Pear trees

Hi -
Nice to find this forum! I'm an entirely incompetent gardener and have a quick starter question:

I have two pear trees in my garden which grow up against the walls of my house. If someone asks me what sort of pears they are I would probably say conference, but I am none too sure of this...

They produce a lot of pears every year, some very small, and some a reasonable size. I never do anything much with the trees, but someone suggested that I should get rid of the little 'proto-pears' (sorry don't know the right name) that appear after they have flowered (they've just finished flowering now). They grow in clumps and it was suggested I get rid of all but one or two in each clump. The result of this would be that I have fewer, but larger pears.

Is this correct? It will take some time to do it so I don't want to do it if it won't do any good.

Hopefully, if I do this right, I've taken a little picture so you can see what I mean!

Regards, Steve.


[ May 07, 2005, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: Steve_e ]

 

Steve e, I would wait to find out that the fruit has set before removing any. A lot of the small fruitlets drop off naturally, so no thinning of fruit is needed untill maybe july, when if it appears to be carrying far too many, some thinning can be done.

 

Hi Pete -
Thanks for that - any effort saved is a good thing as far as I'm concerned!

Fruitlets! I knew there had to be a name for them...