Unlike most fruit crops, a pear is a rather independent and flexible tree in maintenance. Experienced gardeners experiment with it, turning it into shrubs, and novice lovers enjoy the annual fruit harvest. For comparison, an apple tree bears fruit at best once every two years. However, it depends on the variety. One way or another, in order to enjoy tasty and fragrant pears, appropriate care is needed. The main activities include feeding the pear in the spring, but for a full-fledged maintenance, it is necessary to provide for a number of other procedures that will ensure the proper level of care for the tree and its future fruits.
First dressing
To ensure the normal growth and development of pears, the necessary additives should be added to the soil already at planting. The soil layer must be mixed with peat, manure and compost. At the bottom of the recess in which the pear is planned to be planted, there should be a phosphorus-potassium fertilizer. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that top dressing of a young pear in the spring in the form of mineral deposits should not be in direct contact with the roots. Six months later, the trunk circumference of the tree is dug up and also mixed with manure and peat. These components have a beneficial effect on the structure of the soil system, providing its protection for the winter. Next spring, meltwater will saturate the ground, and the roots will receive useful trace elements.
Regular spring feeding
Further spring fertilizers should include nitrogenous additives, which during the growing season strengthen the tissues of the tree. Ammonium nitrogen compounds are the most effective because they have the lowest leaching coefficient from the soil. It is also useful to feed pears in the spring with urea, which belongs to mineral supplements. To prepare the solution, you need 10 liters of water, in which you need to dissolve 50 grams of urea. In some cases, spraying the leaves can be used, but in a small concentration to eliminate the possibility of burns. As a component that promotes the absorption of top dressing, potassium sulfate can be used. Phosphorus will also be a good addition, which accelerates the ripening of young shoots.
What about acidic soil?
On such soil, a pear can fully develop and bear fruit only if there is an adequate supply of calcium. To do this, the ground under the tree must be limed. In addition, calcium deficiency is replenished with ash, which also contains phosphorus, potassium and magnesium. Moreover, such top dressing of apple and pear trees in the spring has an important advantage - the substances come in a digestible form and in optimal ratios.
Sufficient amount of ash for a pear is 4cups per 1 m2. The composition is scattered on the wet surface of the earth, but it is also possible to use it on dry soil if watering is performed immediately after top dressing. It is also important to take into account that excessive feeding of pears with calcium in the spring can adversely affect the absorption of potassium and magnesium. This is another confirmation of the need for moderate dosing of fertilizers and minerals included in them.
How to properly feed?
The peculiarity of the pear lies in the deep position of the root system. This is the main difference, based on which apple and pear trees are fed in spring and autumn. In order for the fertilizer to penetrate to the level of the pear roots, it is necessary to make small wells in the near-stem circle at a depth of about 30 cm. To do this, you can use a regular stake, brace or drill. The distance between the wells should be from 50 to 100 cm, depending on the age of the pear tree. They are filled with a mixture or solution with top dressing.
Many summer residents and gardeners act differently. Even during planting, they introduce narrow sections of pipes into the hole with the seedling, leaving their upper ends above the ground. In the future, these tubes are used to fill liquid mixtures and solutions. However, feeding a pear in spring in this way is not always effective - for example, if you need to use the same ash or a dry preparation. In addition, pipes can become clogged - and then this method of feeding the roots becomes completely useless.
Foliar applications
Foliar feed alsoapplied to pears. But they should be resorted to only in cases where there is confidence in the lack of certain nutritional components. In addition, it is important to strictly observe the doses of fertilizer. For example, to enhance the supply of nitrogen to a tree through foliar nutrition, the same urea solution can be made. The first time spraying should be done a week after flowering is completed, and then after 3-4 weeks. Foliar top dressing with pear boron in the spring is also performed after flowering and during the period of fruit ripening. The composition for the solution of this microfertilizer includes 15 g of boron diluted in 10 liters of water.
Spring cleaning
In addition to top dressing, the gardener must provide careful care for the pear in other areas. For example, an important event in relation to mature trees (10-15 years old) is spring cleaning. It is necessary to regularly clean the surface of the old bark, as pests gather in its cracks, fungal tinder fungi, moss, etc. form. Getting rid of harmful insects and diseases can be considered as the primary care of the pear in the spring. Feeding also contributes to the prevention and overall strengthening of the tree, but this is not enough.
Using metal scrapers and brushes will help keep the bark smooth and clean. In this case, all hollows, wounds and places with bites must be cleaned and disinfected. This is done with copper sulphate, which is diluted in a ratio of 50 g to 5 liters of water.
Pear cut
Seedlings and young treespears do not need this operation. But for adult specimens, pruning is mandatory, and it should be done before the leaves bloom and sap flow. Upon reaching the age of two, the pear is cut at a distance of 0.5 m from the surface of the earth, which will contribute to the formation of shoots on the lower buds. By the way, from the same period, regular top dressing of pears in the spring with nitrogen fertilizers also begins. Moreover, it is a necessary condition both for the formation of the crown and for supporting development in general.
The main trunk can be shortened by a quarter of its length, while adjacent branches are cut under the ring. In order to preserve the basis for the central trunk, the branches on the sides should be left, but no more than four. They should branch and branch out from the stem at a 45-degree angle. The ovaries with shoots are bent down, after which they can be left in a horizontal position. The remaining branches of the pear must be bent and tied with rods. This operation is repeated every other year. There are two rules to keep in mind when doing this. Firstly, the growth of the main branches should not interfere with the processes of the second order. Secondly, the space inside the crown should not be excessively dense.
