Advanced production technology of pear

1. PAWAN KUMAR NAGAR
M.Sc. (Horti.) Fruit science
2nd semester
REG. NO: 04-2690-2015
Advanced Production Technology
of
Pear

2. pear
Botanical Name :- Pyrus communis L
Family:- Rosaceae
Origin:- Europe
Chromosome No.:- 2n = 51(Triploid)

3. Introduction
• Pyrus communis, known as the European pear or
common pear, is a species of pear native to central and
eastern Europe and southwest Asia.
• Pear is next only to apple in importance, acreage,
production and varietals diversity among temperate
fruits in India.
• It is grown under temperate and subtropical conditions
because of its wider climatic and soil adaptability.
• It is primarily grown in hills at 1,700-2,400 m above
mean sea-level in the states of Himachal Pradesh,
Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh. Low-chilling
pears have adapted very well in the subtropical
regions.

4. Climate and soil
• Pear can be grown in a wide range of climatic conditions, as
it can tolerate s low as -26 °C temperature when dormant
and as high as 45 °C during growing period.
• However, Bartlett needs about 1,500 hr compared with
other temperature pears.
• Pear variety Patharnakh needs only 150 hr of chilling and
can also withstand high temperature and hot winds during
summer.
• Spring frosts are detrimental to pear production and
temperature at -3.3 °C or below kills the open
blossom. Therefore, lowlands should be avoided for its
planting. The hail-prone areas are also unsuitable as
hailstorms affect both plants and fruits.

5. • Pear grows best in deep, well-drained, fertile, and
medium-textured and relatively more clay soil.
• It is more tolerant to wet soils but less tolerant to
drought than apple. Pears even to well on poorly
aerated heavy soil with high water able which is
heavy in texture for most of deciduous fruits.
• A soil depth of about 180 cm is ideal for proper
root growth and fruit production.
• A neutral pH range of 6.0-7.5 is desirable because
iron deficiency appears on highly alkaline soils.
• The highly fertile soils rich in N are not very
suitable for pear growing as the incidence of pear
psylla and fire blight is more in these soils.

6. Varieties
• Pear varieties belong to three groups – European, Asian and
hybrids. The varieties recommended for different states are
listed below.
Early Mid-season Late
Early China,
Laxton’s Superb,
Fertility(P),
Seckel.
Barlett,
Starking Delicious
Max-Red Barlett,
Dr Jule’s Guyot.
Conference (P),
Comice,
Hardy,
Winter Nellis,
Clapp’s
Favourite,
Flemish Beauty (P).
Himachal Pradesh
High hills: The pears are classified as early, mid-season an late –
ripening. They are:

7. Jammu and Kashmir
Table2. Pear varieties for temperate areas
Early Mid for season Late
China pear,
Beurre-de-Amanlis
Citron-do-Carme,
Clapp’s,
Favourite, Doyenne
Bussoch
China Sand Pear,
William Bartlett
Hardy,
Viear of Winkfield

8. Uttar Pradesh
The varieties grown are:
• High hills: Max-Red Bartlett, William Bartlett,
Conference, Hardy, Winter Nelis, Clapp’s
Favourite, Flemish Beauty and Comice.
• Lower hills and plains: Patharnakh, Gola and
LeConte.

9. Different cultivar of Pear
Blake's Pride pear Packham's Triumph pear
Clairgeau pear
Louise Bonne of Jersey
pear

10.  Eight varieties of pears, from left to right, Bartlett, two Red
Bartlett varieties, Anjou, Bosc, Comice, Concorde, and Seckel.

11. Propagation and rootstock
• The rootstocks commonly used for
propagating are pear, kainth (Pyrus pashia) and
shiara (Pyrus serotina) seedlings and clonally
propagated Quince.
• In Punjab, root suckers of wild pear are also
employed as rootstock.
• In some areas in plains of north India, own-
rooted cuttings of Patharnakh are also used for
propagation.

12. Seed propagation
• For raising rootstock, seeds of pear, Kainth and Shiara and
extracted from fully mature fruits.
• The seeds need stratification (chilling treatment) for proper
germination.
• The stratification can be completed by sowing seeds in open
nursery in November or placing them in alternate layers with the
moist sand or vermiculite at optimum low temperature (5°-7 °C)
for the required duration during October-November.
• The seeds are kept in the stratifying medium till the uppermost
layer of seeds pushes the sand upward and protrudes the radical.
• The germinating seeds are sown in the beds of directly in the
nursery rows immediately at a distance of 10-15cm in rows 15
cm apart.

13. Own-rooted cuttings
• Dormant cuttings from meritorious pear trees
are prepared from juvenile shoots during
December.
• These cuttings are treated with IBA 100 ppm
for 24 hours and are placed in moist sand for
callusing.
• The callused cuttings are then planted in the
nursery rows.

14. Raising rootstock from root suckers
• The root suckers of healthy pear trees
separated during October-December with
good root system. These suckers are tongue
grafted and planted in the nursery at 15-20cm
distance 30cm apart, leaving 60cm space after
two rows.
• New sprouts come during February-March
which becomes bud able during August-
September.

15. Clonal rootstock
• ‘Quince A’ is most commonly used clonal rootstock
producing trees 50-60% of the standard size.
• However, this rootstock has poor compatibility with
most of the commercial cultivars.
• Mound layering is generally done to propagate this
rootstock clonally.
Budding and grafting
•Pear plants are commonly propagated by T-budding
during April-September or tongue grafting done during
December –January.

16. Planting
• A planting plan is prepared adopting a particular layout
system before actual planting. The layout system depends
on plant density to be adopted and topography of
land. Generally, square or rectangular system is followed.
• In hilly areas, contour system is followed on a rolling
land. In this system, first row is drawn at the highest
elevation and all the trees in a row come at the same
elevation.
• Spacing: The distance between rows depends on the slope,
being closer on the steeper slope.
• In hilly areas, the trees on seedling rootstock are planted at
a distance of 5 metres but for clonal rootstocks distance can
be reduced to 3 metres.

17. • Planting time: The planting of trees can be
done anytime from December to mid
February in plains.
• However in hills, late fall or early spring are
the common planting periods.
• Pit size: A pit of 1m x 1m x1m size is dug at
such places and filled with a mixture of soil
and well rotten farmyard manure or compost
and 30g Aldrinor BHC dust.

18. Training and pruning
• Proper training and pruning of pear trees is essential for the development of
strong framework, to maintain vigour and growth, encourage regular bearing
and to provide convenience of pruning, spraying and harvesting.
• Pear trees are usually trained according to ‘Modified Central Leader’
method.
• In first year, plants are headed back at 90 cm low-headed trees and at 125 cm
for high-headed trees at the time of planting. The lowest branch is allowed
to develop at a height of 60cm from the ground level. Four or five primary
scaffold braches arising at wider angle, 10-15 cm apart and spirally arranged
around the tree trunk are selected. Two to three secondary branches are
selected on the primary scaffold during second dormant pruning.
• During subsequent years, training consists of thinning out unwanted
branches and cutting others to desirable side limbs. The leader should be
removed to keep a well –placed, outward growing lateral in the fourth year
of training.

19. • In pruning bearing trees, a certain amount of
thinning out and heading back of outward growing
laterals are considered adequate.
• Pear bear fruits on spurs on two year old wood and
a spur continue to bear for more than six years.
• The limbs with spurs over 6-8 years old need to be
removed in a phased manner. The branches and
new shoots are headed back to induce new growth
and old fruiting branches and spurs are thinned out
to maintain the vigor of the retained ones.
• Vigorous growth is more susceptible to fire
blight. Therefore, in areas of heavy blight infection
pruning should be carried out in such a way that the
trees make a thrifty growth. Light pruning reduces
cork spot and increases yield of desirable fruit size.

20. Manuring and fertilization
• In hills, the recommended dose for 10-year-old
plants is 60-100kg farmyard manure, 700g N,
350g P2O5 and 700 g K2O.
• The farmyard manure, P and K are applied before
snowfall in December. Half of N is added three
weeks before flowering and the rest half just after
fruit set.
• The deficiency of Zn and Fe on young foliage can
easily be controlled by spraying 0.4 -0.5 % zinc
sulphate and ferrous sulphate respectively during
April.

21. Aftercare
• Immediately after planting, the basins should be prepared around the
plants. The level of the soil near the trunk should be kept slightly
higher than the level of the basin to avoid direct contact of water with
the trunk.
• Irrigation should be given immediately after planting. Second irrigation
is applied after 2-3 days. Subsequent irrigations should be given as and
when required. The young plants are staked after planning to keep their
stem straight.
• Green Gram, mash, toria and sunflower can be grown in summer, while
wheat, peas, and gram in winter season may be intercropped in young
orchards. Additional dose of fertilizers should be given to
intercrops. Peach can also be planted as fillers in pear plantations.
• Weeds can be controlled either mechanically by weeding and hoeing or
with the use of herbicides.

22. • Most of the pear cultivars grown in hills are
particularly self-fruitful and compatible
pollenizer and must be interplanted in pear
orchards.
• The pollenizer cultivars should have
sufficiently overlapping bloom period and bear
fruits of commercial value.
• In general, planting of every fourth tree in
every fourth row as pollenizer is adequate. In
addition, 2-3 bee colonies/ha are sufficient for
obtaining higher yield.

23. Irrigation
• In heavier soils, moisture supply representing 50% or more
of maximum available moisture in upper 1m is essential for
maximum growth of fruit, shoot and trunk.
• A loam soil should be wet 1.5-1.8 m deep. In hills, pear
cultivation is mostly done under rain fed conditions but at
many places irrigation facility may be available which is
and additional advantage. Besides rain fall, 75-100cm
irrigation may be applied annually in some regions.
• Both excessive and scanty moisture affects color,
composition and keeping quality of fruits. After harvesting
in July-August, the trees should be irrigated at 20days
intervals or so up to the end of October. Afterwards no
irrigation is required up to January except when the
manures and fertilizers are added in December.

24. Harvesting and postharvest
management
• Fully mature fruits are harvested for fresh consumption, while
still firm and green for canning and distant markets.
• For local consumption, fruits are picked at slightly later stage,
because fruits hanging on trees make a considerable gain in
size, weight and overall quality. However, delayed picking
reduces storage life and on canning such fruits develop
unattractive color, turbid syrup and insipid flavour.
• Pear fruits are picked individually be giving a gentle twist
rather than direct pull. Harvesting should be done in 2-3
pickings at 3-4 days intervals rather than single picking. A
well-managed orchard of ear Bartlett yields 30-35 tons/ha.
• Most pear cultivars ripen and develop best dessert quality at
15.6°-21°C and 80-85 % relative humidity. High ripening
temperature (above 26`C) may impair flavour and texture of
the fruits of the fruits as they become mealy and fail to ripen.

25. • Pears after harvesting are cooled to a core temperature of – 0.6° to -
1.6°C to remove field heat and arrest ripening.
• Grading of fruits is very important for better returns. Bartlett pears are
graded as extra large, large, medium and small having 8, 7, 6.5 and
5cm respectively. These grades are also known as extra class, class1,
class 11 and class 111. The misshapen, damaged, blemished and
scared fruits should be excluded while grading.
• The wooden, plastic or cardboard boxes are generally used for packing
pears. The fruits should be packed in layers. The bottom and top of
the containers are properly cushioned with newspaper or dry grass for
avoiding compaction and bruises to fruits.
• The fruits can also be wrapped individually in 10 micron HDPE bags
before packing which maintains freshness and improves fruit quality
compared with unwrapped fruits. Labeling of boxes indicating grade,
cultivar and name of the orchard should be pasted, printed or stamped
on the container. Pears can be stored for 120-245 days at -1°C and
85% relative humidity.

26. Physiological disorders
• Premature ripening begins with pink coloration
near the blossom end. Consequently brown heart
and softening occur in affected fruits which do
not ripen properly. This disorder is caused by
abnormally cool growing season preceding
harvest.
• Night temperature lower than 7.1°C and day
temperature lower than 21°C for a few days are
sufficient to cause premature ripening. As soon as
the initial symptoms appear, the fruits should be
harvested and handled normally.