I had to run upfront on an errand and stopped to take a photo of the pear tree I mentioned in a post yesterday. I took a look at Google Earth’s historical imagery and could see that it’s been in place for at least 16 years. I left the jeep in the photo to give you a hint at the scale.
That downed wood you see along the base of the tree is what remains of an apple tree that was adjacent to the pear. It came down last year.
The year before last I went in and heavily pruned the tree and thought that I could get enough of the dead/dying and in-growing limbs cleared out to get it healthy. It didn’t help, and the in growing limbs (see below) have all but consumed the old girl. That my SIL inadvertently got in to it with the tractor last year did not help, but I’m thinking that it has gone through it’s life cycle anyway and is about to check out.
There is plenty of new growth on the limbs to pull good scion from and so my plan is to graft up 4 of these to the Quince (semi-dwarf) root stock.
There is/was no other pear tree within half a mile of this one and it always produced fruit. It could be a Bartlett (a somewhat self pollinating variety)given the density of the fruits flesh and the way it held together while it cooked down when making preserves.