Southern Pears

They begin to get yellowish and will come of the tree with no effort when you lift the pear to about a 45 degree angle from how it is growing. Splotchiness is fairly common. They look the way they are supposed to.

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The Scarlett Pears that belong to my FB Friend Tony Miller in Southern Mississippi are beginning to ripen.

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My friend says he ate one. He said that it was very high quality. It was sweet but with a bit of tartness to it.

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Howā€™s it going guys? My name is Bob and Iā€™m new here on the forum and seeking some advice regarding pear trees.

Currently, I have a keiffer in the ground for about 18 months, had a Floridahome but it died. Both trees were purchased from Loweā€™s and now Iā€™m searching for a replacement for the dead tree and donā€™t have a clue what Iā€™m doing. What I do know is Iā€™d like to have an eating pear rather than the canning type such as the kieffer.

Any suggestions for a replacement? In in zone 9, Pensacola Florida.

Additionally, being I have a canning pear tree (kieffer) and would rather have an eating pear that I might should try to grafting another type of pear to the keiffer. Anyone know where I can purchase southern pear sions? Any recommends for sion wood types I should try to use on the kieffer?

Thanks and million.

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I have no experience in what varieties would work for you but Hood pear is reported to be a warm area type and it is supposed to be a good eating pear.

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@Spin
I agree with @Auburn we have members in low chill areas like @Richard who have grown this pear for years Hood Pear. If @jeremymillrood is available he may have additional suggestions.

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Iā€™ve yet to get a good crop of pearsā€¦my trees are going into their 4th season. Hoping this will be the year as long as the squirells donā€™t get them all. Iā€™ve got a pineapple, Leconte and flordahome. The pineapple is the largest of the 3, but the Leconte seems to take grafts much better for some reason. Grafted to the Leconte Iā€™ve got moonglow, Ayers, golden boy, oriental and one or two other varieties.

If the keiffer is doing well and youā€™re interested in fresh eating instead of canning, Iā€™d suggest grafting to itā€¦plenty of folks on the site who will be willing to share their scion wood with you. Also, might want to check out just fruit and exotics if you havenā€™t already. Theyā€™re out near Tally so not too far from your neck of the woods and they have a good pear selection most years.

good luck.

I donā€™t think a true Hood and a true Kiefer will bloom together, and unless you have another pollinizer for Hood it may not ever bare. There is just no telling what a tree from Lowes really is since their supplier has a terrible reputation for just relabeling whatever they have on hand as whatever they think is popular in a given region. I think Kiefer is supposed to be somewhat self fertile. Hood may be the earliest of all bloomers and Kieffer is a fairly late bloomer by European type pear standards. If you go with Hood, get some Baldwine, Acres Home, Winnie or Granny Durden and graft them into a branch. Get some Orient, Tennosoui, or Scarlet and graft them into a branch of your Kiefer. And going forward take any Lowes labeling of a plant with a healthy grain of salt.
Marcus

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I still think that Goldenboy is the best all around soft pear for a humid Zone 8 and 9 climate. Itā€™s the best bet for being productive most years in your area and producing commercial quality fruit. I had a little fire trouble with mine last year, so you will have to manage for that. Coddling moth really likes it unfortunately, so you will have to deal with that eventually. Iā€™m fairly sure itā€™s self fertile, and it might overlap bloom time a little bit with Kieffer anyway. The fruit will be pretty much completely finished before Kieffer starts ripening fruit. Generally speaking soft pears do not ripen well on the tree. Goldenboy ripens great inside at room temperature. Itā€™s bad for making more pears than the tree can support, so you will have to thin the fruit most years. The only commercial source for it that I know about is Just Fruits and Exotics. I just checked their website, and they still have some in stock. Boy they have gotten expensive under their new ownership!

I like LeConte a lot. Itā€™s similar to Goldenboy but more apple like in texture and flavor. Beware, there is a fire blight prone poor quality imposter out there that grows very fast. I think a true LeConte is supposed to grow slow and gets its fire blight resistance from its slow growth. The Just Fruits strain is the real deal.

Acres Home is in my view a slightly better tasting variety than the two above. Itā€™s a huge pear. My tree bore two pears for the first time last year, so Iā€™m still learning about it. Like Hood it blooms super early. I donā€™t know about its pollination requirements.

Baldwine is a slightly firmer pear than the ones named above, but so far I think I like its flavor the best. Its super early blooming but the fruit ripens later than any of the other varieties listed above. It takes a good 6 years for the tree to become productive. Goldenboy and LeConte bare big crops for the size tree for me their third year.

Avoid Tennessee because it will never bloom in your climate. I find Southern Bartlett to be tasteless. I havenā€™t gotten fruit from Scarlet, Tennosoui and Southern King, so I can only tell your that their reputations are encouraging. However Tennessee is the seed parent to Tennosui and Southern King which may mean that it will take them a long tine to mature and may mean that their chilling requirement is too high for your climate.

Leona has a great reputation for your climate but is slow maturing, and I donā€™t know of a commercial source for it.

My understanding is that Garber and Monterey are both seedlings of the true LeConte and are similar in quality and have super low chill requirements. I havenā€™t gotten either because they are supposedly so similar to LeConte and Goldenboy which is probably also a LeConte seedling.

Marcus

Wow, thank you all for the feedback and a bigger thank you to Marcus for taking time to clear the air so to speak. Guess I need to find a source of sion wood for my kieffer, hate to destroy the tree as the trunk has grown nicely and Iā€™m now reading some folks on here like the fruit if stored a while after picking, maybe Iā€™ll be one of them.

Apparently, I need to drive over to that nursery this weekend, 3 hour drive but the rewards may make this worth the time. After all, the main reason Iā€™m doing this is for my children to enjoy. Not sure what to do regarding other tree but I do need to find some sion wood for keiffer.

I may pull out an apple tree I planted same time as kieffer as itā€™s partnered apple tree died (Anna apple). That would free up more room for additional pear trees types. Still researching on this forum if the apples are worth the time in my area (zone 9). From what Iā€™m reading Lowes and home depot will sell anything as well as tractor supply, dissapointing.

Thank again for the advise.

If you do grafting I can send you a few scions that might work for your area. Hood, Golden Boy.

In my area Hood, Kieffer (possibly improved Kieffer), Golden Boy, and Orient bloom overlaps.

Bill, thank you sir for the generous offer of which I would very much like to accept.:smiley: After researching your offer it appears the Golden Boy can be grafted to the Kieffer thus pollinating both. Which would make that tree a bit more productive and offer me a fresh eating pear to boot.

After reading more on the Hood I would also love accepting this offer as well but need to purchase an early blooming tree to graft on to whereas the Kieffer is a late blooming tree. Currently looking to purchasing a Pear tree to graft that hood on to, maybe Southern Queen. Any suggestions?

Iā€™ll send PM for my mailing address. Not sure how to send money for Sion and mailing, maybe you can school me on this. Any suggestions with above plan? Maybe Iā€™m putting to much thought into this?

Thanks again.

Iā€™m not saying that you need to take out Kieffer. Some strains are great processing pears, and they are much later ripening than most of the soft pears. There is something to be said for not having all your pears ripen at once.

If you want scion I have at least some of the following the following: Goldenboy, LeConte (very limited), Southern Bartlett ( others love it, I donā€™t), Tennessee (Does not bloom in Florida), Baldwine, Acres Home (very limited), Orient (very limited), Granny Durden (I have the seedling mother tree, excellent, earliest ripening, July 4th in Statesboro GA most similar but much earlier season than Baldwin), Winnie (I have seedling Mother tree, excellent Asian pear type, crunchy but not hard, ripens on tree, ripens early July here, earliest blooming of my trees, very juicy, very sweet, very vertical growth habit.) Granny Durden and Winnie have not been tested further south, but they act like they are very low chill. I imagine they will bloom in January every year where you are.

All the above said, Goldenboy is the most sure thing for the Pensacola Area. I have several fruit enthusiasts FB friends in that areas who swear by Goldenboy. In a conversation with the former owners of Just Fruits, they said that Goldenboy was by far the most reliable pear for Florida they sell. They said that in their orchard Goldenboy is the only variety that has never once had a crop failure. In contrast, the 20 year old Tennessee pear in their orchard has never once bloomed. My Tennessee which came from them produced well last year, but in years where I get less than 600 chilling hours I get zero flowers. So donā€™t get talked into that one because it will never bloom where you are. Thanks and God bless.

Marcus

Marcus, maybe I should just get a Golden Boy tree for the sure bet and graft something else to the kieffer that will allow better keiffer pear production as well as a good eating pear on the same tree. Any thoughts?

Also, can you pass along FB group name?

Orient is the classic partner for Kiefer, but itā€™s a Jack of all trades but master of none sort of pear except it is bullet proof and late ripening. In fact itā€™s probably more disease resistant than the Kieffer. My Scarlet is still a baby and has not bloomed yet. But I have a FB friend as far south as you are in Mississippi who got fruit from his tree this year, and he loves it. Heā€™s like me in that heā€™s kind of picky about pears. I can tell by when mine breaks dormancy that itā€™s going to bloom with Orient which means it will bloom with Kieffer. My friend down south is saying his blooms late like Kieffer. The reason Iā€™m pushing Scarlet pear is because my friend is saying the same thing about it that Just Fruits says, that it is the most unique pear they have ever encountered. The Mother Tree is from further South than where you are, and itā€™s a 100 year old seedling tree. I will post the pic from my friend when I find it. Just Fruits says that it has a spicy flavor. Over the phone they said that it has the prettiest fruit of their pears and that they donā€™t know how to describe the flavor beyond saying that itā€™s spicy and that it is a totally different flavor from any other pear that they have tried. My friend says that he canā€™t describe the flavor either, but itā€™s very sweet, very Juicy, very intense and unlike any pear he has ever tried and that its freaking delicious. Iā€™m forcing mine to stay small because of where it is located, so I have scion if you want some. But I donā€™t have a lot of it, so ask today if you want some.

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This is the picture of Scarlet Pear from my friendā€™s orchard.

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If you can send me a couple of scion of GOLDEN BOY I will try again this year. Last year lost the grafts you sent , May have been to dry. I can send you more Savannah or Southern Queen .If you need more Bill

OK, Iā€™m about to make my list now, so your timing could not be better.

My Savannah Pear is doing good grafted into a limb of Baldwin. Iā€™m so out of space. We also made some trees of it for the Georgia Southern Botanical Garden. We decided that pear from a historic home in Savannah Georgia just had to go into the garden if for no other reason than that one.

Marcus, Iā€™ll take your generous offer and suggestions, thanks. PM Sent. :grinning:

Bill disregard the Golden Boy as Iā€™m just going to purchase the tree. Thank you sir.