Greg Steele

Superb advice, thank you so much Alec, I am very grateful! I'll work on the pruning. Could you recommend some hardy varieties for me to look for as a pollination partner? Greg

Thanks all for the replies! No idea of the age of this tree but the row of houses is ~60 years old and so the tree must be that or more I would think. Photos attached. Behind the tree is the shed, the highest corner of the shed (towards the right of the photo) is 2.3m high. The trunk has some plants around it at the base but it is ~10 inches in diameter. There are some gravel stones around it - this was laid before my time and I have reduced the area covered by the stones to try and give the tree more space. The soil underneath is largely clay based. I've attached photos of what I believe to be fire blight causing dying off of random smaller branches. Best wishes, Greg

Hi there, I tried to post this a while back and I don't think it made it through for some reason so apologies if there is a duplicate post. I also couldn't find an obvious answer for this query with the search, again sorry if this is a duplicate. We moved into our first house in Nov 19 and inherited a mature pear tree by itself which has been espaliered (sp?) and trained in the past - the big metal bracket is still there in the trunk! The rest of the support is gone but the tree is still a T shape. This tree has flowered in April both years but has never produced a pear. I don't know what particular variety it is. It also suffers from what I believe is fire blight on a number of smaller branches all over the tree at the ends of the branches. I am a competent and enthusiastic but amateur gardener so I wasn't sure how best to look after this tree. I am aware I need to remove fire blight (although this is tricky!) and any crossing branches but I am concerned about the lack of fruit. 1) Regarding fruit - is there something more significantly wrong with the tree or is this tree likely suffering from the lack of a pollination partner? If it's just a case of getting another tree friend for it - could you recommend any good variety matches? 2) Regarding pruning - does this tree likely just need maintenance (removing fire blight and crossing branches) or would I be better to give it a more significant prune (or even pollard) back to it's T shape. Really grateful in advance for any help - thank you! Best wishes, Greg Steele Nottinghamshire.