Pear (Nashpati)

1. Land Preparation Pits 2 x 2 x 2 ft with 20 kg farmyard manure, spacing 20 x 20 ft. Pear is more tolerant of heavy and wet soil than apple, which is why it does well in lower Swat and Haripur. 2.

Rabi Sowing Jan–Feb Harvest Jun–Jul 150–250 maund per acre

Land Preparation

Pits 2 x 2 x 2 ft with 20 kg farmyard manure, spacing 20 x 20 ft. Pear is more tolerant of heavy and wet soil than apple, which is why it does well in lower Swat and Haripur.

Sowing Time & Method

Plant grafted plants in January–February. Plant two varieties for cross-pollination. Local varieties include Nakh (the hard local pear) and improved Bartlett types.

Seed Rate & Treatment

Certified grafted plants only.

Fertilizer

Per bearing tree per year: 30–40 kg farmyard manure, 1.5 kg urea, 1 kg DAP and 1 kg SOP. Keep nitrogen moderate — a heavily fed pear grows soft succulent shoots that fire blight moves straight into.

Irrigation

Every 12–15 days. Water is most critical during the fruit swell of July.

Weed Control

Weed Damage Control Product
Bermuda Grass (Khabbal) Creeps out of the grass alley into the basin and takes the young tree's water and nitrogen. Keep a bare basin; trim the alley back off its edge
Purple Nutsedge (Deela) Takes the basin water and nitrogen right through the hot months, when the fruit is sizing. Repeated basin hoeing to starve the tubers
Field Bindweed (Lehli) Twines up the young trees and over the low branches, smothering the new shoots they grow in summer. Unwind it from the branches and cut every new shoot off at ground level each time it comes back, until the deep roots starve; never dig lehli roots out, as every cut piece grows into a new plant
Bathu (Lambsquarters) Rank spring growth in the basin eats the nitrogen given to the tree before fruit set. Hand weeding while it is small, before it seeds
Congress Grass (Gajar Booti) Seeds out of the alley into the basins, where its thick summer growth takes the young tree's water and nitrogen. Cut the alley before it flowers; uproot stray plants with gloves on and arms covered, and do not burn the heaps

Clean basins; grass alleys between rows on slope.

Insect Pests

Pear psylla is the main pest — it makes sticky honeydew that blackens leaves and fruit with sooty mould. Codling moth bores the fruit. San Jose scale and stem borer attack neglected wood.

Diseases

Fire blight is the one to watch — shoots suddenly blacken and bend into a shepherd's crook as if scorched, and it moves fast in warm wet weather at flowering. Cut 12 inches BELOW the visible damage and disinfect the secateur between every cut, or you will carry it through the orchard yourself. Scab spots leaves and fruit.

Crop Care

Prune lightly in winter. Pear bears on long-lived spurs, so removing spurs removes years of crop. Thin to one fruit per cluster in May.

Harvesting

Pick pears MATURE BUT HARD, when the fruit lifts with an upward twist and the seeds have turned brown. A pear ripened on the tree goes soft and gritty at the core. It ripens properly off the tree, and this is the difference between a good price and a poor one.