Many people have beat chill expectations for various fruits, most famously @applenut for apples in Southern California. I was warned that the same success is not shared by pears. Are there European pears that have been found to fruit well in Southern California? I see Seckel and Warren talked about, and Bartlett and Southern Bartlett, Comice, Magness, etc but has anyone found they get consistent fruit in low chill conditions? I planted 4 pears very close together so I hope to find out eventually.
I don’t live in Southern California, so just because a pear does well in the SE does not mean that it will be the best in the SW. That said, the first question is what do you mean by “low chill.” Magness, Warren, Ayers, Patomac and numerous others require about 800 chilling hours. All of them will do fine many warm climates, and in most of Georgia, but are probably not reliable here in Statesboro and certainly not closer to the coast or further south.
Tennessee requires about 600 hours and will probably be OK here. We barely got 600 hours this winter and it bloomed and produced a crop just fine. I have heard chilling hour estimates of around 400 hours for Tennosoui and Southern King. Goldenboy came from Wacilla Florida and probably needs between 200 and 300 hours. Southern Bartlett (tasteless for me), LeConte, Baldwin, Florida home, Courthouse, Scarlett, Orient, Cajun Pineapple, Carnes Karric, Acres Home, and Southern Queen are all low enough chill to grow in parts of Florida. Now, if you are in Zone 10 the low chill pears may not be low chill enough. so it all depends on what you meant by low chill.
The chill hours model probably does not perfectly allow us to predict what will happen. Some apples rated at 800 hours will fruit abundantly and deliciously with 100-200.
The challenge here sometimes is seasonal confusion. Sounds like not too many people have commented but I know the Warren pear is grown by at least 2 farmers in the Los Angeles area, profitably. Not sure how typical that is, and of course LA is climatologically diverse, because of sharp elevation changes.
Belle Lucrative surprisingly fruited for me last year. It was an ugly little fruit and it tasted amazing. Apparently that is its reputation.
This year it is blooming with Seckel. It is surpassing my expectations for San Diego. I now wish I had planted it first and grafted seckel in, rather than the other way around.
Now I want to try more classic pears. Does anyone have suggestions? I will have to try buerre superfin since I heard one report that it is lower chill and has many reports on its high flavor.