Are Pears The Perfect Survival Fruit?

I don't know if they are the perfect SHTF fruit but being a tree that is relatively care free, grows in a wide variety of climates and produces a huge crop each year it is surely a candidate.

Pears will grow well in all but the coldest areas. Pears grow for Mexico to a couple of parts of Canada. If your temps don't typically fall below -25F then there is a pear for you!

A late spring frost may damage flowers, so be aware that that is a possibility in the cold climates.

Pear trees do well in a wide range of soil types as long as the soil isn't usually saturated with water. They like their feet dry, so don't plant in the lowest wet swampy areas. Pear trees do require full so ovoid planting in areas with partial shade. Even though the plant might survive the pear production can be greatly reduced are completely eliminated. I have seen that myself.

Plant more that one! You will need a couple of trees for pollination purposes and simply to not have all your eggs (pears) in one basket in case a tree were to die for whatever reason.

Pears come in a number of varieties and you will need to choose the one that best fits your need. Different varieties will produce their fruit at slightly different times. You can expect this to range from August to October depending on the variety.

All pear trees will require cross-pollination to set good crops of fruit except for maybe the Seckel variety but even this variety will benefit from having a suitor. Unlike apples, you don't need to be concerned about which variety will work with which, except for Magness and Luscious, which are horrible pollinators. For this reason I would steer clear of these two.

You might get more pears with fertilization, but the trees do not need it to produce. And fertilization makes the pear tree more susceptible to fire blight, so don't bother with fertilization.

Pears are a little strange in that the fruits do not ripen on the tree. This is good as it allows you to extend the harvest by not needing to harvest all of the pears at once. Pears can be preserved through refrigeration, freezing, canning, or dehydrating. Pears get the thumbs up for SHTF food. Insert thumbs up emoji here.