The round, gritty “sand pears” (derived from Asian pears) are among the easiest fruit bearing trees to grow. You can sometimes see old sand pear trees still gamely producing pears in southern homesteads long after the house itself has crumbled. The pears you see in the grocery store are European pears and you can grow them too.
Except for their susceptibility to fire blight, which causes stem tips to turn black and die, pears are almost disease-free, and do not need a regular spraying program as do many other fruit trees. Pear trees do not take well to transplanting so choose a long term planting site.
The ‘Kieffer’ pear is resistant to fire blight and a good choice everywhere in the continental United States. ‘Kieffer’, like most pear fruit varieties, are self-fertile, but you get better production if you have two cultivars for cross-pollination. The popular ‘Hood’ pear is a good choice for southern orchards. Don’t overlook the new Asian pears. These are hardy in the North, disease-resistant, and generally begin bearing fruit at an early age as a young tree