This is a shot of my pear tree. I planted it in the fall 2008, in 09 it had a few blooms and two pears which fell off when small.
Question, should I remove some of these blooms (must be 200 on the tree) or should I wait till they become fruit, or just how should I handle this 'bloom' ?
By the way I'm training this tree into a espalier fence.
I would just enjoy the flowers, and then thin or remove any fruit that sets. I assume you want to keep the fruit off for now and just let the tree grow for a few years as you train it into shape.
Thanks flabotany, I lived most of my life in W. Palm, 'little' south of you.
The fruit is the reason for the trees, I have 4 apple and a peach in this row.
Maybe I will let them flower and then thin them, the fruit uses more energy so...
Its best to wait as the tree will cast off some and prefer others and insects will snack on some. When they are roughly the size of quarters and nickles thin the smaller ones and the ones insects have gotten too. If you do it now the insects will have fewer fruit to chose from and so will you.
It is making fruit now, about the dia of a pencil and it looks like not all the blooms have made fruit, apple trees are a little later, lots of blooms, fruit to come.
I'll wait a little longer.
The trees normally drop most of their fruits within a month after setting. A young tree like yours may well drop all the fruits that form, which is good. Pears in particular can grow to be very heavy and break even the highly resiliant branches.
For the best, largest fruits, many people thin when they get to be the diameter of a nickel. You can see at this point which fruits are not growing. With apples and pears, it is best to leave the central fruit in a cluster and thin the rest.
I training these trees in an Espalier pattern.
Hope they look something like this.
http://www.gardenideas.com/trees/tree_fence.html
Pears are very good for that, their branches being so flexible and strong.
