de_gayepierre_de_gaye Posts: 182
    Lyn said:
    Don’t underestimate squirrels,  if the fruit was there when you pruned it and it’s not there now,  something has removed them or they’d be laying on the ground. 
    We have an astrantia and some other plants below the pear - I guess a few may be under there but some should be more obvious so no idea.

    We don't have squirrels in the garden here and never have done.
  • FairygirlFairygirl Posts: 55,117
    Whereabouts are you?
    Very unusual not to have any grey squirrels, although certainly uncommon to have our native reds. 
    However, if your tree has dropped that amount of fruit and you can't see it, something has removed it to eat. It wouldn't just disappear as quickly as that by itself.  :)
    As @Joyce Goldenlily  says, serious drought -which many areas have had over the last year, including some of the winter months, has a major effect on all sorts of trees, and other plants. That, after long dry spells last year has a cumulative effect.
    The other possibility is that it had a bumper year last summer, and is having a 'rest' this year. That happens with a lot of fruit trees if they exhaust themselves in the previous season. 
    It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....



    I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
  • pierre_de_gayepierre_de_gaye Posts: 182
    The fruitlets are nowhere to be found but they may well have rotted off or been carried away/eaten by something else, but I can confirm that I've never seen a grey squirrel in our garden once in the 7 years I have been here, and I look at the garden a lot / spend a lot of time in it!    I'm in the East Midlands.

    I guess I can't rule out biennial bearing, although I thought that was more common in apples than pears - it was a great year last year although I did thin the fruits out.  They reached a huge size and the crop was fantastic, so you possibly may be correct in that it may be shedding even AFTER I had done the usual (thorough) thinning.    Really not sure what else it could be.

    Thanks all for the pointers.
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