Bartlett Pear for Sale - Buying & Growing Guide

Planting and Care

by Mary Van Keuren | Gardener (30+ Years Experience) – last update on June 1, 2022

Planting instructions

Site your Bartlett pear tree where it will get full sun, in fertile, well-draining soil, and preferably in a site that is shaded from prevailing winds. Unpot your sapling, and tease out any encircling roots, which can girdle the tree’s root ball and eventually kill it. Dig a hole that’s as deep as the root ball and three times as wide. Place the tree in the hole, spreading out the roots as much as possible, and, while holding it upright and steady, fill in around it with good-quality topsoil. Tamp down the soil as you go to eliminate air pockets. Water thoroughly. Apply a 2- to 3-inch layer of an organic mulch, such as bark chips, around the root zone, to conserve moisture and hinder weeds.

Watering and nutrients

Water your newly-planted tree several times a week. Once you see signs of robust new growth, you can taper back on watering. A mature tree needs 1-2 inches of water every ten days. If you’re experiencing a heat wave, give it additional water. You do not need to water your tree in winter. Fertilize your tree in spring with a balanced, slow-release fertilizer that is designed to be used on fruit trees, following package directions for application. If planted in fertile soil, you don’t need to fertilize your tree until it begins bearing fruit.

Pollination

Bartlett pear trees are not self-fertile. What this means to you is that you will need at least one additional tree to fertilize your Bartlett pear tree so that it produces fruit. Trees that are commonly used to pollinate a Bartlett pear tree are Bosc, D’Anjou, and Comice pear trees. If you have more than one pear tree, honeybees and other insects will do the actual work of pollinating by transferring pollen from male flowers to female flowers.

Pruning

There are a few pruning tasks you’ll have with your Bartlett pear tree. First, monitor it regularly for broken, diseased, or damaged limbs, and cut these out whenever you see them. For maintenance pruning, you should prune your tree to a strong central leader (main branch) that is surrounded by secondary branches spaced 4 to 6 inches apart. The tree should be roughly pyramidal in shape. You may also want to thin the fruit by pruning out any that are clustered too closely together or any that appear weaker or smaller.

Pests and diseases

Some of the pests that may be attracted to your Bartlett pear tree include scale insects, leafrollers, and aphids. You can control some of these by releasing beneficial insects, such as ladybugs, which feed on aphids. A horticultural and dormant spray oil may also be effective. One of the most common diseases of pear trees is fire blight. This causes blossoms and branches to wither and turn brown or black, as if they’d been scorched. Prune out any infected areas you see, disinfecting your clippers between cuts. There are also fire blight sprays that may help eliminate it.

Harvesting

Harvest your Bartlett pears when they begin to turn yellow and come off the branch easily. They will continue to ripen after being picked, so you can place them in a cool spot out of the sun and should see them ripen within a few days. Expect your harvest time to be anywhere between August and October, depending on your location. Pears can be stored for up to three months in a humid, cool spot that is kept at 32 to 40 degrees Fahrenheit.

Achieving maximum results

Growing a fruit tree is an activity that seems daunting to many — even seasoned gardeners — but it doesn’t have to be rocket science. Take pruning. If you look online, you’ll find complex directions with multiple diagrams showing you the correct way to prune your fruit tree. In reality, however, even an unpruned tree will continue to grow, even if it produces less fruit. What pruning does is allow you to maximize the potential of your fruit tree, and it is a skill that is learned over time, by doing it year after year and then watching to see how the tree grows afterwards. It’s highly unlikely that you’ll do serious damage to your tree by pruning, so if it makes you a little nervous to approach your tree with clippers in hand, know that fruit trees may have specific needs, but they are also very forgiving, and they’ll give you another chance to try your skills in a year.

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