Advice on Pear tree please

Hi,

Newly retired and now taking more of an interest in my garden than previously so there may be lots of silly questions but I hope they are not too silly

Anyway, I have several fruit trees that I've planted over the years, some succesful others not so much! I may ask questions on those as I go through the previous posts without finding an answer but my first question is about my pear tree. I planted this over 10 years ago, put some weed barrier around it, covered that with slate chippings and pretty much forgot about it! Each year it gives 20-30 decent sized pears, however with the recent rain my soil has somewhat slopped and I noticed that the soil has sunk close to the trunk, it's a grafted tree with I think Conference pear but no idea of root stock...What I'm unsure about is the Black 'roots/stalks' (See photo) coming from, I think, below the graft point, there is quite a few of them all the way round, not sure how deep they go etc, so are they 'desired' parts of the tree or are they like the suckers also shown in the photo and need getting rid of? I am going to top up the soil and try to stop the clay soil slumping down the slight slope again but wanted to do the best for the tree while at it. Thanks in advance and hope it's not a really stupid question! Martin

 

The roots, I think, are fine, but you do appear to have some suckers coming from the rootstock.
If you can pull them off completely it would be a good idea, I find that once a tree starts to grow suckers it's pretty much a never ending task trying to remove them.
As long as the tree is growing well and producing fruit I wouldn't worry too much.

 

Ah, so they probably are roots then...Yep, I have to cut loads of the suckers off the rootstock every year, just shocked at how much soil has been washed away recently but maybe now I can get those deeper down before I recover it with compost/soil & renew weed membrane etc.

 

Hello M4rtin, welcome to GC As pete says, it's best to tug those suckers off if at all possible (even with a pair of pliers). That way you get rid of the lower buds just waiting to sprout and produce more suckers. If you're intending to add soil and/or membrane, try not to pile it up around the bark of the trunk. It would be better to leave those roots without soil (it's the ends of them deep down in the soil that count) rather than risk rotting the base of the trunk.

 

Will do, thank you for the reply. Not sure how deep they go though as they are quite thin (About 1mm diameter) just never seen 'roots' like that, not 100% sure but didn't notice them when the tree was little, I've got really heavy clay soil here so all this rain has caused havoc especially on the sloping bank where the tree is!

 

Those thin roots look like they are quite used to the soil level where it is.

 

Thanks for the replies so far, so, I've pulled back a fair bit of the old weed membrane and there are loads of surface and slightly buried roots heading towards my pear tree :( They get thinner as they go towards my tree which is why I assume they aren't from the tree so I think they are coming from next doors garden 4 or 5 feet away...There is a tree which grows very fast 5+ feet per year and a large honeysuckle all over the fence, theres also loads of ivy <grrr>. Anyhoo these roots look almost alien like, they are pretty much 'infested' with Orangey/Brown/Redish 'Balls', varying sizes up to about ping pong ball size, please see attached photo's, gratful for any opinions/answers on what they are and should I carry on digging them out? Was hoping they were truffles but doubt it , they are pretty hard and crystaline....TIA

 

I assumed the thin roots were coming from your tree?
Are they not attached?

Have you got a picture of the neighbours trees/shrubs.

 

Tell me all about non-stop rain, clay and sloping banks!

 

Four or five feet isn't giving your tree much rootspace. If you are able to chop all along that bit of boundary with a sharp spade and perhaps insert some rigid material as a physical barrier, it will stop neighbour's roots invading. They'll also be taking a lot of moisture and nourishment away from your pear tree. I'm crossing my fingers that this fast growing tree isn't a conifer!

 

Hi Pete, the pictures in my last post are of the weird balls that are attached to the roots which I think are from next door as they thicken the more they go away from my tree, it's the balls that freaked me out a bit never seen anything like them, they are literally everywhere, I've pulled some out and don't think my tree is the source, for instance the 'balls' are/were within 1-2 feet of my tree and the root thickened as I pulled it out towards next door.

The thin Black roots in my original pics are definitely attached to my tree, I've now pulled as much of the suckers away as I can but they've been there years and so are I fear pretty much part of the tree now, I think if I go any further I'll do more damage than good.

I will take a photo of next doors tree tomorrow when it's daylight...

 

Hi, Already started the process of border root chopping It's defo not a conifer, it doesn't do much apart from grow and deny light! It's basically a trunk about 10 feet tall then branches sprout from the top, they keep having it completely cut back every few years when it gets to about 30 feet tall but then it just grows rapidly again, it's pointless in my opinion but they seem happy paying for two blokes to come and chop it back every few years! As above I will get a pic posted tomorrow when it's light...

 

The balls on the roots look like some kind of callous, could you wash the mud off one and give us a picture, I'm just wondering what kind of tree has these on its roots.

Problem with lots of trees is that when you start cutting them back they grow like crazy for a couple of years before slowing down.

 

Possible root galls.

 

Good morning all,

Please see below neighbours 'tree' and shrubs/ivy, the 'tree' used to be a proper tree but they basically had it cut back to a 10 foot tall stump so the branches have sprouted from the top of that, what you see is 2 years growth, pointless in my opinion, all it does is deny light and provide a perfect spot for the bloomin pigeons to nest. The 'balls' in question are currently soaking to try and get the mud off of them, will post picture later if they clean up any better.