"Brian Watson" wrote in message
...

"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!

Survival of the fittest!

The poorly tree needs a good top dressing and regular watering to get it
back into good condition so it can compete with its near neighbour.

--
Brian
Henry Fielding: "All Nature wears one universal grin"


Probably pear midge as suggested, the fruit will develop a tell-tale
'guitar'
shape then develop a black crack and fall off whe very small. I have tried
clearing the ground beneath the tree and destroying all fruit before it
drops but nothing works, except this year I wrapped one bud in fleece after
the flower had come, and this was the only pear that survived out of all of
them.
I imagine they need pollinating before the fleece goes on, but it's
remarkably tedious way of getting pears.

Andy.