Pears dropping

[greatpalm]

I bought a young conference pear tree last year and this year is the first year it has produced fruit.

About 20 pears were forming a couple of days ago, but this evening I noticed that about 15 have fallen off and are lying beside the tree.

Any ideas why this has happened? It is supposed to be self fertile so pollination shouldn't be the problem.

[greatpalm]

[jennym]

Don't think its anything to worry about - you say the tree is young, I would guess you won't get really decent crops until its 6 or 7 years old (well I didn't anyway).
Lots of the fruitlets produced by trees are shed in the natural process, they sort of limit themselves. Sometimes the cold, wind, rain or heat play a part too.
Later, when the tree is older and producing lots of fruit, you may need to remove some of the fruit yourself, this thinning out will make the remaining fruit bigger. I would say though, that even self fertile trees do better with a pollinating partner nearby.

[Robert_Brenchley]

It's too soon to get a lot of fruit; the best thing you could do would be to thin it down to one. That way you get a taste of what's to come, and the tree isn't using all the available energy struggling to produce fruit. What you need right now is growth.

[saddad]

Just check that you haven't got any pear midge larvae in the fallen ones, get into good habits about collecting up June drop or you just let them get out of hand, I have!
;D

[Leonnie]

I'd agree that it's normal for a young tree to naturally drop some of the fruit in a natural thinning process. Remember to feed the tree each year, especially important in a year with a large crop, you need to replace energy levels so that you get a good crop the following year. As saddad says also check it's not pear midge lavae, see the pests and diseases forum as I've posted some photos of pear fruitlets that are suffering from this.

[stuffed]

My Dad refers to it as 'the June drop'.