What are you useing for rootstock?
I used OHxF 97 rootstock. Most all of my 2 acre home orchard is on either seedling or near full vigor clonal roots, on the theory that I need that vigor and hardiness in my zone(5a), and growing style. Should ensure pears for my heirs, and hopefully a few before before then😀.
I got to try a perry by Farnum Hill at Poverty Lane Orchard a few years back, and found it to be enjoyable enough to seek scionwood and plant out the resulting young trees this past spring. Still seeking out other varieties to trial, especially the precocious ones! I’m also interested in dual-use varieties, Fedco Trees has a few this year that sound quite intriguing, like Ginnybrook, a huge unknown pear, and Mclaughlin, a winter keeper, both of which are good fresh eating as well as for juicing and fermenting. I have come to realize that the bulk of a blend for fermentation can be composed of fairly innocuous juice which satisfies basic requirements in sugar content, aroma, while doing no harm (excessive acidity) and that those high-tannin ‘spitters’ can be only 10-30% of the total, yielding a finished product that is nicely balanced. Funny enough, perry is traditionally made as a single varietal, but I imagine I will be blending for quite some time with my one-off perry pear block!
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Jesse,
Do you use calleryana wild pears for rootstocks? We use those here for grafting a lot of pears.
I called Joe Beringer today. Nice Guy. He will have perry trees available that he bud grafted in the spring of 17’. He seems geared toward large orderers and only ships freight. He referred me to raintree nursery for smaller perry tree orders. I really only wanted to ask him about the interstems he is using and rootstock compatibility. He guessed with the high vigor of perry pears, the interstems would produce a 15’ tree. I am thinking OHxF 333 will be my rootstock of choice for perry pears. Perry on Callery or OHxF 97 will produce huge trees
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Seems like perry pears are catching on more all the time. I’m not sure they will ever be as big as hard cider apples such as Kingston black but time will tell.
Perry more reliably makes me “over-regular” so I don’t partake of it too often.
I had missed this comment earlier. The traditional perries of Europe are a blend of many varieties, just like cider. There is very little info on perries made in the past in the US, it must have ben very uncommon.
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@JesseS,
Are you growing ginnybrook aka belcherstown? http://www.fedcoseeds.com/trees/?item=235
I’m interested in this huge pear and trying to find out more information about it?
Not yet…but like you I am also interested in that variety and will add it when opportunity pesents.
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What are you growing for perry pear trees now? i suspect after a couple of years your collection is extensive. I’m just curious because I would like to hear what you have and how they are doing. I’m not looking to go any further in this direction at this time.
Curjous if anyone is using red pears in their perry cider blends?
How was your 2019 Perry pears and cider apples? Doing my last press of the season today of golden russet and winesap that have been sitting for 4 weeks.
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Perry pears of European origin are not fruiting yet. I did get some Burford, and John (Canadian ussuriensis cross) that seem promising. John is bittersweet, Burford seemed to have mild bittersharp qualities. I did press a batch of Bosc that was the highest juice yielding of any yet, and added some subacid apples to liven up the mild Bosc juice.
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Has anyone grown Perry pears successfully in the Mid Atlantic region? I’d like to try some but am concerned about potential disease issues, especially fireblight. The amount of good growing information on Perry pears available online seems very limited.
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I think fireblight could be a real problem, I contacted a fellow in Kentucky a couple of years ago who had planted several varieties of Perry pears and as I recall he said that many were killed eventually with fireblight
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New member resurrecting this thread to see if anyone has had any updates on their perry pear production.
I have some acreage in North Central WA and am thinking of putting in some perry pear trees.
I live in W. WA and not too far from Biringer Nursery and wondeing if we aggregated an order if they would be more interested if a bunch of us went in on an order. I could arrange to take delivery directly.
Jim
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I am in southern Oregon zone 8a. I planted 3 perry pears 5 years ago–all on Oxfm333 semidwarf rootstock. Barland, Hendre Huffcap, and Winnals Longdon. Just getting my first crop now. Trees appear to be fireblight resistant with minimal spraying. Still looking for scionwood of Planta Blanc of French origin as most of my cider apples are also French varieties.
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I missed this thread somehow… Once upon a time I grew many perry pears in the mid-Atlantic. They were no worse than other pears for fireblight, no big problems. I had too many pears in the space so removed them before they fruited.
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I don’t know anything about them but this is awesome. None astringency, as good as cider. at least to me.
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ACE is tasty when you want something sweet, but I wouldn’t consider ACE Perry a true Perry. It’s really a cider. I read the description at a wine store and it says it is made with a cider base and pear “essence” is added.
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I better begin reading. Hey thanks for that.
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