Do I Need Semi-Dwarfs?

[kingbutterturtle]

I'm looking at buying four pear trees. I'll be growing them in 30 gallon fabric pots - 10 feet apart from each other. I'd like to grow semi-dwarfs but, the place where I'd like to get them from only sells dwarfs and standards. There's another place I've looked at that sells semi-dwarfs but, they're more expensive and they ship at 3' (as opposed to 4'-5'). Should I get the standards and just prune them to a semi-dwarf size (will I get as much fruit as a semi-dwarf this way?) or should I fork out the extra money to get smaller trees that are semi-dwarf?

...Or I guess a third option would be, does anyone know of good online nurseries that sell 4'-5' semi-dwarf bartlett and d'anjou pear trees at reasonable prices?

[applestar]

I doubt that there's any way you can grow standard trees. Can you even grow semi-dwarf pears in 30 gallon pots? I'm growing semi-dwarfs in (somewhat out of control) Belgian fence espalier style. They were planted as whips and didn't start to bloom for something like three years, and didn't start to bear for another year after that.

These trees, though only taking up about two feet of flat plane space, have branches that span 4-5 feet on either side of the trunk (8-10 feet wide altogether), and I've always assumed that the roots grow as far as the drip line (tip of the branches).

At the very least, you are going to have to stick to cordon style (single trunk leaning diagonally) I think.

And fabric pots -- They dry out easily, will be impossible to move, and tree roots are likely to penetrate the bottom and find their way underneath.

... I'm not liking the implications at all ...

I haven't looked into pear root stocks lately -- what is the most dwarfing, smallest root system stock for pears? Apples at least have some true dwarfing stock with tiny root systems, and tHere are those columnar apple cultivars that might be more readily available for purchase and might be grown in containers, though I'm still not sure about fabric pots.

[applestar]

Here's a quick look at one description of pear root stocks:

Pear rootstocks @ Cummins Nursery
http://www.cumminsnursery.com/pearroot.htm

The OHxF series of rootstocks originated from crosses made more than 75 years ago by Reimer at Oregon State. Reimer was seeking primarily rootstocks resistant to fire blight; both the Old Home and Farmingdale parents are highly resistant. Reimer's work was continued by nurseryman Lyle Brooks and by researchers at Oregon State. All the OHxFs are propagated by cuttings or in tissue culture -- with considerable difficulty, as all are reluctant rooters.

[...]

DWARFING PEAR ROOTSTOCKS For many years, pears have been grafted onto quince rootstocks to obtain dwarf trees analagous to apple trees dwarfed on Malling 9. Most varieties of pears are more or less incompatible on most quince clones (but in several instances, including Bartlett on Quince A, expression of incompatibility may often be delayed until 8 or 10 years or more in the orchard). All the quince stocks we have tested have been quite susceptible to fire blight and most are somewhat winter-tender. Even so, there are many outstanding plantings of dwarf pears in commercial production.
At Cummins Nursery, we graft onto Quince only those few varieties known to be compatible.

I remember now that I went with semi-dwarfs because of the fireblight susceptibility of the dwarf root stock. That's another thing you'll want to look into, fruit trees are a long term investment and researching locally prevalent diseases and planting cultivars that show strong resistance to those diseases will mean less spraying and headaches down the line.

Heavy pruning will stress the trees and you'll have less branches to work with (in case of fireblight like I have to deal with, the infected branch needs to be cut off before the disease spreads to the trunk, so if you only have a few branches to begin with, the loss can be substantial).

[JONA]

The old problem with pears was that they took so long to come into full cropping. The old adage was that you planted pears for your grand children.
Thankfully this goes not apply nowadays.
Modern rootstocks and improved clones make pears as quick as apple in coming into full cropping.
As to rootstocks.
Most commercial growers still use the old quince A and C stocks. The C stock being the more dwarfing of the two.
However, you folk over that side of the pond can suffer from fireblight in some areas quite badly ....in which case the stocks OHxR are better as they give much better resistance to this problem.
They are not so dwarfing as the C stock though, giving only 50-70% control that the C stock gives.
So you need to check what the blight risk is in your area.
As I understand it, most commercial growers in the States use the C stock in the east of the country while those in the west use the OHxR because oF this problem.