Ryan,

I'm going to copy here what I recently wrote in another thread, hoping it might be of some help. If you're in a part of the country/world that's at all humid and where fireblight is a concern, then I would guess my advice might apply to you:

I've decided I won't plant/graft any more pears anywhere where they don't get sun the very first thing in the morning. I also prefer higher, windier spots to sheltered spots. I want my pears to dry off (especially dew) as quickly as possible.

Also, I think at 10-15' a pear would compete very little with your garden, and if were limited on options I'd consider planting it even closer than that. If fireblight is a real possibility in your location minimizing that pressure would be my leading consideration.

Well I was thinking about taking my vegetable garden location, and turning it into a fruit orchard of like 2-3 trees, and then putting my vegetables in the beds I got surrounding my back yard.

I am in Salt Lake, and we are generally very dry for the summer months, but I don't want fire blight or any problems. If it is to get sun very first thing, next to shed is pretty ideal, my garden bed is on west side of our willow, so it might not get direct sunlight till about 1 hour after sunrise.

I have a light meter, that can tell me how much light a spot gets. I can put it in my vegetable garden in morning and see how much it gets at the crack of dawn, and then see how long it takes to be at full brightness. .

Also my vegetable garden area is between two houses with little wind. I picked that so my stuff wouldn't blow off. I am going with the next to shed idea, it doesn't have any big trees to the east of it, and I checked, and the tag says that it is dwarfed to 2/3 sized, so it wont' be as tall, but will have better resistance and be less likely to die, compared to a huge tree.

Is there any specifc notes that I should not forget when planting it? Like certain things to do to make sure I give it the best chance possible? My spot is solid, and have internet pages on how to plant, I just didn't know if there common mistakes people did.

According to a website, Salt Lake has one of the lowest humid levels, only Arizona and New Mexico have less humidity than Utah.

My rootstock is OHxF333. It says it 2/3rd size of standard and is cold hardy. My pear branches are 20th Century, Shinseiki, Hosui, and Chojuro. With a couple random ones coming out of the main stem.

Ryan, if you're in Utah my best guess is that you'd do fine completely ignoring the advice I gave you based on fireblight, but you should probably get advice from someone in your area. I don't know enough about Utah (or fireblight) to say anything with confidence, but my best guess is that what's a problem for me here would be nearly or completely a non-issue for you.

This is my Asian Pear Tree.

The bricks are temporary, and only to keep water in the area. I am going to get nice bricks like in the top right.

The little line in soil is about the size of container, which was about 14 inches wide, so I did 7 inches around it so about 21 inch wide hole. I first spray painted around the container in the spot I wanted to plant it, and dug out that sod, then measured 7 inches around the hole, and laid a stick, and spray painted a line, and I basically made an octagon around my 14 inch hole, and spray painted the roundness into it, and dug up sod. I also made a line with surround grass to know direct center of hole.

I dug a deep hole, that was completely flat (not a cone), it was probably about 1 foot below the bottom of the tree's lowest part of root! I dug it that much depper to get the good soil mix in there and pull out a lot of the big rocks. I filled it with a soil mix 2/3 native 1/3 new stuff, I filled enough for the tree to still be above ground, and gave it a good foot stomping. (don't worry my soil drains awesome).

I pulled the pear tree out of container, and the dirt just fell everywhere, and I could see every root, (which was shocking cause my Maple, had tons of roots that needed cutting all around the sides), so I made sure all the roots were separated, and lightly held it in air so that the top root is 2 inches above the dirt line (not letting them get damaged. I then started filling it in with my native soil mixed with good stuff (2/3rds mix), having someone hold it straight up in my perfect spot, and filled her with that soil mix to what you see. You can't see it, but there is a root slightly above ground on other side.

I then laced it with bricks, and then I put 2 gallons of water that was mixed with "root starter" in a Lowes bucket, it was filled with tons of nutrients and prevents root shock.I went back when water drained a little, like 10-20 minutes later, and gave her a good rinsing.

*I was slightly concerned because she seemed to wabble with light tapping of stem, but after I watered her, she seemed to be in pretty good. I wanted to go buy a stick to help it keep straight, but I was afraid of stabbing a root.

To the left of the tree (north), it is about 5 feet to my shed. To the right (south), there is a power line about 6 feet away, and the tip of one of my Globe WIllow branches at about 10 feet away.

To the East, there are no trees in my yard blocking it. I actually have room every 12 feet going east to plant another 2 fruit trees.

But, the neighbor behind me, has a good sized medium tree, that shades their back yard, but depending on where the sun rises, the more south it gets, the less light my Pear will get at crack of dawn. From what I know of astronomy, the sun will rise more north with each passing day til about end of June, and then will start rising more south. So I for the next month, the pear will be getting good solid sun early on.

My yard shape is unique, and with the willow, there was little places getting sun early. Sunrise is at 6 a.m. and by the time the sun completely comes over the big mountains my pear area will start getting direct sunlight. With 14 hours of sun per day, at about 6pm 10 hours later, my house which is to the west of the pear tree, will start shading the back yard, but the sun kind of sets at and angle, so light comes between the two houses for a little bit. I will draw up a rough little picture. The neighbor behind me is at weird angle because they are in a circle.