Pollination is critical to a successful crop of Asian pears, and it occurs only at a certain moment in springtime. These trees require another tree nearby with compatible flower to produce fruit, unlike some European pear that self-pollinate. Many gardeners don’t realize this and end up with a lovely flower show but no fruit at all.
The reason: Most Asian pears are self-sterile, meaning that they’re incapable of fertilizing themselves, despite what their abundance of blooms may suggest. So…you need to have a compatible partner tree in the vicinity, one whose pollen the other variety will accept, and also whose flowers bloom around the same time. Whether you’ll have a flower show or actualy fruit will depend upon that fact.
How to Grow Asian Pears Successfully
There’s also a visual that illustrates relationship between various types of Asian pears (such as which ones has similarly timed blooms). For instance, it’s great when you plant two or more varieties whose bloom periods slightly overlap: Shinseiki and Hosui is recommended because they’re not far off each other in their blooming time. In fact, that timing are key to ensuring pollination. No matter how close you put them, if one ends its flower cycle before the other begins, there’ll be no chance of fruit setting.
By planning for three or more trees of differing bloom times, the idea is to hedge your bets. That way, even if an early frost knocks out the first crop, you’ve got a back-up plan. You don’t count all your apples on one blossom.
Another important factor in picking which pair to plant is that you can’t just go by bloom date. Some varieties are more compatible then others. To see these, there’s a compatibility matrix. For instance, the big sweet fruits of Chojuro and Nijisseiki makes a good pair. However, Shinseiki does not do as well when paired with some of those later blooming ones because its pollen is not compatable. It’s not just that they have to be close… They need to be genetically compatible, too.
That’s why many people end up planting two of the same tree thinking it’ll bear more fruit if they have more of the same kind. But cross-pollination require a genetic difference. A pair of identical Shinseiki won’t set a worthwhile crop, though they’ll flower together.
The distance between the trees is also key. Pollen travels from one tree to another via pollinators (the bees), but bees don’t mess around, they want their jobs done efficiently. To ensure frequent pollen transfer, place varieties that are compatible with each other no more than about 50 feet away from each other. Space them farther apart and it’s all up to chance, or a really busy population of bees. It is not a risk most gardeners should of take.
Also think about your yard’s microclimate. A cold wet spring will have bees staying put, so not much point to having even the best pollinator matchups if they won’t fly out and around. Lavender or borage as companion flowers alongside your pear trees will help bring in some native bee. Native bees will forage in cooler weather when the honeybees don’t venture outdoors.
After the fruit has set properly, the part where people get confused. Here is how you harvest each kind. Unlike its European cousins, an Asian pear won’t ripen after being picked. When it’s time, it will simply come off tree, or be easy to wiggle free by twisting gently on the branch. If it softens before then, it’s too late.
To know if the ones you grow keep well (or not), you’ll need to learn their storage behavior. That way you can map out your garden to match. You might plant one that keeps awhile for eating later in the winter, or another that everyone gobbles up right away as a snack throughout the hot days of high summer.
With Asian pears, you can’t make nature work for you; you have to play by its rules, but carefully. You have to have a partner, which is the tree. You need a bee. Then you have to have patience and wait. If you get all those things in line just right, the payoff is a nice, juicy crisp fruit. Matching up varieties and bloom times, though a lot of work up front, is well worth it. Each year after that, you reap what you sowed when laying out your orchard.