Pear Rootstocks

[Purplesage]

Hello. I am new here only joined this evening. Ive been reading many posts while Id not joined and been impressed with the amount of knowledge people have! I am not really very experienced but do enjoy growing things sometimes not very successfully. I do grow some fruit trees as we have a small field. I bought my partner a couple of years ago, 2 pear trees, one a Williams Bon Chretien and a Red Williams.
However I didn't realise when I bought them that the rootstock ( Quince A) is unsuitable for a alkaline chalky soil. They do appear be doing very well and have put on a lot of growth. They have been in this field for 2 years and seem to do well. They flower and one had one pear only last summer. I do mulch them with farmyard manure and also water regularly with rainwater only, sometimes water with vinegar. Going to chop up the old Christmas tree and mulch the trees with that. I have bought another Williams pear but on an OHxF87 rootstock to replace the Williams incase it starts to decline.I keep my fingers crossed for them! I also have a Concorde pear on a Pyrodwarf and a Beth pear on OHxF87, supposed to tolerate chalk better. My apple trees are thriving on this alkaline soil as are the cherries. Sorry for the long winded post. I live in East Kent. Thankyou for any advice

[ameno]

If the trees seem to be growing well and flowering then I wouldn't worry too much about the rootstock supposedly not be very suitable for your soil type.

If they produce plenty of flowers yet don't set fruit that may be indicative of a problem of some sort, but it won't be soil related. It may just be their youth, so see how they do this year, but if they flower well but fruit poorly this year, too, you may want to look into causes.
Lack of insects for pollination is one possibility. Late frost killing the blossoms is another. They may also be pollen fertility issues, and you may need another pear variety flowering nearby at the same time to cross-pollinate (which you have obviously now planted, but I'm assuming they have not flowered to date). Williams are meant to be partially self-fertile, but this often isn't terribly reliable. Williams Bon Chretien and Red Williams are, by the way, technically the same variety, and cannot serve as pollination partners for each other. The latter is simply a red sport of the former, and they are otherwise identical.