Alistair Large: A passion for pears – the “doyenne of fruit growing”
10th March 2026
Pears may be trickier to grow than apples, particularly some of the traditional varieties grown by Kent farmer Alistair Large, but he says he likes a challenge. Sarah Kidby spoke to Alistair to find out what he’s been doing since his return to the family farm.
Originally a mixed farm, the land has been in the family since the 1700s, at various times keeping pigs, growing arable crops, hops and blackcurrants – before settling on solely dessert apples and pears in the early 2000s when paying to upgrade blackcurrant equipment just didn’t make sense.
Alistair is the seventh generation of the family to farm there, returning in 2019 after a period away – initially studying Climatology & Economics at University College London, before going on to study and practice law, then working in civil service and real estate.
His return to the farm was prompted by his father’s illness and a feeling of ‘hiraeth’, a Welsh word describing the longing for home. He jokes that his request to take up the reins was probably met with a “duality of delight and horror” from his family.
Shortly after returning to the farm, Alistair suffered a brain haemorrhage that nearly killed him and had to overcome some gruelling challenges with the help of his family, including learning to walk again; but he now runs the farm in partnership with his mother.
On his return, the farm needed a lot of work and Alistair notes that the British Independent Fruit Growers Association was, and remains, “unforgettably helpful and friendly”, pointing him in the right direction to various buyers, people who could help, and those who could sell him what he needed to bring the farm up to scratch. “John Breach and the committee have been a treasure trove of information and support,” he adds.
Growing a crop, not a forest
Since 2020 they have planted 12,500 new trees, still growing the traditional varieties, with the balance slightly in favour of pears. Despite being trickier to get the trees to produce fruit consistently every year, higher costs than apples and lower yields per acre, pears are Alistair’s passion. “It is a challenge and I enjoy a challenge even though financially it’s not quite so rewarding. I’m a masochist I suppose.”
Commenting on the orchard’s pear varieties, the “three Cs”, Alistair says Conference is the easiest to sell, Concorde the easiest to grow, and Comice the easiest to lose money on. For Comice, one of the main difficulties is that it doesn’t set very well and has to be pruned very specifically to control growth – though even this isn’t a guarantee.
Since the growth regulator Cultar was restricted it has been particularly difficult to reliably set Comice. “I bought a root pruner in 2020 and that comes out every couple of years, sometimes in summer as well, just to try and tame it and shock it into producing some fruit. It’s got to be quite brutal and even then sometimes it decides all it’s going to do is grow a forest rather than a crop,” Alistair comments.
Higher yields, disease resistance
Similarly, on the apple side, they opt for old fashioned varieties such as Cox and Discovery. “As a family, we never understood the appeal of Gala; it’s full of disease – you’ve only got to look at it and it’s developed scab. I suppose it’s easier to grow and it yields very high, but it’s just so prone to disease. You’re out there constantly spraying the thing.”
However, they have planted 2ha of semi-scab-resistant variety Cabaret which he hopes will bring up the overall yield. “With all these old varieties – the pears, the Coxes, the Discovery – they’re not doing much in terms of tonnes per hectare compared to a lot of modern fruit farms, which is where probably financially it’s making less sense,” he explains. “So we had to put something in that was going to be a bit more modern and productive and high yielding, but still resistant to scab.”
De-risking
All fruit is predominantly sold to supermarkets, with some to wholesale and waste fruit going to a local juicer. Packing is no longer done on site with Alistair preferring to sell fruit in what he calls the secondary market. “I’m fed up of the risk, getting called and told four months down the line that I’m only going to get 50 quid this year, so I try my best to de-risk as much as possible and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
“In a surplus year it can be quite hard to sell things; when everyone’s desperate it’s easier. I’ve got some relationships with a good few people now and it’s starting to make a lot more sense.”
Introducing biologicals
Loss of ag-chems has also presented a problem for controlling “pear sucker”, or pear psylla, but they have managed to overcome this by introducing biologicals. Around three years ago they decided to switch from using an ag-chem company agronomist to independent agronomist John Clarke, who made the suggestion.
For two years they bought in pirate Anthocoridae bugs – putting in 1,000 bugs per hectare. John stressed the importance of not mowing the grass, as this is where the bugs sleep at night; if the grass is too short, they go elsewhere and you won’t get them back.
Alistair jokes: “The place looks like I’m going bankrupt; the neighbours are always furious. In fact, I had a grower come over last year to pick up some Discovery from me, and he said: ‘Is your mower broken?’ I said to him: ‘How’s your pear sucker this year?’”
Whilst the neighbour had been having problems with pear psylla, Alistair hasn’t had to spray for it once since introducing biologicals. They pulverise and mow once a year, which means fuel costs are down too.
On the apple side, codling moth is a challenge, particularly with the reduction in chemical application rates which has meant going back to broad-spectrum products, which Alistair wasn’t happy with. They plan to try a virus that infects the pests, making some of the hatches from the second generation unviable, and after a few seasons the population begins to fall.
Blossom weevil has also caused terrible problems but seems to be under control now. Numerous bird boxes, hedges, and large areas left wild around the orchard encourage small birds which help to keep on top of it.
Yield variability
With the exceptionally dry weather in spring and summer 2025 resulting in a bumper harvest for many orchards, Alistair says their yields were higher than usual but it wasn’t their best year by a long way, and varied considerably between varieties. Younger trees, particularly Conference, did not do very well and strangely an orchard planted in 1947 hardly produced anything, which was a surprise as it should be well rooted.
The farm’s sandstone soil drains very well but has a tendency to become acidic so it is limed every so often, which makes a huge difference. The farm hadn’t been limed in years when Alistair took the reins and they were using a lot of foliar applications of iron on the trees – however, now they have corrected the soil pH, this is hardly ever necessary.
All fruit from the orchards is hand-harvested, with labour previously sourced from other farms – however, as things have become tighter that’s no longer feasible, so they’ve made contact with a local recruiter who provides a small force of pickers when needed. Managing and supervising crews can be a challenge, Alistair shares, but they make sure pickers take breaks when needed – “The happier they are, generally the better the quality is,” he added.
Future plans
Whilst mainly sold in supermarkets, with some wholesale, fruit is also sold in an honesty shop at the farm which Alistair comments does very well and they have plans to bring in other products such as local juice and honey.
Looking ahead, he says they will continue with more Cabaret, potentially adding another 0.5–1ha to finish off the block. Meanwhile, a 4ha area that has been in a Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme will be planted with Conference.
They would also like to purchase a 4wd tractor to pull some more picking trains during harvest and a pruning sweep to tidy up underneath the trees. Machinery and equipment are usually shopped around for at auctions or various dealers and Alistair recently bought a strimmer in preparation for the potential removal of glyphosate more quickly than expected.
Whilst he could think of “a wish list as long as your arm”, the main priorities will be to get more trees in the ground, increase production, and in the longer term put in a cold store.
Grower Profile
Farm owner: Alistair Large
Location: Kent
Total size in ha: 35
Varieties grown: Pears: Comice, Concorde and Conference. Apples: Cox and Cabaret
Soil type: Sandstone
Read more grower profiles.
