Nashi Pear Tree Care
Nashi pear tree care for Australian backyards: a year-round calendar for watering, fertilising, mulching, pruning, and pest checks.
Nashi pear tree care in Australia is built around four steady habits: water during fruiting, fertilise three times a year, mulch heavily, and check for codling moth from October. Get those right and a grafted tree will crop reliably for thirty years and more.
This page is a seasonal calendar. For variety selection, see best nashi pear trees for Australian backyards. For the pillar overview, see growing nashi pears in Australia.
Year-round care calendar
| Season | Priority tasks |
|---|---|
| Winter (Jun-Aug) | Plant bare-root trees. Prune for shape and renewal. Apply lime sulphur if scab was an issue. |
| Spring (Sep-Nov) | Watch flowering. First fertiliser. Hang codling moth traps. Thin fruitlets after set. |
| Summer (Dec-Feb) | Deep watering. Monitor codling moth and pear and cherry slug. Second fertiliser. |
| Autumn (Mar-May) | Harvest. Third fertiliser after picking. Light prune of dead wood. Top up mulch. |
Winter (June to August)
Winter is planting and pruning season. Bare-root nashi from Daley’s Fruit Trees, Engall’s, Yalca, or Diggers Club arrive from June.
Plant into a sunny, free-draining position. Soak roots in a bucket with a splash of Seasol for an hour before planting. Keep the graft union 5 to 10 cm above soil level.
Pruning happens while the tree is dormant. Aim for an open vase, central leader, or espalier shape. Remove crossing branches, dead wood, water shoots, and anything below the graft. Shorten last season’s leader growth by about a third. Keep the centre open so light reaches the spurs.
If pear scab was a problem last season, apply a copper spray (such as Yates Liquid Copper) or lime sulphur at bud swell to clean up overwintering spores.
Spring (September to November)
This is the busiest period of the year.
Flowering. Nashi flower in early to mid spring depending on variety and region. Watch the forecast for late frost. A single cold night below minus 2°C with open flowers can wipe out the crop. Cover young trees with frost cloth on still, clear nights. Established trees are harder to protect, but a light overhead sprinkler running through a frost will keep flowers at just above freezing.
Pollination. Bees do the work. Avoid spraying anything insecticidal while flowers are open. If you have a single tree and no neighbour pears within 50 metres, hand pollinate using a small paintbrush every couple of mornings while flowers are open. See pollinating nashi pears for detail.
First fertiliser. Apply a granular fruit tree fertiliser, such as Yates Thrive Citrus & Fruit, at label rates around the drip line in early September just before bud burst. Do not fertilise heavily while flowers are open, because excess nitrogen causes flower drop.
Codling moth traps go up. Hang one or two pheromone traps per tree from late September in southern Australia, earlier in subtropical zones. The trap catches male moths and signals the start of the season. See codling moth in nashi pears for setup detail.
Fruit thinning. Once fruitlets are pea-sized (usually mid to late November), thin to one fruit per cluster with clusters spaced about 15 cm apart. Thinning lifts fruit size, reduces limb breakage, and helps the tree set flowers for next year.
Summer (December to February)
Summer is about water and pest patrol.
Watering. Deep watering during fruit development is the single biggest factor in fruit size. A weekly deep soak in dry weather is the baseline. Push a finger 5 cm into the soil at the drip line: if it comes up dry, water now. Potted nashi need water every day in summer.
Second fertiliser. A light feed in late November or early December supports fruit fill. Use the same granular fertiliser as in spring at half the spring rate.
Codling moth checks. Inspect traps weekly. When trap catches climb above a few moths per week, take action: bag young fruit in paper or mesh fruit bags, apply granulosis virus sprays, or use a registered insecticide. Pick up windfall fruit daily and dispose of it in the rubbish, not the compost.
Pear and cherry slug. Small black sawfly larvae that look like slugs and skeletonise leaves. Hose them off with a strong jet of water, dust foliage with wood ash or hydrated lime, or spray with a registered insecticide if numbers get out of hand. Two generations a year are normal.
Pear scab. Wet summers can bring olive-brown spots on leaves and corky lesions on fruit. A copper spray helps once leaves dry out. Improving air movement through summer pruning reduces the problem.
Autumn (March to May)
Autumn is harvest and rebuild.
Harvest. Early varieties like Kosui ripen in late January and February. Hosui follows in February and March. Nijisseiki and Shinseiki ripen in March and April. Shinko and Chojuro can hang into May. Pick when the fruit comes away with a slight upward twist and the background colour shifts from green to yellow or bronze.
Third fertiliser. A light application in April or May after harvest helps the tree restore reserves and set strong buds for next spring. Compost worked into the mulch line is the simplest option. A handful of blood and bone per square metre under the canopy works as well.
Light pruning. Remove any dead wood, broken limbs from cropping, and obvious water shoots. Save structural pruning for winter.
Top up mulch. Refresh sugarcane mulch, pea straw, or lucerne to a 5 to 10 cm depth out to the drip line. Keep mulch 10 cm clear of the trunk.
Fertiliser quick guide
Three applications a year is the standard for backyard nashi:
- Late winter / early spring (Aug-Sep): main feed. Granular fruit tree fertiliser at label rate.
- Late spring / early summer (Nov-Dec): half rate, to support fruit fill.
- Autumn after harvest (Apr-May): half rate or compost top-dressing.
Seasol (seaweed solution) can be used at any time and supports root function without forcing leaf growth. A handful of sulphate of potash in spring helps fruit colour and flavour on light, sandy soils.
For potted trees, switch to a liquid fertiliser at half the recommended strength every three to four weeks during the growing season. Granular fertilisers can build salts in confined potting mix.
Mulching
A 5 to 10 cm layer of organic mulch around the drip line is the cheapest, most effective input you can add. Sugarcane mulch, pea straw, and lucerne all work. Mulch holds moisture, suppresses weeds, moderates soil temperature, and slowly feeds soil life.
Keep mulch 10 cm clear of the trunk to avoid collar rot at the graft union. Top up twice a year (spring and autumn).
When to spray copper
Copper is the standard organic option for fungal disease on pears. Two timings matter:
- Bud swell (late winter): to knock back overwintering scab spores.
- Petal fall (after flowering): to protect young fruit and new leaves from infection.
Use a registered product such as Yates Liquid Copper or Bordeaux mixture at label rates. Stop copper sprays four weeks before harvest.
Tools to have on hand
- Sharp bypass secateurs and a pair of loppers for winter pruning
- A pruning saw for larger removals
- A pheromone trap for codling moth (Yates and OCP both sell home-garden versions)
- A backpack or pump sprayer for copper and oil sprays
- Paper or mesh fruit bags if you want a near-organic codling moth answer
- A bucket and a soft tie for staking new trees
Look after the tree, and the tree looks after you.