WHEN PEARS... GO PEAR-SHAPED

“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty,” said Theodore Roosevelt. This seems particularly apt when it comes to pears which have a reputation for being troublesome. They need a warm, sheltered site, especially if trying to grow them in the north, hardly any are self-fertile so you normally need to have two of them, and they can be prone to several pests and diseases.

With the correct choice of variety, it is possible to overcome the first two issues; in this month’s article we will look at how to deal with the third. We’ll look at some of the more common