The buds of my 20th century asian pear are bursting

[chrisdb]

This is its third year and I've been espalier training it from a maiden, and this is the first year it's shown signs of flowering. According to Keepers it should cross-pollinate with European pears but it seems far enough ahead that I doubt it. It seems crazily early for flower buds to start opening.

There seems to be some disagreement online about how self fertile it is. Since I doubt anyone else nearby has an Asian pear, fingers crossed it's at least slightly self fertile otherwise it'll end up a failed experiment.

[Scarlet]

It had been a very warm winter? Lots of stuff are further along than I would expect here. Fingers crossed for you!

[chrisdb]

I know, but I have three other older pears which Keepers claim will pollinate it but none of them are currently showing more than the barest hint of green. So if it is a response to the warm winter the asian pear has shifted a lot more than the others. The gap seems very big right now.

[Scarlet]

I have planted a couple of new ones - they haven't got anything and I don't think my older two have either but I haven't checked recently... but I think you are probably right

[ameno]

I'm having a similar problem with one of my new apricots. It's meant to be a late flowering variety, late Mach to early April, but at the rate the buds are swelling I think it'll be open before the end of February.
My other new apricot, a different but similarly late flowering variety, is only just starting to show signs of stirring, however. Assuming they are indeed flower buds (I'm pretty certain they are), it should be on course to flower late March.
The difference between the two makes me wonder if they might have sent me the wrong variety by mistake...

[nickdub]

I know, but I have three other older pears which Keepers claim will pollinate it but none of them are currently showing more than the barest hint of green. So if it is a response to the warm winter the asian pear has shifted a lot more than the others. The gap seems very big right now.

One thing you can do another year is to cut off a section of branch with flower buds on it from a known pollinator, say about 3 weeks before you think your early flowerer will need pollinating. Then bring that branch into the house and stand it in a warm room in a jug of water so that it will flower early too - then take some pollen from it with a small brush and do the pollinating by hand.

[chrisdb]

I'm not sure that's a great idea right now, as I find growth very weak on my oldest pear tree anyway (Quince A). It's six years old and about as tall as I am - it fruits every year but extra growth is measured in cm.

The younger ones are on Pyrodwarf had a very slow start for the first two or three years, but do seem to be speeding up now to something more like what I'd expect from a semi-vigorous rootstock. Maybe if I start getting decent growth out of them I can afford to lop off a branch every year.

I've had very mixed luck with pears. Until now, they have all at least flowered and fruited, but getting them to actually grow has been very difficult compared to the apple trees.

[nickdub]

Poor growth is generally a function of something not being right with the roots - if they are growing in grass then I'd advise getting rid of that by hoeing it off or whatever, then a good dose of FYM next month or the month after . A foliar feed like sprayed on seaweed fertiliser can also help sometimes.

[chrisdb]

Nope, no grass. There's Mypex around them and over the last six years I've tried feeding more, watering more etc, but nothing makes that much difference except upgrading new trees to pyrodwarf. The position is quite sunny so it's not a lack of light either.

What's even weirder is that a medlar on quince about 4m away, treated similarly, grows quite vigorously. And I have apples on mm106, planted at the same time, that are literally double the size of the pears on quince.

[chrisdb]

I've concluded that pears on quince just don't work for me. I had two but I dug one up this winter and replaced it with a plum, so now it's just the one that I kept as a pollinator. When all my pyrodwarf ones are flowering I'll probably dig up the other pear on quince A and replace that as well.

[nickdub]

Not sure what the issue is Chris - sounds like you have most of the bases covered already. My only further suggestion would be to try a very thick, say 4", mulch of whatever organic material you can find put on when the soil is really wet. Quince does like damp ground, much more than dry, so its possible the sunny position you mention means the ground is drier in the Summer than the quince would prefer it to be.