Healing Pear, Sweet and Juicy

In short: A pear tree can be grown from seed after cold stratification at 3–5 °C: 90 days in moist sand or 60–70 days in peat. Seedlings are then raised in a sunny greenhouse and planted out after one to two years, around November, in moist, nutrient-rich soil in a sunny, sheltered spot.

Common pear, known to everyone as "pear", is a tree without which you simply cannot imagine your garden. It belongs to the most well-known fruit trees around the world, whose fruits are sweet and juicy. Some of you might be surprised that even in our grandmothers' times, it was always an integral part of the kitchen and they also used it for treating various ailments.

From the Stone Age to the Present

The pear was already a well-known fruit in the Neolithic period. During the Bronze Age, wild pear trees with small fruits gradually became the pear trees as we know them today. It originates from Persia, the Caucasus and southern Russia. From there it spread through Turkey and Greece to Central Europe. In the first century - Pliny, a Roman naturalist, knew as many as 35 varieties of pears. And in 1874, in his "Great Illustrated Herbal", Ferdinand Müller stated that at that time, pears, or rather their seeds, were used to produce oil. The pear came to us in the 18th century from England.

How Do We Actually Recognize It?

Common pear (Pyrus communis - Rosaceae) is a deciduous tree. It grows up to 20 m in height and has an elongated and oval crown. The leaves are of variable shapes, most commonly elliptical, up to 7 cm long and up to 5 cm wide, pointed at the front. The flowers grow up to 9 in clusters, from April to May before the leaves sprout. The fruits are green to yellow, egg-shaped to bottle-shaped. Today, up to 1,500 varieties are known. However, the fruits of some varieties are not suitable for further processing.

How to Grow a Healthy Pear Tree?

There are various options for getting a pear tree. You can buy already grown trees in shops, usually two-year-olds, which we plant directly into the ground.

We will focus on planting seeds.

It's a better option through which you can tell your children or grandchildren that you planted your trees, which can easily grow for 200 years, completely from scratch by yourself and that you have every right to be proud of it. Moreover, you know what you're treating your trees with, etc.

When planting seeds, great patience is necessary because everything might not work out immediately. It's possible that in a purchased packet, there might be one or two insufficiently developed (in other words weak) seeds that cannot germinate. So you shouldn't blame yourself when you do everything exactly according to the instructions if something doesn't work out.

First, we need to let the purchased seeds germinate. This is done through so-called cold stratification. We make a mixture of either sand or peat.

Sand - we place the seeds into washed sand. Mix the mixture well so that the seeds are evenly distributed in the sand and moisten it thoroughly. The stratification period is 90 days.

Peat - peat needs to be prepared in time. We must dry it and sieve it through a fine mesh. It must be weathered and crumbled. We place the seeds in it and mix thoroughly. The stratification period is 60 - 70 days. For our purpose, peat is better because it increases seed germination, provided that you really aerate the mixture well and maintain its moisture.

We put the mixture into boxes and store them in a cellar or other cooler place where the temperature is 3 - 5°C. Throughout this time we keep the mixture moist, which means that once a month we take the mixture out of the boxes, water it and mix it well. We return the mixture to the box. Neither the seeds nor the mixture must dry out, as this would stop the maturation process. Once the stratification period has elapsed (90 or 60-70 days), we plant them in humus-rich soil with good drainage in a greenhouse, even a homemade one. It is important that it must be in direct sunlight. Pear trees are best planted in the garden after two years (also possible after 1 year), one month before the first frosts, which is approximately in November. We plant them in moist, nutrient-rich soil, in a sunny location that is protected from wind.

The following year in spring, we prepare the areas around the tree roots. Young trees don't like grass growth, so weed the soil around them and mulch with a layer of bark, maximum 5 cm from the ground. Also protect the flowers from frost. In summer, after the first fruit picking, we do a light summer pruning, which means we shorten the shoots to 1/4 of their length and treat the cut. In autumn we harvest the fruit again and in winter we carry out more radical pruning of the tree and add compost fertilizer, maximum 7 cm from the ground, and prepare it for winter.

If you want to experiment or have a small garden, you can graft another variety of pear onto one tree, whichever you want. Certain varieties of pears can also be grafted onto certain varieties of apple trees. This means that on one pear tree you will have two varieties - for example, Williams on one side and Madame Verté on the other side. Williams is harvested in August and its fruits are excellent for canning, fresh compotes or drying, and Madame is harvested in September and its fruits can be stored in the cellar until February and you can enjoy them even at Christmas.

What to Watch Out For? Pear Diseases and Pests

Mainly pests and fungi that attack pear trees.

Pear rust - first, small yellow spots form on the upper sides of the leaves and bumpy growths appear on the lower sides. This is a fungal disease that is transmitted to pear trees from common juniper or Chinese juniper. This disease appears in summer and November. In November you have nothing to fear, the leaves fall, the pear tree freezes through and the next year it will be fine again. In summer it's completely different. It is recommended to first remove junipers from a distance of 150 to 200 m and then treat the tree with a chemical preparation. The recommended product is - Delan 700 WGD. Treatment must take place before flowering and must be repeated after flowering.

Pear scab - is a fungal disease. It manifests itself with spots on the upper sides of leaves, which gradually enlarge. This disease even attacks the fruits - causing cracks and deformations. On the bark of young shoots, the damage is visible and manifests itself with numerous cracks. Since the leaves subsequently fall to the ground, the threat of greater infection does not end. The advantage is if you have many earthworms in your garden, which will eat the infected leaves; if not, you must remove this foliage immediately and continuously. Among chemical preparations, the aforementioned Delan or fungicides will help you.

Pear sucker - is a pest that lays eggs on sprouting leaves and in warm areas also on buds. Yellow-brown coloured larvae suck the leaves. Adult insects overwinter on tree bark. Young trees can be completely stunted in growth due to it, because during feeding, other diseases similar to viruses can be transmitted. With light infestation, elimination is not necessary. With heavier infestation, we can cut off and destroy individual shoots, or use chemical preparations.

Pear leaf blister mite - wart-like swellings occur, which are first dark green, then turn blackish-brown. The blister mite is a pest and overwinters in bud scales and attacks young leaves in spring. In case of infestation, preparations based on oils are recommended.

What can be utilised from the pear tree?

Wood

Pear wood is reddish-brown, hard, heavy and durable. It dries slowly and has a tendency to warp and deform. It was once used to make furniture - it polishes easily. Now it is only processed by machine, because the wood quickly dulls blades, so you would have to sharpen knives more often and craftsmen have abandoned this complicated furniture processing. Nowadays, pear wood is used to make decorative objects, wooden bowls, musical instruments such as recorders or violin fingerboards. Moreover, it glues well. By staining and varnishing, beautiful surface finishes can be achieved - black-stained pear wood served as a substitute for expensive ebony wood (wild pear).

Fruit

Pears are sensitive to bruising, we recommend picking them, either from a ladder or using a fruit picker - on a pole. With some varieties, the inside ripens quickly, so don't store all varieties in the cellar - instead, process them.

Raw pears are difficult for us to digest (except for varieties that don't suffer from grittiness - for example, butter pears are fine). On the contrary, pear compote is attributed with almost medicinal effects. Our grandmothers already used the fruits for so-called heavy legs, because pears contain a lot of potassium, which has a draining effect. Also before and during menstruation, when pears and potassium gave them considerable relief. They also contain provitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin C and E, iron and zinc.

You can make basically anything from pears. Juice, must, even pear brandy, but you can also consume them in solid form, either fresh or dried, make compote, or bake them in a cake, cook jam or a main dish with meat. I'm sure there are many housewives who know plenty of recipes and there's no need to elaborate further on this, but allow me at least one recipe that has quickly caught on in our home during cold evenings and also at Christmas.

Recipe for the End

Drunken Pears

6 pears, 125 ml white wine, 125 g sugar (any kind), 1 cinnamon stick, 6 cloves, piece of ginger, 2 star anise, 500 ml rum

Peel ripe soft pears and cut them into cubes (without cores). Put them in a glass container with a lid. Briefly boil the wine, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and star anise. Let the mixture cool and then pour it through a sieve into the container with the pears. Add rum and stir. If you think there's too much rum, you can replace part of it with white wine or water. Put the cocktail in the fridge to cool until the next day. I recommend drinking it slowly while relaxing in the bath or when meeting with friends. In winter, you can drink it cold, since there's ginger in it, you'll feel warm in a moment.

Enjoy your meal