I have three pear trees, only one is known...a HOOD pear. I get very few pears, so clearly none of these are pollinating the other. The HOOD blossoms first, about 2 months ago, and three weeks ago one of the other ones had fist sized clumps of blossoms which have now dried up and are falling off leaving behind only one pear. The last tree, an older pear tree, has been blossoming over the last four weeks, possibly overlapping the second one. The trees are at most 20 feet apart. This last tree usually sets some fruit, but fewer than 20 pears. I've tried pollinating with a paint brush, but usually only on the same tree. I have lots of bees around my orange trees, and I believe I've seen some around the pear trees, but not positive about that.

I'm a southern neighbor (Los Angeles area...1200 ft elevation, at least 600 chill hours), and I'm trying to figure out what the best pollinating varieties would be for my pear trees...then I'll probably get some scionwood or budwood and graft them onto the trees.

Any suggestions for me, or even references/web sites that I can check.

John