What happened to our pear tree?

[dhrynio]

When we bought our land they had planted a pear tree about 3 years before. It just never grew and never produced fruit. In the spring we have a tree specialist come and we asked him about it, he said it looks like it was planted too deep. It was sort of blocking the door to our shed so we had him dig it out. It did look like the root ball was planted way too deep.

Anyone know if this theory is true? Can a tree just not grow if it is planted too deep?

 

[Jed]

Generally if some types of trees are planted too deep they will get collar rot and eventually die. If the graft union on your pear is above the soil it probably would have been fine.
The closer to the surface the feeder roots of a tree are the better. If they are too deep then they can get waterlogged and not get oxygen.
Don't compress the soil too hard when it's been replanted.
You could try surface mulching close to the trunk but not touching out to about 3 feet.

 

[dhrynio]

Thank you Jed!! You are obviously much more educated on trees than I!

I do regret not replanting it. But at the time we were trying to work out where I would put my raised bed and just could not come up with a good spot for this poor little pear. We were very lucky when we found this property, we live in Poland by the way. The owner had it for 20 years with plans for his two kids to build a duplex, but they both moved to the states and never came back.
During that two years he planted tons of trees. Pines along the boarder on three sides and plum, sweet cherry, tart cherry, walnut and this poor little pear. For the most part he planted well but several were planted to close. Like two oak trees planted 4 feet apart with pines on either side also about 3 feet away. The pines grew faster and shoved their way in and take all the sun. Last year I also had two pines taken out on either side so they could grow and they are finally thriving.