🍐 Pear
Pyrus communis × P. pyrifolia
The gritty-textured survivor that outlasts every other temperate fruit in Florida.
Sun
Full sun
Days to harvest
3–5 years to fruit
Spacing
15–20 feet apart
Soil pH
6.0–7.0
How to grow
Forget Bartlett — Florida grows sand pears: 'Kieffer,' 'Pineapple,' and 'Orient' laugh at heat, humidity, and neglect. Plant in winter, and note pears need cross-pollination, so plant two different varieties. They'll outlive your mortgage.
Water & feeding
Drought-tolerant once established; water deeply the first two years and during fruit swell.
Common problems
- Fire blight — blackened 'shepherd's crook' branch tips; prune 12 inches below damage and sterilize tools
- Pear psylla and codling moth on susceptible varieties
- Gritty texture in some varieties — that's stone cells, not a defect, just old-school
Harvest
Sand pears ripen on the tree but improve with a week on the counter. They're cooking pears at heart — bake, can, or pear-honey them.
Nerdy fact: That grit in a pear is sclereids — stone cells, literal tiny rocks of lignin the fruit builds around itself. You're crunching plant armor. Respect.