why figs great! but pears pitiful

[rockriver]

i've been at my best friends house doing maintenance and have been eye balling this big ole fig tree.
--
the figs are constantly little, green and hard.
seems like overnight. they are turning colors, soft and great to eat.
but
the pears ... what pears... only one tree is producing.
..
owner says they didn't treat either with any chemicals or fertilizer.
last year was just the opposite. no figs and loads of pears.
--
any ideas why?

[qrprat77]

Did the trees get cool enough during the winter?

[rockriver]

nope.. i reckon they didn't
they had a little yugo going round and round. (inside joke !)

??

[monkeybird]

In the 1960's my father dug two off shoots from my grandmother's yard. My grandmother's trees came from her mother's yard. Last week, my son dug up some offshoots from the trees my father planted and planted it in my yard. The newly planted tree is thriving! Kind of a heart warming thought to think of that.

The trees my father planted are full of figs this year.

[PerryJeff]

I am guessing your trees need to be pruned heavily. Apples will do this also when not pruned up. The tree produces big bumper crops but doesn't set any fruiting buds for the next year. Then the following year when it is not setting fruit it grows all kinds of buds to set fruit the following year. The best way to get good annual production is to prune them hard in the spring that it would normally produce the big crop. Then you will get some fruit and the tree will grow some fruiting buds for the following year. This can also be caused by a late frost which you lose all the flowers so the tree produces nothing then the next year it will really go gang busters. I had that happen this spring to all of my trees so I will have to hit them real hard next spring so I don't have that bumper crop and then nothing you are seeing.