OK, Tell Me All You Know About Kieffer Pear Trees!

[Boleyz]

I just planted 5 in well-tilled holes of clay and potting soil. They're all about 5-6 feet tall.

I planted them along one side of my driveway...

Will they bloom pretty?

Will the late season crop of pears be a pain?

How do they taste?

[tinknal]

Buyers remorse?

[Boleyz]

I got them at Big Lots for $12.99 each.

I also got some 10-12 ft. silver maples.

I've been planting trees all afternoon.

Maybe Algore won't tax me for my "Carbon Footprint" :baby04:

[tinknal]

Originally Posted by Boleyz

I got them at Big Lots for $12.99 each.

I also got some 10-12 ft. silver maples.

I've been planting trees all afternoon.

Maybe Algore won't tax me for my "Carbon Footprint" :baby04:

Well, I just blew dang near $300 on Korean and Dwarf Siberian pines. Them is hard to find around here.

[kbshorts]

Hey Boleyz! All the deer around will love you! Pickle the little things, they are pretty good that way.
KB

[Rocky Fields]

Hey.

We had Kieffer pears at our orchard in IL. They are super hardy and took -30. Our soil was heavy, so they took a couple years to start growing good. At about three years they started bearing a few pears. The fruit is firm and course grained; Bartlett is more desirable for eating. They are perfect for canning. They get lots of flowers, and once established, they bear alot of fruit.

RF

[agmantoo]

I know a couple of things about the Kieffer. Kieffer pears are not prone to develop the blight like the Barlett. The fruit is delicous when the pears are picked while slightly green and then wrapped in paper and stored in the dark until they mellow and finish ripening.

[RoseGarden]

Keiffer pears have a high number of grit cells, so they are very hard, very crispy, somewhat dry, not overly sweet, irregularly shaped, and rough skinned. They are NOT a soft, juicy tender skinned, fresh eating pear. They are best for canning. The trees WILL get some fire blight in a humid, hot environment, but it usually does not kill the tree, just the last foot or two of the branches. Pears can become rather large on a mature tree and they bear regularly after the tree is several years old.

Several mature Keiffers on this place, planted who knows when, and I have been thinking about cutting them down to replace with Asian pears or another dessert type pear that isn't rock hard and near inedible.

Just my opinion.

[Cindy in KY]

We have a very very old Keiffer Pear tree. Bear hundreds of pears, even after we cut the huge top off of it, 30 ft high. We topped it because of the hornets came for the tree fruit every year, and I could not take it anymore. There is allot of fruit to pick up for a long time.

All the old-timers say those are cooking pears, not eating pears. They don't ever get soft. We do take a few bites, but they are hard. The tiny bees always make holes in them, so quite a few with brown spots. But I do have folks come up and get them when they are ready. I don't have a clue how they skin them to cook them.

The pear tree is the first to bud and bloom every spring. Those tiny tiny bees always are there when it blooms, but they don't bother us, they are good little bees.

[haypoint]

(well-tilled holes of clay and potting soil)
I'm a bit concerned about your growing location. I'm picturing a heavy clay soil that you've tilled up, so you could get the hole dug, then you planted the trees in a mixture of the clay and potting soil. My concern is where is the rain going to settle? Rain soaks in to clay very slowly, runs on the surface settling where it can. In your case those holes will tend to be holding basins for the rain because the rain will run right into the potting soil. But since the surounding soil is clay, it won't drain away. I'd hate to think that those poor pear trees' roots sitting in a basin of water every time it rains. If you have tilled the clay to the depth of the tree's roots, mixed the whole area with lighter soil (potting soil) and provided some drainage away from the trees, you should be fine. Did you plant a standard size trees or are they on a dwarfing rootstock? What rootstock is it?

[ceresone]

Oh, my, dont cut them! we've lived here over 40 years, these trees were older when we cane--have fire blight--still going. I've given the pears away each year till last, on a canning spree last year, so I canned them. Soo good, stay firm, taste so good-- I'll be canning after this--but not all. the 2 trees probably produce 25 bushel--and thats under-estimated.

[FolioMark]

I had one of those old Keiffer pears behind a rental house I owned years ago. You couldnt see the leaves for the pears come the end of summer. Bushels and bushels of pears. The old lady next door showed us how to wrap them in newspaper and store them in the cellar and we had pears all winter and into the spring. You got to have good teeth to eat them raw, but they are great made into tarts or sauce like apples. Wish I had one now.

[Boleyz]

Originally Posted by haypoint

(well-tilled holes of clay and potting soil)
I'm a bit concerned about your growing location. I'm picturing a heavy clay soil that you've tilled up, so you could get the hole dug, then you planted the trees in a mixture of the clay and potting soil. My concern is where is the rain going to settle? Rain soaks in to clay very slowly, runs on the surface settling where it can. In your case those holes will tend to be holding basins for the rain because the rain will run right into the potting soil. But since the surounding soil is clay, it won't drain away. I'd hate to think that those poor pear trees' roots sitting in a basin of water every time it rains. If you have tilled the clay to the depth of the tree's roots, mixed the whole area with lighter soil (potting soil) and provided some drainage away from the trees, you should be fine. Did you plant a standard size trees or are they on a dwarfing rootstock? What rootstock is it?

Well, Actually, my soil drains pretty well. It's mostly clay, but not the real heavy, sticky clay that you're thinking of. The only real gripe I have with my soil is that there is very little topsoil.

[Boleyz]

So, Here's my pear trees. The black stuff around their base is mulch from the sawmill...basically it's pulverized and shredded tree bark...fine dust and larger chips as well.

Each tree is staked like the one I show.

What do ya think? Was the mulch a good or bad move? It looks nice...I'm thinking of putting stones around each tree to keep the mulch in place...

[Freeholder]

I think in a few years they will be a very nice accent for your lane. And the pears ARE useable!

Kathleen

[george darby]

the kiefer is believed to have originated as an chance cross of the eouropean pear andd the asian sand pear there are some variant strains with more or less GRIT inside thier great draw in time gone by was not only the keeping quality but the ability to thrive on neglect when compaired to an apple tree blight resistance made them the pear of choice by default in much of the humid east eventualy u will have huge trees covered in spring with white blossoms (ideal for pollenating other pears ) an aquired taste which i have is raw/cooked /or pear preserves from kiefers and when yields get too heavy for that there is always perry.... cider made from pears personaly i prefer unfermented cider but there are a lott of people out there who like hard cider perry has a long history in england and acrost the channel in france .good luck !

[Rocky Fields]

Hey.

You probably should have planted them about 10 feet back from the edge of your driveway. In 10-15 years the limbs may get hit by trucks going down your driveway.

RF

[FrankTheTank]

I've heard reports that some pears can take 10+ years to bear fruit, but i'm hoping my Seckel will not let me down! Pear trees can get mighty big, i know a monster in a neighborhood across the way, and that thing is loaded with pears and huge! You probably didn't need to fill the holes with anything but the soil you dug out of them, atleast thats what ive learned when planting trees. Also remember a tree really doesn't have a predetermined height (maybe some of those super duper dwarf apples) so prune prune prune. Did you prune after planting? I know all my trees were pruned back to sticks when i planted, but those were bareroot.

[doohap]

Originally Posted by Boleyz

... Was the mulch a good or bad move? It looks nice...I'm thinking of putting stones around each tree to keep the mulch in place...

The mulch is good, only don't have it up against the trunk of the tree – pull it back a bit. And DON'T put stones on top of it. If you use something like cedar mulch or hardwood mulch it will be less likely to float away. And when mulch is applied you should lightly wet the area where it's going then, after applying the mulch, lightly wet the mulch and pat it down. It should then be less likely to blow away.

Just a gardener's opinion ...

[Boleyz]

Originally Posted by doohap

The mulch is good, only don't have it up against the trunk of the tree – pull it back a bit. And DON'T put stones on top of it.

Just a gardener's opinion ...

I'll pull it back...I was going to put creek rocks around the mulch, to form a nice circle that would also help contain it in a heavy rain.