"kathleen syson" wrote in message
...
My elderly neighbour has a 4yr old Conference pear. This little tree
bears
fruit each year - perhaps 13 or 14 pears. They sit and watch as the pears
all drop off when still quite small. The tree looks perfectly healthy.
Any
suggestions what could be causing this.

It is quite close to another small tree (Golden Delicious) also relatively
young, which produces excellent fruits in abundance!

When does the drop occur? if the pears are still very small, i.e. about an
inch or so, try cutting into them and if they contain small maggoty things
or are in anyway black or discoloured, then the culprit is pear midge,
Conference is not normally badly effected as it flowers a little later than
some varieties.
If there are no other pears around you can break the cycle by taking off all
the pears next year and burning them before they drop. There is as far as I
know no chemical cure.
--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collection of Clematis viticella (cvs)