Growing Organic Pears: The Basics

Organic fruit growing is fast becoming a trend for small to large scale orchards in America because of the clamor for more healthy food options. However, growing organic fruits such as pears would not be easy since pests and diseases often attack and damage the fruits causing blemishes that would cause them to be unappealing and unsellable to consumers. Pesticides and fungicides are still needed in some extreme cases, however; the use of these sprays may be lessened if not completely eliminated by following some of these techniques for growing organic pears.

Pears are considered the easiest of the fruit trees to be grown organically or with the least amount of spraying. Pears do not have a very strict fertility requirement and can easily adapt to different types of climate and soil. These fruits also have the least amount of diseases and pests problems as compared to other fruit-bearing trees.
In growing organic pears, it is important to select the best disease resistant variety to grow. Nowadays, many pear varieties are resistant to diseases caused by fungi such as scab and other diseases caused by bacteria such as blight. Because of this, the spraying of fungicides can be minimized if not completely deleted out of the spraying program.

Another way of ensuring that the pears that will be grown in the orchard are organic is to always monitor the condition of the soil. Best soil conditions would mean that the soil is mixed with a good percentage of well rotted manure or compost. This would ensure that the soil in which the pear is to be planted on would be rich in nutrients and microorganisms.

Water is also another factor to consider in growing organic pears. Since pears are juicier than apples, a large amount of water is needed to conserve the moisture in the fruits. It is also important to keep the roots of the pear trees well hydrated with water to prevent them from drying up and becoming brittle.

The management of the fruits of organic pears should also involve the practice of bagging which is commonly done for growing organic apples. Brown paper bags would be a good material for bagging since it is environmentally friendly. Bagging prevents insect pests from attacking and causing blemishes to the skin of the pears. It should be noted that pears are best ripened off the tree.