Thank you for all the suggestions, the tree addiction bites hard, because there’s so much lag time between purchases and payoffs, giving you lots of time to theorize and make longer lists! I see the Warren and Magness ripen in slightly different windows, so clearly I need both of those, and a red AND green Anjou, and then I’d hate to be rude to the Ayers by not trying it…
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Misterguy. Try and get Magness on quince if you can it will fruit quicker for you. Another really good one to look into is Dabney. It is supposed to be similar to Ayers but lower chill.
I have a graft of Magness growing on a Worden pear tree (OHF.87 rootstock).
But since it is my favorite pear - and because I need more understocks for grafting - I am also going to buy a Magness tree on OHF.333 roots. Has anyone had earlier fruiting with Magness on 333?
Here’s hoping for more pears sooner rather than later…
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I have a Dabney really struggling tucked into a corner of the yard with poor ventilation and lighting, that I almost forgot about. I’ll try relocating it to a better position in the yard. Thanks!
My pear story is very similar to Eric’s ( @amadioranch ) . When I finally decided get out of the urban rat race and move to the country and bought my tiny little hobby “farm”, it had a full sized pear tree. I walked around the property with the agent and we both picked a pear and it was just wonderful. The agent, of course, made the most out of the opportunity to point out how nice it was to have my own fruit trees, and this part of his sales pitch was more effective than most. Within about 5 minutes of walking around eating that delicious pear I found myself imagining where I could plant MORE fruit trees.
You know the rest of the story…bought the place, planted 70+ trees, etc. But by far, that big old pear tree is the lowest maintenance, most dependable fruiter I have. It was the closest tree to the area sprayed with 2, 4-D by my neighbor. It’s leaves all curled up, its new growth was all twisted and curly, but it still produced fruit that year- the only tree on my whole property to do so. That’s a testimony to the durability of pears if ever there was one!
My parents also have a pear that always makes fruit and they’ve done a single thing to it. I think pears are the closest thing there is to a “plant it and forget it” fruit tree. Not that sprays, pruning, etc couldn’t improve things, but I’ve known several pears that did pretty well with no care at all.
I fancy myself as a (very) amateur chef and I find more gourmet recipes that call for prayers {CORRECTION: pears} than I do almost any fruit-including apples. And I’ve not made a dish with pears yet that I didn’t love. So yea, @clarkinks, the pear is very wonderful!
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Maybe the prayers add something special to the recipes, but the pears are probably the more tasty ingredient. 
Trust me, if you tried some of my dishes you’d know that was a Freudian slip…my cooking of pears (or anything) sometimes DOES call for prayers! Fortunately I happen to use both. 
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Yeah…I’ve pretty much made up my mind. I want this pear in my tiny orchard. It would be nicer if it was pretty, but you can’t have everything. That description pretty much sums up everything I like in a pear.
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The pear if you pick the disease resistant low chill cultivars is the perfect fruit tree for the deep south. For hard pears the kieffers and orients are about the best. I do not have direct experience with the pineapple or at least not with a tree that has yielded so I have nothing to say about the pineapple. The hood is a very good july pears, but really needs a pollinator to bear well. It get soft and the trees are hardy. Southern bartlett is a fine pear, but their are also others that get soft and sweet for fine eating. For a late pear the Olton Broussard looks like an apple and is is a little later; it is asian. May not yield well in zone 9. There are of course many other pears that are also very good for the deep south. Main thing is figure someway of doing in the predators that eat pears and break branches to get at your pears. For later fall fruit I look toward persimmons.
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Alright Jeff. You take the plunge first.
Several years from now, we expect you to provide us with a full report!
I’m not sure why people, myself included, overlook pears sometimes. My place came with a 10 yr old Bartlett and Ambrosia pear. I hadn’t ever had an Ambrosia before and naturally assumed it would be far superior to one of America’s most common pears, but I was surprised to find they were both amazingly delicious and 17-18 brix. Though the Bart may be common, it is not mundane. Can’t wait to try my other pears in a few years (Ubileen, Honeysweet, Harrow 604, Concorde, Clara Frijs, Luscious).
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I missed all the discussion of Belle Lucrative above. As I recently mentioned elsewhere, I have a 13-year tree of it yet to fruit. I have been getting more and more fruit from my pears (finally!) so I hope to be able to sample it this summer.
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Scott your branch bending trick worked on all my old trees and they are bearing now thanks to you.
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Thats also why my pears are finally starting to fruit, I started bending branches a few years ago. @Alan gets the credit, he convinced me that is what I needed to do.
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Scott, are you talking about bending below horizontal to force fruiting buds, or just spreading branches to slightly above horizontal? I’m guessing the former because the latter you would likely already have been aware of at the very beginning of your endeavor there.
Now we both know that a similar method is used as a standard training method in high density orchards. Somehow I always forget the systems name (which sucks when I’m trying to find video instructions of the method).
The funny thing is that university derived descriptions of other training systems frequently warn against training branches below horizontal because of the water sprout growth it inspires on bent branches close to the trunk. For a home grower, that is often not a problem and is easily remedied with some summer pruning., It is apparently not something that discourages a lot of commercial growers in Europe either.
I started doing it to Euro plums many years ago when I saw a picture in an old fruit growing book of plums trained that way to encourage fruiting. They termed it “festooning”.
Now I use it on several species, especially on upper tiers of central leader trees…
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Right, I am talking about significant bending. I did spreading when I planted the trees. I don’t have much that is below horizontal but I have a lot that is pretty much horizontal. I usually bend a branch below horizontal in year 1, and then the next year I cut off the end part going down. I need to do this since the trees are planted closely, if I had more room I may have been able to keep the downward parts.
I regulate vigor to some degree by either focusing on removing upright or downward growth. In the same orchard different varieties of same species will have different needs in the balancing of vigor to fruitfulness.
In young trees you usually only need to remove the most vigorous uprights and all trees need some upright shoots to maintain adequate vigor and replacement spurs- even if the scaffolds themselves are weeping, but when your focus is on on pushing a reluctant tree to fruit, radical action may be the best course.
I will never wait 8 years to taste first fruit on a tree again if I can help it.
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I always bend rose branches, especially the climber type, to horizontal position to simulate flower buds along the cane. It works!
I just don’t know that this does the same thing to fruit trees but fruit tree branches are much stiff, how do you train them to horizontal position without breaking them at the joint? Pear tree branching habit is very up right with narrow angle to work with…
Tom
Thanks to your earlier advice I think that I am heading in the right direction. I got some fruit last year and hope to have more this season. Bill
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Branches less than half the diameter of their trunk usually bend without danger of breaking, which are what I use to created scaffolds for a tree I’m training. Anything thicker generally should be promptly removed.
When a branch that needs bending is too thick, I create a hinge by making several cuts with a good pruning saw about a third the way through and an inch apart at the base of said branch. I make as many cuts as needed to make the branch pliable. Make cuts on the side you are bending the branch towards (where the pressure of bending the branch at least partially closes the “hinge”).
I made quite a few hinges this week to train grafted water sprouts to a more horizontal position. The longer you let them grow upright the faster they grow.
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