Seems like I had fruit in year 3 or 4.

My Seckel has done nothing this summer!!! Its green but it doesn't like growing. I plan on adding another and Kieffer was on my list. A lot of what i read says don't expect fruit for up to 10-12 years. A guy on another forum said he has finally getting fruit after 10 years. OUCH! The trees are long lived, however.

Common wisdom has it that if (1) you don't prune too much, and (2) you tie down main branches to near horizontal, you can significantly accelerate fruiting.

Others can give their experience as I'm just starting these attempts.

A lot of factors come into play - rootstock(standard will take quite a bit longer than a dwarfing rootstock), soil, your growing conditions, whether or not you pile on the nitrogen fertilizer, etc.
I've forgotten how long it took for my Keiffer(on some semi-dwarfing rootstock) to come into production, but it was around 5 years. I do have some pears(Summercrisp, Seckel, Early June Sugar) that have been in the ground for close to 10 years with no inclination to bloom or fruit yet.

I bought a Comice, Seckel and Pineapple pear trees (little things) but grafted some wood from each onto an existing semi-dwarf Bartlett (my best guess) that came with the house. Seckel fruited the following year, the others not yet but other grafts e.g. Kieffer, Twentieth Century also fruited the next year. I didn't know pear trees took so long to fruit, I'll have to think about rehoming those little trees as the grafts are enough for me now.

I planted 3 pear trees 3 years ago (Keifer, Orient, Pineapple). This year the Keifer has about 10 small pears (they may continue to size up). Very little fertilizer (worried about fireblight) and very little trimming. The trees were about 5 ft tall when planted and are about 10 ft tall now, with very vertical growth. There is only one pear between the other two trees, and I'm not sure which is which. I hope to be able to tell when I taste the fruit, if the squirrels don't get it.

I don't have Kieffer, but so far all my Pear grafts (~12 varieties) bloomed and tried to set fruit the year of or after grafting. My original (ungrafted by me) trees bore in year 3 or 4.

Contrary to what was posted above, I read studies that said unpruned vertical growth fruited sooner than pruned or tied down growth.

I have an orient pear tree. It produced fruits one year after I planted it and every year there after. The problem is the fruits are as hard as rock. I grafted 20th, Keiffer, Asian, Barlett, Monglow, everything I saw in the Nursery. It has been 3-4 years now, the 20th century produced over 10 very sweet and crunchy fruits, the Orient:20 still hard and the rest none so far. Kim

Three years ago I bought a Gold Spice on OHxF5?? that gave me several delicious, but very small, fruit the same year it was planted.

Next year (after grafting a few varieties to it) I got a baker's dozen, all GS.

This year I got not one bloom, but the tree's healthy and I'm spotting a lot of what I think are developing fruit spurs, including a few on grafts. I assume I shouldn't let those on newer grafts bear fruit for a couple of years. An Anjou graft bloomed within weeks after grafting, but I clipped them off.

No fertilyzer, lots of tying-down of limbs to try to overcome pears' vertical nature, not to control fruiting. Very, very limited pruning as the tree is still getting established.

All just FWIW -observations, not conclusions!

Good luck all,

M

My Kieffer bloomed the second yr after planting and every yr thereafter...in Febr/March and got froze out in March or April. This yr after the third such freeze out in three yrs, the tree got whacked. It wasn't the only one. Moonglow, Orient, and Ayers are gone for the same behavior. At least they all bloomed at a young age. Warren was much slower to bloom and I lost patience with it also. Still have Concorde, Bosc, Comice, Bartlett, Seckel, Olympic, and a couple Asian pears. They mostly bloom later but all were froze out this yr. Maybe they'll last another couple yrs. Too little space and too many things to try. I don't like most pears that much anyhow, Bosc and Comice being two exceptions.

The Fruitnut

Fruitnut: Bosc and Comice are 2 exceptions: you mean they are very good? Please tell me how: sweet? crunchy? soft? Please give me an idea. I'll graft those 2 to my Orient pear tree. Kim

Kim: Bosc is a firm, russeted pear. The one often seen in stores. It can have a very nice taste and flavor. Comice is the pear often sold mail order because of it's reputation for quality. It made the mail order business Harry & David, of the Rouge river in Oregon famous. It is a large melting pear that can taste very good. Barlett can also be very good if properly grown and ripened. All are susecptible to fire blight and need pretty hot weather, 90s in mid to late summer for top quality. But at least they bloom later here than Kieffer which has mediocre quality.

The Fruitnut

I just planted a semi-dwarf keiffer tree i bought for $15.00. Didn't have much information on it other than "self-fertile" and semi-dwarf; can someone tell me how tall/wide it might get and whether I need to plant other pear trees around it to produce fruit?

I'm gonna hazard a guess that Keiffer is indeed self-fertile, mainly due to the fact that I see so very many OLD solitary Keiffer trees at old farmsteads across The South - it's one of the few varieties that can withstand the ravages of fireblight and keep on producing year after year. Those old survivors often look like hell, but they keep on kicking out the fruit.
I've seen 'em over 30 ft tall - probably on standard rootstock - and as is often the case with pears, they're quite upright in their growth habit, so have a smaller canopy 'footprint' than would an apple of similar height.

im needing help with my pear tree it lookslike its dying its leaves are browning now and the bark on the bottom looks really bad and it might be wood ants on the tree

After eight years, I am surprised to find fifteen or so pears on my Bartlett tree. After reading these posts I realize that many engage in tying, presumably to train production at lower elevations. My tree is upwards of 15 feet, have I missed my chance at tying? Can some one outline how this is done? My Kieffer is quite old, can any tying technique be used for it?

I planted a Keifer Pear tree last year. It is now about 9 feet tall and has produced fruit. The problem is it has been dropping fruit. Some days we may have 3 or 4 on the ground. Still has about a dozen on the tree and 20 in the house. They have not ripened even after having some of them in the house for 2 weeks. I had never heard of this type before I bought it at the nursery last year. We live in the Reno area at 4800 feet elevation and had a very hot and dry summer.

Wait another 2 weeks.

Although the earliest dropping fruit is likely to be infested with some kind of rot.

I bought a keiffer pear a few years ago from Home Depot, and it fruited the first year and it has good crops since then year and year. My other Asian pears fruit well also, never thought that kieffer pear, or any pears is hard to get it to fruit.