They can be hard to find at your local grocery store or farmers market in some places, but luckily, if you live in USDA Hardiness Zones 5-9, you can try your hand at growing them at home.
Even if you don’t have a large yard, you can still grow P. pyrifolia: some cultivars can grow up to 40 feet tall, but widely available dwarf varieties reach just six to 15 feet in height.
Are you ready to find out how to grow and care for your own Asian pear trees?
Here’s what I’ll cover:
Like apple, nectarine, and peach trees, Asian pears are members of the rose or Rosaceae family. They are also sometimes called P. serotina.
To set fruit, these deciduous trees require around 300-500 chill hours at temperatures lower than 45°F each winter, which isn’t too hard to achieve even in the warmer climates of Zone 8 or 9.
They blossom with fragrant white petals in the springtime and, depending on the cultivar and growing conditions, produce fruit four to seven months later. Asian pear trees can take between three to five years to begin producing fruit after propagation.
Like apples, each fruit contains five seeds. Unlike European pears (P. communis), Asian varieties don’t turn soft and mushy when ripe. They ripen on the tree and maintain a crisp, juicy texture.
Asian pears are either round with greenish-yellow skin, round with bronze skin, or pear-shaped with green or brown skin, depending on the cultivar you are growing.
But they all have that delicious and enduring crunch that Bartletts can only dream of and that some of us prefer over the texture of a European pear.
Despite some cultivars producing fruit reminiscent of an apple, the Asian pear is not a hybrid with this fruit. Botanically, it is a true pear. I love it because I prefer firm and crisp varieties of this fruit, and if that’s your preference, you will too.
For best results, you will need to plant two varieties that bloom at the same time for pollination. Some cultivars, such as ‘Shinseiki,’ ‘20th Century,’ and ‘Tennosui,’ are self-pollinating.
Planting a P. pyrifolia alongside a European variety can also encourage more honeybees flock to both trees, as they’re typically more attracted to European varieties.
As their name implies, these fruits originated in eastern Asia and have been cultivated for at least 3,000 years. More specifically, they’re native to western China, and long ago naturalized in south and central Japan.
Despite their long history in Asia, they’re relatively new in the United States, arriving here in when horticulturist William Prince imported the plant to grow in Flushing, New York.
Chinese miners and railroad workers planted seeds in California during the Gold Rush, and additional cultivars from Japan arrived with Japanese immigrants starting in the s.
China, Korea, and Japan are the main commercial exporters of the fruit, but it’s also grown in the United States in California, Oregon, and Washington, thanks to those early immigrants.
High in Vitamins C and K, and rich in fiber, the crisp fruits are often sliced and added to salads, baked into pies, and enjoyed as snacks.
If you’re looking for an exciting fruit to grow at home that tastes like a pear but has the crunchy texture of an apple, look no further than P. pyrifolia.
Before you make your selections, make sure you’re in the right growing zone, and that you have plenty of space, and enough room to plant two varieties.
As with many other types of fruit trees, P. pyrifolia are most often propagated by being grafted onto rootstock of another variety. This is because seeds don’t grow into exact replicas of their parent trees.
Because grafting takes skill and special equipment, the best way to plant an Asian pear tree is to purchase two varieties from a nursery or gardening store and find a perfect area to plant them together.
Other methods of propagation include micropropagation via tissue cultures.
Some adventurous gardeners try to root new trees from cuttings, but this has a 30-90 percent success rate under the most ideal conditions, in a professional greenhouse with controlled humidity and misting hoses.
Read more about pear propagation here.
If you’re growing trees grafted onto dwarf rootstock – aka dwarf cultivars of P. pyrifolia – you can plant them in containers. This is an excellent option for those with limited space.
Or, plant a dwarf or standard-sized cultivar straight into the ground for a beautiful and tasty addition to your landscape.
We’ll cover both planting methods to make it easy for you to choose which is best for your garden.
The first thing you need to do before you bring your trees home in the spring or fall is to select the perfect location.
First, make sure you have enough space. The two trees will need to be planted about 15 feet apart if they’re dwarf varieties, and 30 feet apart if they’re full-sized cultivars.
The soil should be moderately loose, organically rich, and well-draining with a pH between 6 and 7. You can conduct a soil test to determine the pH and nutrient balance of your soil and amend accordingly.
The site should receive at least eight hours of full sun every day in Zones 5-7. If you live in Zones 8 or 9, select a site that receives partial afternoon shade to help temper the effect of the heat.
When you’re certain you have the perfect place for those saplings, place your order or bring them home and dig holes for the roots. Each hole will need to be the same depth as the root ball and twice as wide.
Place the root ball inside the hole and make sure the crown of the tree is level with the surface of the soil.
Backfill the hole with two parts native soil and one part well-rotted compost or manure, and water deeply.
Keep the soil moist until your area’s first wintertime freeze, especially in the sapling’s first few years of growth. To check the moisture level, stick your finger about one inch down into the soil. If it feels dry, give the tree a thorough watering.
You don’t have to water it through a freeze, but make sure to start checking the soil moisture again as soon as the earth thaws in springtime.
You can add a three-inch layer of dark mulch to help keep the tree warm during the winter, and a light layer to help it keep cool during the summer.
Use organic mulch such as straw or wood chips so that the material can add nutrients to the soil as it decomposes. Replace it each season to keep that layer of protection over the tree’s root system.
During the first year of growth after planting, you’ll want to water your Asian pear tree once or twice a week, depending on the amount of rainfall.
Give it a thorough soaking at the base, and let the top inch of soil dry out before you water again.
Once the tree is established, you can water it once a week, or when the top two to three inches of soil dry out.
Every time you water, check for weeds. You don’t want any weeds or grass growing over the root system and competing for water and nutrients.
To retain moisture and suppress weeds, consider putting down a three-inch layer of mulch. In warm areas, use a light-colored mulch to help keep the roots cool.
As for fertilizing, you only need to make sure the tree receives fertilizer once a year: as soon as the soil is workable in the spring.
Simply add a balanced 10-10-10 (NPK) fertilizer to give the plant a boost.
To keep the tree healthy, prune away diseased, broken, or injured branches during its winter dormancy period.
You can also prune the tops of the branches farthest away from the trunk, as those produce fruit that’s less sweet and often smaller. This will also help to keep the height manageable.
In addition, trim some of the branches nearest to the trunk to encourage them to produce blossoms. To do this, use pruning shears and cut the branch about two or three buds away from the main branch.
In all, you should prune about 10 percent of the tree’s total branches each winter.
If you are growing your Asian pear in a container, you’ll want to prune it to remain about five to six feet tall – essentially turning it into a fruit-bearing shrub rather than a fully dwarf-sized fruit tree. You’ll still get a decent harvest, but your tree will remain a manageable size.
Once the tree blossoms and begins fruiting in the spring, thin the fruits to one pear every four to six inches on any given branch.
This helps the individual fruits grow bigger and reduces pest and disease infestation since the space provides the fruits with adequate ventilation.
While P. pyrifolia don’t fall prey to too many pests or diseases, there are a few major troublemakers to watch out for.
If you have deer or moose in your area, it’s time to learn how to keep the large herbivores away from your precious Asian pear trees.
Fruits may be harvested any time between August and October, depending on the cultivar you’re growing.
Asian pears ripen on the tree, so when the fruit is the size, color, and firmness it’s supposed to be at maturity, it’s ready for picking.
The best way to preserve them to eat whole? Place them in the chiller compartment of your refrigerator. They’ll retain that irresistible crisp texture and flavor.
I doubt they’ll even last you three months, they’re so delicious.
You can learn more about how to store pears in our guide.
You can also dry slices in the oven. Start by washing each fruit, peeling the skin off (if you want to), and coring it. Cut into slices that are 1/2 an inch thick.
Lay the slices on a greased cookie sheet. Place the sheet in an oven heated to just 175°F and cook for about four hours, flipping the slices over every hour, until they have a leathery texture.
Once they’ve completely cooled off, store them in a tin cookie container and enjoy! They’ll last between six months and one year in a cool, dry location.
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If you’d rather freeze your pears to puree later for smoothies or baking, you can do that too. Peel them, core them, and slice them into halves or into smaller pieces.
Lay the pieces on a cookie sheet and put them into the freezer for four hours or until they’re frozen solid. Transfer them to a freezer bag, and voila! Just remember to eat them within six months.
In my opinion, the best way to eat an Asian pear is fresh off the tree. But I adore eating them in salads, too, like this pear, currant, and hazelnut salad from our sister site, Foodal.
The recipe calls for ‘Bosc’ pears, which you can easily substitute with sliced P. pyrifolia.
If you have a sweet tooth, you could also use some of your crop to make this heavenly pear sorbet with ginger-infused maple syrup, also from Foodal.
Among the variety of pear varieties, Chinese pear deserves special attention, due to a wide range of technical characteristics, as well as tasty and healthy fruits. Cultivation of culture is becoming commonplace, and the number of fans of this luxurious tree is growing rapidly every year.
The growing area of the Chinese pear is China. On the territory of Russia, it is distributed only in the Primorsky Territory. The climatic conditions of other areas of this culture are not very suitable. But the correct choice of variety, competent planting and the implementation of all agrotechnical techniques for care will allow you to get healthy, tasty pear fruits in any region.
As a result of the work of breeders, the fruits of the Chinese pear inherited all the advantages of the forest analogue of Yamanashi, and were also provided with excellent taste of ripe fruits. The resulting variety became the basis for breeding many varieties with different properties, which made it possible to find hybrids with high frost resistance. Despite the differences, all varieties of Chinese pears have common characteristics.
The tree can be from 4 to 10 m tall and fully grow and develop for 50 years. Almost all modifications are partially self-fertile. From this it follows that the pear tree will bear fruit even in the absence of pollinating plants, while delighting with high yields, which in the 5th year of the plant's life are 60-80 kg from one tree, and after 30 years - 200 kg. Any Asian pear - Bronze, Eastern, can act as a pollinator. It is important that its growing season coincides with the development of the Chinese pear.
The cultivar demonstrates excellent cold survival. For example, Kosu can withstand frosts down to -35 ° C. But the morning freshness does not differ in such high resistance, therefore it needs shelter for the winter.
Important! The culture perfectly resists scab, rot, bacterial infections and many pests. A dangerous enemy for the Chinese pear is a flower grower beetle.Photos of the Chinese pear in the process of flowering fascinate with beauty. Pear fruits with a round shape and a rich, beautiful color, depending on the variety, which can vary from a delicate green to a bronze shade, attract attention. The fragrant pulp has a peach color, is juicy, uniform, but not soft. The fruits are characterized by a harmonious taste and delicate aroma.
A large number of varieties of Chinese pear allows you to choose the one that is optimal for cultivation in a certain region, climatic conditions, soil. When choosing a variety of Chinese pear, you also need to take into account the personal taste preferences of the gardener and his willingness to carry out the correct and timely care of the fruit crop.
The variety of Chinese pear, which has the exotic name "Nashi", is the result of selection, thanks to which the sour pear fruit with a firm structure has acquired excellent taste characteristics and juiciness.
Rounded fruit weighing up to 290 g. Its thin skin has a light yellow color and specific spots. The creamy pulp is characterized by juiciness, density, and has a characteristic crunch. The sweet taste with a slight sourness makes this variety popular and in demand.
Fruits are not stored for a long time, after a week the product begins to turn black outdoors. If the pear fruits are removed to a cool place, the shelf life is increased to 2 weeks.
Summer variety of Chinese pear, which ripens in mid-July. A tree up to 4 m high. Fruiting occurs in 3 years, and under comfortable conditions, and 2 years after planting. The hybrid is considered self-pollinating, but with a number of pollinators, yield indicators increase significantly. The fruit of the Kosu is in the form of a circle, painted in a bright bronze-gold color with the presence of white dots. The average weight of one fruit is 130-160 g. The pulp is juicy and has a sweet taste. The disadvantage of this variety is the short shelf life, so the fruit should be used immediately after harvest.
Kosu has good resistance to bacterial diseases, scab. The pear tree is not afraid of frost, requires shelter for the winter only at very low temperatures.
This variety is a columnar modification of the Chinese pear. Small pear tree up to 2 m tall. Fruit set is observed on almost all lateral branches. Jose is a self-pollinated variety, but for better yields, you should not abandon pollinators. The plant begins to give fruits already for 2-3 years, the yield indicators are high, stable. The mass of one pear is up to 300 g. Under the skin of a bronze color there is a very juicy, but firm pulp. The high carbohydrate content in Chinese pear makes the taste sweeter, more delicate. The characteristics of this variety allow the harvest to be stored until December.
Hosu is able to withstand frosts up to 30 ° C, and also has good immunity to diseases and pests. The culture needs minimal maintenance.
An autumn variety that can be harvested in mid-September. It starts bearing fruit for 2 years. The variety needs pollinators. The fruits are circular in shape, painted green with a golden hue, with small gray blotches on the skin. The weight of one pear is 160-200 g. The variety is valued for its balanced, sweet and sour taste and juicy, dense pulp. The harvest is stored until January.
Olympic demonstrates resistance to all types of scab and other bacterial infections.
Attention! Resistance to low temperatures to frost makes it possible to grow this variety even in the northern regions.A summer variety of the Chinese pear, which bears fruit in early August with tasty juicy pear fruits that are small, round and yellow in color. The average weight of one fruit is from 115 to 180 g. The first harvest is formed after 3-4 years from the moment of planting the seedlings. The consumer period is 2-3 weeks.
The variety is distinguished by good winter hardiness, is not afraid of severe frosts and is rarely exposed to diseases, pest attacks.
One of the most popular varieties of Chinese pear is Crystal. It is appreciated for its high yield, resistance to temperature fluctuations, and various fungi. The fruits have a firm pulp of light yellow or white color. The thin rind has a sandy color and small light brown blotches. The white Chinese pear ripens in the fall, during this period it is necessary to harvest.
Planting should be carried out in the spring before the buds swell and the sap begins to flow according to the standard scheme.The culture is very demanding on location, heat and moisture. Therefore, preference should be given to sunny, windless areas, since the ripening time of pears, their color and the formation of flower buds will depend on this.
The best yield is observed when the seedlings of this variety are erected, on substrates characterized by nutritional value and friability.
Planting stages:
You can grow a plant from seeds, in more detail on:
The health of the pear tree, its growth, development and fruiting depends on the efforts spent by the gardener on the basic care measures that they provide.
Competent care of the Chinese pear will increase yields, extend the life span, give a beautiful appearance to the garden, and prevent the development of diseases caused by bacteria.
Pear fruits are able to give the body health and vitality. The benefits of the Chinese pear are explained by the content of biologically active substances in the composition of the fruit crop, which are able to comprehensively strengthen, restore the functions of the body, and normalize the work of important systems. Therefore, they are considered a panacea for many diseases. When taking a natural healthy product, health improvement and recovery are monitored, because the beneficial properties of Chinese pear:
The beneficial properties of the Chinese pear with regular use will help to cope with unpleasant symptoms of the disease, and the chemical composition of the pear fruit will replenish the reserves of minerals and trace elements in the human body.
The delicious, juicy, wholesome pear fruit of the Chinese pear can bring both benefits and harm to human health. Therefore, it should be used with caution, taking into account all possible contraindications.
It is important to adhere to all the recommendations of experts, since the uncontrolled, thoughtless use of the useful Chinese pear can disrupt the activity of many systems and organs.
Particular attention should be paid to proper nutrition during pregnancy. Knowing all its features, the expectant mother, without resorting to pharmaceutical preparations, will be able to provide the baby with all the necessary elements. As you know, not all fruits need to be included in the diet during the development of the fetus in the womb. The healthy Chinese pear is recommended to be consumed throughout the entire period, only without the peel, since it can be equipped with organic fertilizers and harmful chemicals.
Why Chinese pear is useful during pregnancy:
The daily dose of Chinese pear for pregnant women is 0.5 kg. You should be aware that healthy fruits should not be consumed at night.
When breastfeeding, the Chinese pear should be eaten with caution. Since pear fruits can affect the body of mom and baby both positively and negatively. In many cases, healthy fruits do not cause any trouble in babies, they are considered hypoallergenic. Therefore, useful pears can be safely included in the diet of a nursing woman as early as 1 month after the birth of a child. But start eating in small doses, increasing the portion depending on the baby's reaction.
The average weight of one Chinese pear ranges from 190-350 g, depending on the variety. The fruit reaches 4 cm in diameter. The main weight is water. About 42 g of 100 g of pulp is liquid, the rest of the mass is ash, fiber, vitamins and minerals.
People leading a healthy lifestyle are interested in how many calories are in a Chinese pear. 100 g of fruit contains 47 kcal. Basically, the calorie content of a useful product is calculated based on the weight of the fetus. The average weight of one is about 300 g, which means that its calorie content is 140 units. When developing healthy nutrition systems, nutritionists give preference to healthy fresh pear fruit, since low calorie values make the Chinese pear an ideal component of the menu when developing dietary programs.
Energy table and BJU Chinese pear
Protein
0.5 g
Fats
0.2 g
Carbohydrates
7-10 g
Water
85 g
Alimentary fiber
2.8 g
There are many recipes with this gift of nature, including hot dishes, salads, desserts and all kinds of other delicacies.
Such a salad is served both for a holiday and for an everyday table.Thanks to the use of Chinese pear, the dish acquires a new flavor and fresh aroma.
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This culinary masterpiece will delight every sweet tooth. The pear fruit as part of a unique dessert will add originality to the taste and amazing aroma.
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The recipe is quite simple and quick, but the result is a delicate, pleasant jam that will certainly become a favorite family dessert.
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The Chinese pear should be stored in a cool, dark place. The room must be clean, dry, free of mold and odors. It is necessary to store pears in accordance with all the rules, taking into account the ratio of temperature and humidity, this will prevent damage to pear fruits and their decay. The optimum temperature is from + 6-8 ° С, and the humidity is 85-90%. Harvest under appropriate conditions is suitable for consumption for about 2-4 months and remains fresh, healthy product.
The Chinese pear is considered an environmentally friendly variety that has gained popularity with its quick adaptation to climatic conditions, soil types, and excellent taste and delicate aroma of fruits. A planted tree will become the dignity of a garden plot and will delight you with the beauty of its flowering and a generous harvest of sweet and juicy fruits for a long time.
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