Guest SRA Posted April 5, 2007 Report Share Posted April 5, 2007 i bought 7 of them yesterday at Big Lots....12.99 and they stand 6'-8' tall...... in a couple of years the deer will love me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted April 5, 2007 Report Share Posted April 5, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... Cool. That is a fair price, think we paid around $13 for ours a few years back. Keifer pears are great trees, they are supposed to be disease resistant too if I am not mistaken, unlike the Bartlett pears. The kids love the fruit from those trees too, much sweeter than the other pears we have had. My 7 year old Bartlett pear in my yard got hit by fire blight last year. Thought I had it cut back far enough to be ok, but am noticing it is back, and worse, afraid I am going to have to remove it. Make sure to cage them, the deer killed a few of my fruit trees I planted for them. Anyone here bought any trees online? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted April 5, 2007 Report Share Posted April 5, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... This pear produces an edible pear? Does it require a cross pollinator? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted April 5, 2007 Report Share Posted April 5, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... "This pear produces an edible pear?" Very much so Chris, the keifers produce a sweet crsip pear, Catrina and the kids love them. "Does it require a cross pollinator?" No, it is a self pollinating pear tree, and am pretty sure it is a disease resistant variety to boot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SRA Posted April 5, 2007 Report Share Posted April 5, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... what he said Chris.......you guys have Big Lots out there??? Rural King had them, but they were 18.99 and a much smaller tree..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted April 6, 2007 Report Share Posted April 6, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... Little more research on the keifers, they are disease resistant but are susceptible to fireblight like most pear trees. Used to be a big lots in a town about 30 minutes south of us here. Dont recall ever seeing fruit trees at the closest rural king here which is about 45 minutes away. Have been buying all our trees from a local nursery since having problems with trees from lowes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest SRA Posted April 6, 2007 Report Share Posted April 6, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... yeah.....the Big Lots thing scares me a bit....but they look like good healthy trees.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted April 6, 2007 Report Share Posted April 6, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... Lowes sold us trees that were not as labeled. Our granny smith apple which has thrived and produces a lot of fruit year after year now, is not a granny smith but instead is a crabapple, which really serves us no purpose other than ornamental and a little shade. Had a few other trees from lowes, that looked good, but died right after the first season. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strut10 Posted April 6, 2007 Report Share Posted April 6, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... I've got 6 or 8 pear trees from Big Lots over the last couple years. I got Bartletts and Moonglows. Only one of those has not grown..........it had a broken rootball. I thought Kiefers were a real gritty pear and not much fun to eat?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted April 6, 2007 Report Share Posted April 6, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... You could be right Don, those pear trees also came from lowes, could be possible that they too were mistagged, but I did have a couple kiefers from a nursery. Unfortunately they were damaged by deer, got one of those trees left that is recovering, but it has not yet produced any fruit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tominator Posted April 6, 2007 Report Share Posted April 6, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... I'd like to plant a few pear trees. Not sure what variety though. Leaning towards bartletts. I read up on the kiefers, and I'm not impressed. Seems the fruit quality can be good, or down right nasty, don't know that I want to take the risk. I've got a few mistagged apple trees over the years. I have two trees that are on their last year. If they don't produce an apple this year, they're gone. Tired of taking care of an apple tree that only grows wood. One of the trees was tagged Jonagold, but produces a weak looking granny smith. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted April 6, 2007 Report Share Posted April 6, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... Chris, if the trees we have are tagged right, the bartlett fruit is not as sweet and is more coarse than the kiefer. Did a little reading this morning, and think by the descriptions I read that those trees might have been tagged right. One thing about the bartlett is that it is a very very heavy producer, I read this somewhere this morning as well, kind of reaffirms to me that maybe our trees were actually tagged right. The trees in our yard have held true to this. We always are removing fruit early to take weight off the limbs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BuckNrut Posted April 6, 2007 Report Share Posted April 6, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... We bought a bartlette tree a couple of years ago from Home Depot. The squirrels got the upper hand the second spring, eating most, no ALL the fruit before it matured. Then last year we applied chili pepper on the ground and on the young fruit. No more squirrels, and we had a great yield for ourselves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAstringking Posted April 6, 2007 Report Share Posted April 6, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... what precautions do you guys take when planting small trees in the field? i have the perfect spot for a little orchard set-up but the deer in my area will kill all the plants before i even plant them. they are good. haha. a picture would help this rookie out also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtnhunt Posted April 7, 2007 Report Share Posted April 7, 2007 Re: Cheap Kiefer Pear trees..... [ QUOTE ] what precautions do you guys take when planting small trees in the field? [/ QUOTE ] You can set two to three t posts approx 2 feet from the trees and cage the trees with field fence or chicken wire tied to the outside of the t posts. The trees need tied off for the first few years anyways. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.