Pear Trees

How to choose a pear tree

Start with how you like to eat pears. The Williams Pear is the familiar early pear, also known as Bartlett, which turns yellow as it ripens and is the standard for bottling. The Packham Triumph Pear is an Australian bred variety that ripens later and stores well. The Beurre Bosc Pear has a long neck and russet brown skin, and holds its shape when poached or baked. The Josephine Pear is a small, late pear valued for its rich flavour, and the Corella Pear is a small pear with a red blush that came from South Australia.

The Sunshine Nashi Pear Tree is an Asian pear. Nashi fruit is round, crisp and juicy, and is eaten firm like an apple.

Most European pears need a second variety that flowers at the same time for good pollination, so plan on planting two different pears, or check that a neighbour has one close by. Nashi are partly self fertile but also crop more heavily with a partner.

Where pear trees grow

Pears need winter chill to flower and set fruit, so they do well in cool and mild temperate regions: Tasmania, Victoria, the tablelands and highlands of New South Wales, the Adelaide Hills, the Granite Belt in Queensland and the south west of Western Australia. They are not suited to the tropics or the humid subtropical coast. Nashi generally need a little less chill than European pears. Pears tolerate heavier soil than most fruit trees, provided water does not sit around the roots for long periods.

See the wider range of fruit trees and apple trees for other cool climate crops. If you are after the flowering street tree pears grown for blossom and autumn colour, those are in our ornamental pears.

Planting and spacing

Choose a position in full sun with shelter from strong wind at blossom time. Dig a wide hole, loosen the soil and plant so the graft union sits well above soil level. Allow four to five metres between trees, or less if you intend to train them as an espalier against a fence or wires, which suits pears very well. Stake young trees in exposed sites, water in thoroughly and mulch, keeping the mulch away from the trunk.

Care basics

Water deeply through the first two summers, and through dry spells while fruit is swelling. Feed in early spring with a complete fruit tree fertiliser. Prune in winter to build an open framework in the early years, then lightly to maintain it. Pears fruit on short spurs that stay productive for years, so avoid cutting these off.

European pears are picked when mature but still firm and ripened indoors, because fruit left to soften on the tree tends to go mealy at the core. Nashi are left to ripen on the tree.

Common questions

Do I need two pear trees?

In most cases, yes. European pears crop reliably with a different variety nearby that flowers at the same time. Nashi are partly self fertile but do better with company.

How long until a pear tree fruits?

Pears are slower than many fruit trees. Expect the first fruit in around four to six years, with crops building after that.

Can pears grow in warm climates?

They need cold winters to fruit well. In subtropical and tropical areas the trees may grow but rarely crop.

How big does a pear tree get?

Unpruned trees can reach six metres or more. Winter pruning or espalier training keeps them much smaller.