Pear buds, blossoms, and fruit 2017

Thanks Bill… “by their fruits you shall know them…”
So I have an orient next door to it that also came from box store. No fruits this year…any bets on it??? :grin:

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Although your pear looks like the Orient I have it could be another variety but I don’t think so. In my location Lowes sells about four different pear varieties and your other one could be one of these. Kieffer, Hood, Moonglow, Bartlett, and occasionally I see a few others on display. You probably already know this but Bartlett is a FB magnet in my area and usually starts declining soon after it starts blooming.

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Yes, I do know that about Bartlett and I have a avoided buying one of those. Unfortunately I am one of those people that started buying fruit trees from box stores in a trusting manor. I have already purchased a Moonglow (maybe) and an orient (maybe) and this “Kieffer”. So who knows. Neither of the others have bloomed. At least I didn’t pay a lot for them. And I don’t mind this one being an orient as it was one that I chose. I guess I might be able to graft to one of them if both turn out to be orient.

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I’m getting a pretty good selection of warmer weather pears so if you later want scions just let me know. Bill

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No worries Kate they likely mislabeled the other and it’s a kieffer.

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@Mamuang,
Harrow sweet are starting to turn their normal color as the heat is less intense. The triple digit temperatures have let up. The pears in full sun are still pretty red.

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That would be lucky…but not unexpected!!

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That orient tag went some where. Let’s hope only two tags got mixed up.

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The 2017 harvest is beginning! These pears easily break off with a tilt test. We have a large rain storm coming in tomorrow and the winds would have dropped these pears. Tree number 1 is a 8 year old improved kieffer. The tree is light this year due to dicey spring weather. Total harvest is 3/4 5 gallon bucket of pears. Loss to varmints, insects, birds, disease = 0. Total Spray used = 0. Typically these pears ripen later than others not ripe yet so we cannot always go by the calendar.

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Could be the heat. Your fruit is way ahead of me. Mine are small, very green and solid two month away from ripening

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Pear tree #2 is an improved kieffer that is 7 years old. This tree is in a wet spot in poor soil but yield was nearly identical to pear #1. I dropped plenty due to getting tangled up in the autum olive bush I let grow at the bottom as a companion to fix nitrogen. This tree received no spray but I did find 2 pears showing some type of a rot disease damage. No pears were lost to animals , birds, insects etc. .total yield was 3/4 of a 5 gallon bucket.

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Mamuang,
Your probably right. These pears do not have the size they typically do so it does indicate the heat prematurely ripened these.

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Thanks for posting the pictures of the Improved Kieffer. I see similarities to my Kieffer and I’m back wondering which one I have. Not sure what effect our locations would have on ripening. At this stage yours looks smoother but that might just be from maturing earlier. I would take a picture of my Kieffer for comparison but they are coated with surround. If it’s ok with you I will later post a picture for you to compare. I’m assuming that you don’t have any of the original Kieffer fruit for comparison. It would be nice to have a better indication as to which one I have.

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@39thparallel can help us out with that original kieffer fruit but it won’t be mature for awhile yet. It’s leaves buds etc. are very nearly identical to the improved type I grow. His kieffer pear is loaded every year. They are so close I would be hard pressed to tell them apart accept by ripening time. The fruit is a little different and I’m partial to improved kieffer but that may be because I eat lots of them every year. You can see photos of his orchard including kieffer pears here The 39th Parallel Nursery and Orchard!. He does do custom grafting for people if they want a rare pear or apple in his nursery. The kieffer pears are the first pictures I took in that post. This is what the original kieffer looks like and they are very difficult to tell apart. http://growingfruit-images.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/3X/1/8/1853033bf1b231d220d6631249d0e2979c07cfcd.jpg

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This is pear #3 which is the parent pear to the other two you’ve seen in the previous posts. This improved kieffer is at least 16 years old. This pear was never sprayed and shows no sign of fruit lost due to insects, diseases, animals, birds, etc. . Like all the pears it’s very light on fruit this year. The total yield was 1 1/2 5 gallon buckets of pears.

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I picked two more small 6 year old improved kieffers growing in poor clay soil that had a dozen or so pears on them. This finished my improved kieffer harvest for the year and I already gave a bunch away. Here is what I currently have left.

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What is a tilt test? It is so hard to know when to pick pears.

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Tilt the pear up and when the stem snaps off it’s ripe. I pick my pears without losing any using that trick.

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I was looking over my Kieffer pears yesterday and I didn’t see any insect damage. My Orient had some damage but still had a good crop. For the person that wants to keep life simple this would be the tree to go with. Not sure but I think that it is self pollinating at my location. I’m estimating that I will have 40-50 ready to pick soon. These weren’t bagged but I have sprayed with surround. Bill

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Most of my Euro pears (Bosc, Orcas, Comice and pear combo) are only 2nd or 3rd leaf so little or no fruit. My Asian pears are also young but have fruited far more even as first year trees.

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