Before. Notice the full blossom coverage.
- After. Notice the 4-5 blossoms left. Blossoms that may not have made it through Sunday and Monday nights.
- After some more espalier-ing
After a crazy March, where the high was 80°F and soil temperature got to 56°F, my impulse pear tree hit the ground running a good month or two early. So when news hit last week that a hard frost was going to hit St. Paul, I had to make a decision. And my decision, dear friends, was to do nothing.
I was tired, and lied to myself about how my yard will somehow stay a pleasant temperature for my lovely pear tree, even though many of my gardening-savvy West Seventh Neighbors had covered their own fruit trees to protect them. Conspicuously covered their own fruit trees as if they were sending me a signal. That I should do something. But at the time the signal seemed a bit too cryptic for me, and my love for homegrown, delectable pears was overshadowed by my unending laziness.
And so this year I will suffer dreaded store-bought pears because I have only a few blooms left, that were most likely eaten by the cold weather on Sunday and Monday nights.
In other news, as you can probably tell from the pictures, last year I started to espalier the pear tree, and I am a big fan. The tree fits perfectly in the corner of my tiny backyard with branches running along the fence and the garage. Yesterday I finished espaliering the crap out of it. Now if it would just bear some damn fruit we’d be going places.
Posted by Sarah on 04.24.2012 at 11:58 am
I left my pears unprotected because I wasn’t expecting fruit the second year after planting, but the blossoms that appeared to die completely are now swelling into teeny tiny fruit, so maybe! I love how you’re espaliering it, I so want to do that but am too afraid, especially since my trees are very visible to passers by and I don’t want them to think I’m a tree torturer. I haven’t seen your method either, what kind of string and stakes are you using?
Posted by rakhi on 04.25.2012 at 10:38 am
Lucky you about the fruit! I really, really hope I get a couple! Although last year I got two that ended up going bad because I couldn’t find something *perfect* to do with them
To espalier the tree I’m using thicker zip ties that I put loosely around each branch and tent stakes stuck in the ground. Then I just tied the zip tie to the tent stake with some garden string. I read it’s important to keep the zip tie loose so that you given the branch room to grow and whatnot.
You should totally do it! The trees are so beautiful in a few years.
Posted by Thelma on 04.20.2012 at 1:06 pm
You live, you learn!!! I hope you get at least a couple pears out of the experience!!