How to rejuvenate an old neglected pear tree?

[WannaBeHillBilly]

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My favorite fertilizer is fish fertilizer. It's 5.1.1 I believe...it stinks to high heavens but you can apply it more often than a lot of the other fertilizers and it really works wonders for me! All that chicken, goose, and duck fertilizer does great too!

The stakes are essentially the same thing as the droppings. Wouldn't want to over do it. One or the other.

If you go with stakes, then put them in the ground where the branches reach, that is also where the end of the roots are.

Unfortunately my minister of the treasuries (aka wife) is not convinced that the tree will survive for much longer and has rejected the fertilizer budget. So i have to go with what i have, which is a lot of West Virginian Sand and Lime-stone for a retaining wall and plenty of duck-poop infused compost. So my idea is to build a 1' retaining wall downhill, just outside of the branches and fill the terrace up with a mix of chopped branches and dead wood, wood ash from the smoker and compost. I will prove her wrong!

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

For flowers and fruits you want to use a fertilizer higher in potassium than in nitrogen.

So wood ash from the smoker and the grill would be spot-on?

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

@Sequel was spot on about the pruning. The only thing I would add is that you're only supposed to take 1/3 of the tree at a time, and to open up the canopy as much as you can for good air flow and sunlight! Can't wait to see those pears next year!
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Yes, I forgot to mention to start slowly with the pruning, @DiYMama540 is right about that. Another thing is you might want to be stingy with any fertilizer, especially that with a lot of nitrogen. That could cause an overgrowth of water sprouts, suckers, whatever you call them. Keep us posted, this is so much fun to follow!

I am removing the dead wood from the tree while harvesting the pears, i'm just breaking it off without injuring the life wood. That tree has a lot of water spouts/suckers growing out of the main trunk, should i wait for winter to remove those or should they be cut of asap?

 

[ValerieJ]

Unfortunately my minister of the treasuries (aka wife) is not convinced that the tree will survive for much longer and has rejected the fertilizer budget. So i have to go with what i have, which is a lot of West Virginian Sand and Lime-stone for a retaining wall and plenty of duck-poop infused compost. So my idea is to build a 1' retaining wall downhill, just outside of the branches and fill the terrace up with a mix of chopped branches and dead wood, wood ash from the smoker and compost. I will prove her wrong!

You are not going to lose this tree. I wouldn't change anything with a retaining wall. That tree has been there a long time with no RW. I do think the duck poo will do the same thing as the stakes. The most effective thing you can do for the tree is to prune it. I agree with the 1/3 rule, so it might take a couple years. You have received some good advice on here how to go about that. Really. You'd be surprised how resilient trees are. I have a small orchard that was completely overgrown and dormant when we bought this place. It has taken a few years but we are getting plenty of fruit now. And guess how I fertilize it. I moved my chicken coop right into the orchard.

 

[ValerieJ]

Hmmm...one more thought. I would compost your duck poo with some straw or grass and then put it under the tree. I don't scoop up my chicken poo and put it there, but because they live there they leave little pods of fertilizer from time to time.

 

[Henry&Friends]

I don’t know anything about trees, but that grass could be holding the soil together and in place— the ground does as the ground wants. If you get rid of the grass around the tree, that dirt is going to turn into mud, and that mud is going to slide away. And if it’s on a hill, and you walk in the mud... well I’m speaking from experience when I say that it really sucks.

 

[Sequel]

You are not going to lose this tree. I wouldn't change anything with a retaining wall. That tree has been there a long time with no RW. I do think the duck poo will do the same thing as the stakes. The most effective thing you can do for the tree is to prune it. I agree with the 1/3 rule, so it might take a couple years. You have received some good advice on here how to go about that. Really. You'd be surprised how resilient trees are. I have a small orchard that was completely overgrown and dormant when we bought this place. It has taken a few years but we are getting plenty of fruit now. And guess how I fertilize it. I moved my chicken coop right into the orchard.

I agree with @ValerieJ . Take your time, shape it up don’t worry about fertilizer just yet. An old saying says the best fertilizer is the gardeners shadow. Are there other pear trees nearby? Pollination is probably more an issue than fertilizer. When they planted originally they would have planted varieties that pollinate each other. Over the years the others could have been lost, which is what happened here.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I don’t know anything about trees, but that grass could be holding the soil together and in place— the ground does as the ground wants. If you get rid of the grass around the tree, that dirt is going to turn into mud, and that mud is going to slide away. And if it’s on a hill, and you walk in the mud... well I’m speaking from experience when I say that it really sucks.

Tell me about hill-sites and sliding/falling: I almost spent last Christmas in the hospital…
I won't remove the grass around the tree, but i will gather a lot of rocks - plenty available here, unfortunately - start to build a retaining wall downhill of the tree and fill the gap with used duck-house bedding and compost. The Idea is to build up solid flat ground around the three so that i will be able to safely use a step-ladder in the future to pluck the pears and prune the tree. Today's attempt to use the step-ladder almost ended up in a catastrophe…
And the nutrients from the compost and the duck-poop can penetrate slowly to the tree's root system.

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

I agree with @ValerieJ . Take your time, shape it up don’t worry about fertilizer just yet. An old saying says the best fertilizer is the gardeners shadow. Are there other pear trees nearby? Pollination is probably more an issue than fertilizer. When they planted originally they would have planted varieties that pollinate each other. Over the years the others could have been lost, which is what happened here.

To my knowledge there is no other pear tree around, at least not on my land. Could that be the reason why the tree wasn't carrying any pears last year? Because it was flowering like madness last year and this spring. Maybe there is a pear tree somewhere on a neighbors land. (?)

 

[WannaBeHillBilly]

Hmmm...one more thought. I would compost your duck poo with some straw or grass and then put it under the tree. I don't scoop up my chicken poo and put it there, but because they live there they leave little pods of fertilizer from time to time.

When i'm talking about »duck poop« i mean the duck-poop soaked straw fresh out of the duck-house - which i used for my vegetable garden this spring. I also have rotten bedding from last year and this spring on my compost heap.