Pears — little known star of Yakima Valley crops

The vast bulk of the nation's pears are grown in the Northwest, and thousands of acres of those orchards are right here in the valley.

Washington pear crop down from last year

OK, so the Yakima Valley is wine country.

Often overlooked in the Valley, pear crop is one of nation's biggest

Severo Eraso picks pears at the orchard of Jerry Busey near Naches on Friday, Aug. 3, 2010. Pickers start their work around 6 a.m. and finish working in the early afternoon.

Garden Detective: Pruning mature pear trees; mystery weeds in newly seeded grass

We have several mature fruitless pear trees that were planted about 12 years ago. Now, they're about 25 feet high and 12 feet wide.

Pruning can help fruit trees

Q: I am having issues with my fruit trees. I have two peach trees. The previous two years, both produced peaches, however on one tree the fruit ripened, but it never did on the other one. This year, both trees yielded very little fruit, and neither ripened. The plum trees did not produce any fruit, and the apple trees produced very little fruit. The pear did very well. All these trees are ...