Owners of small-sized plots always want small-sized trees, commensurate with the garden itself, to grow in their garden. There seem to be no special problems with apple trees: there have long been undersized and dwarf rootstocks that significantly limit the growth of trees. In addition, do not forget about the recent "toy" of gardeners - columnar apple trees. With pears, the situation is completely different. For many years, undersized pears were the dream of Russian and not only Russian gardeners. And now the so-called columnar pears have appeared at Moscow fairs. Sellers of miracle seedlings advertise them in every possible way and, as evidence, show photographs showing compact trees strewn with fruits. Should you trust the assurances of the sellers?
Dwarf pears are actually grown in one of the nurseries in the Rostov region. Young seedlings of these pears are similar to annuals of columnar apple trees: they have a straight, very thick trunk with shortened internodes. This is what unscrupulous sellers use, passing off seedlings of unusual shape as columnar pears. However, then quite normal trees with a rounded dense leafy crown with a diameter of about 1 meter grow out of these "columns", which in itself is also an achievement. And the height of dwarf pears is impressive: the growth of these babies does not exceed 2.5 meters. Due to their short stature, dwarf pears can be planted very close to each other: literally at a distance of 1.5 meters. The yield of such trees, of course, is small: from 3 to 8 kilograms, but due to the high density of planting, the yield from the site is quite impressive. Fruit weight - from 150 to 400 grams. Dwarf pears are extremely fast-growing, they begin to bear fruit almost in the first year after planting. At first glance, everything looks quite attractive, but you still can't do without a small fly in the ointment.
New varieties of dwarf pears, which are currently being tested in a nursery near Rostov-on-Don, are very thermophilic and are suitable only for the southern regions of our country. They grow well in the Rostov Region, Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, but already north of Voronezh do not have time to complete their growth before the onset of severe cold weather and therefore freeze in winter. So in central Russia, you are unlikely to wait for the harvest of dwarf pears. True, now at the All-Russian Institute of Fruit Crops in the city of Orel, pear hybrids are being tested, created on the basis of southern dwarfs, so there is still hope of getting winter-hardy dwarf pears.
From all that has been said, the conclusion suggests itself: do not follow the lead of the sellers of the so-called "columnar pears". New dwarf pear varieties do exist, but they have not yet been registered, but are being tested. In addition, we are talking specifically about dwarf pear varieties, and by no means columnar plants. There are simply no such pears. Let's hope so far.
