My Asian Pear Tree
April 5, 2011
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As many of you may already know, last year I tried my hand at growing for the first time. This year I thought I would try my luck with a fruit tree. I purchased an Asian pear tree, Pyrus Pyrifolia sp, from California and had it shipped to me about two weeks ago. When she arrived I was worried about her complexion. As you can see by the picture, her leaves and new growth were discolored and looked, in general, unhealthy.no images were found
It makes sense that she would seem a bit down, having been in a box for 3 or 4 days. I was concerned that my choice to place her outside in this state might not be a good idea. I was also concerned that to leave her in the container indoors, may harm her as well. It was time to research… After some investigating, I found advice that I was safe to go in either direction. I decided to take the middle road and to acclimate her to the outdoors gradually so as not to shock her into the new climate. Looking at the progress she has made over the last two weeks, I feel comfortable with my choice. At first, I’d take her outside for just about 30-60 minutes. At that time, it is mostly cloudy so I felt confident that the sun would not scorch her delicate leaves. I slowly increased that time until she was spending a good part of the day outdoors. Eventually, she would spend most of the day outside and eventually, as the weather has warmed, in direct sun. Over the last couple of days we have had some cold weather and she seemed to tolerate it well. A few days ago I noticed she had a fracture in one of her branches. Honestly, there is no way of knowing if this happened from shipping, the wind, or me carrying her in and out of the house. I was devastated! More research…. I read an article that suggested that I stop all new growth from forming on the broken branch because the tree will grow a replacement.no images were found
I could leave the branch on the tree if there is foliage to help her produce energy and remove it later. I took a picture to show that she did, in fact, start to grow a new limb. I clipped off all new buds from the fractured branch and I plan to prune it later in the winter. After almost two weeks of this I removed her from the container and planted her in her new permanent home. With all of the time I have invested, cost to purchase and ship I’m a little apprehensive about putting her outside all night. The picture above is of her freshly planted before I put stakes in the ground. Now that I have the tree secured the only thing left to do is wait….Gallery of plant pictures grown by Derrick Bradshaw
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[…] Back in April, 2011 I planted my first Asian pear tree, Pyrus pyrifolia, and until now I have had great luck weathering things,(no pun intended). As my luck goes, the year I plant my tree is the year the Cicadas show up and attempt to destroy the newest addition to my yard. With a little help, (some cheese cloth to protect it), my Asian pear tree won against the Cicadas! No sooner had I won that battle when the next enemy was up and ready to fight! The Japanese Beetle….. This small, ornate beetle has turned out to be a more dangerous foe than I had originally thought. I went out every morning and dutifully picked off the beetles. I also used a little trick I learned last year while protecting my blueberry bushes from this evil foe. You take a bowl of soapy water and hold it under the branch and shake the beetles to the water. They are unable to get out and they drown. If you leave their dead bodies around the plant, it helps to deter other beetles from coming near. This is a bit time consuming, but allows you to avoid using a pesticide. What makes these nasty bugs so bad is their multistage existence. They start in the ground as a grub feeding on the roots of your grass where they burrow deep to survive the winter. Around late June to July, and after they have killed your grass, they emerge to feed and breed. They love the leaves of soft wood and fruit trees/bushes and the female will land first in order to eat. Once there, she will send off a pheromone which attracts any male beetles within a 5 mile radius. They will come to her location, eat ,and then breed with her. Once the female is ready to lay eggs, she will drop to the ground and implant her larva, (future grubs), which start the cycle all over again. After some time, I got a little lazy in pulling off the beetles each day. I was only seeing one or two beetles per day and there were no more than a few even if I skipped a day of removing them. I had a short 2 day trip and I was not overly concerned with the beetles at this point. After all, we had survived those nasty cicadas! However, to my dismay, when I returned home the tree was 100% stripped of all her leaves! I was utterly devastated! I should have taken a picture right away but I was too crushed to even look at her. After so much hard work, I felt that I had failed. My little Asian pear tree had survived the planting, cicadas, and the horrible heat but after all of this, the Japanese Beetle prevailed. Shortly after this incident, it was time for us to go on another trip. I decided to just deal with the tree when we got back as I was sure I would be digging her up and starting over. […]
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