"David \(in Normandy\)" wrote:

I bought a Conference pear tree from a garden centre a few years ago,
and so far I have not got fruit from it. Each year I start to see
small fruit forming and then they mysteriously blacken and disappear.
The first year I thought it wasn't established, the second year I
blamed frost, but I am running out of excuses!

What could be wrong?

Thanks.

I may be wrong, but it sounds like it has got the disease "Fireblight".
I'm not sure if there are any cures. I had some young fruit trees that had
it years ago and I had to destroy them.
I believe it is still a notifiable disease if you live in proximity to
commercial orchards.

Or it could be pear midge - they infect the fruitlets, which go black and
fall off. If you inspect the damaged fruitlets you may find the grubs
inside, or find the egress holes of the midge.

Also pears do a take a while to get upto speed, cropping wise.
Conference is supposed to be self fertile, but in my experience it does
a lot better with a cross pollinator.

Jim