Hello,
The varieties of euro pears that you commented are fine, but there are other varieties of better quality, I could develop a very extensive list of pears especially French and Belgian very good quality, I would like to help you with your request scion wood, but not I know how, I hope your news if you are still interested.
A greeting
No one has mentioned Luscious pear. Not only do they taste great, they don’t get mushy in the center like some varieties. They ripen after my Clapp’s favorite harvest is finished, so extend the season for me. Many of the varieties mentioned on this thread are not hardy this far north.
Luscious are probably better up north- here in SE NY they are a bland Bartlett- barely enough sugar to be worth eating. They also ripen in Aug when I’m not really interested in pears.
I know someone who has a little Forelle tree in the essentially abandoned orchard that she acquired a couple years ago. When we found it (perceiving only that it looked like some kind of a pear tree) it had two healthy-looking fruits on it (and a couple past their prime) and we each grabbed one and bit into them at the same time…we both nearly swooned from the luscious flavor. I suspect it’s like so many fruits that we read about on this forum: so many different perceptions and growing conditions, etc. My lady friend with this orchard knows nothing about orcharding (I know twice as much) and her daughter and son-in-law who live there with her will be overseeing the health and well-being of all the orchard, gardens, and wild fruiting trees in the vicinity. I didn’t see any diseases on any trees. This little semi-farm is in a tiny, secluded, mountain valley in the coast range in Oregon. They even have a healthy American Chestnut among the many trees (up in the forest…native?). It’s kind of a Shangri-La.
I hope to get a scion next Winter and maybe attach it to a rootstock and plant it as far as possible from my three current pear trees.
I’d be surprised if your friend’s chestnut tree is a native American chestnut, it’s far more likely a Chinese chestnut that was planted, accidentally or on purpose. Americans are only native to the east coast and I don’t know that they ever grew in the northwest (thought I could be mistaken I suppose). It’s interesting because I have/had what was the second largest confirmed living American chestnut in the state of Pennsylvania (and it may have been the largest because the largest at the time mine was #2 was said to be sick with the blight). Sadly, my tree is succumbing and is almost dead, I’ll harvest it this summer and make furniture from the wood.
Native chestnuts continue to thrive in the west- My sister even buys them from a farmer’s market in Arcata CA. Take a tree out of a highly humid environment and many disease pressures decline. Enjoy your fruity shangri-la.
I’d like to hear more because I’ve been of the belief that only a very few native trees are hanging in there for the long term. Many will grow to 10, 20 or 30 years before dying back. There are hybrids available now that are fairly true after many generations of cross-breeding and of course there are Chinese, Carpathian and other varieties, but true American chestnuts. As I said before, I could be mistaken, but I might have to confer with the American Chestnut Foundation on this one. 
Well, you learn something new everyday. I found this on Wikipedia (and I recognize that not everything there can be trusted…
“Soon after that, though, the American chestnuts were nearly wiped out by chestnut blight. The discovery of the blight fungus on some Asian chestnut trees planted on Long Island, New York, was made public in 1904. Within 40 years, the nearly four billion-strong American chestnut population in North America was devastated;[45] only a few clumps of trees remained in Michigan, Wisconsin, California and the Pacific Northwest.[32] Due to disease, American chestnut wood almost disappeared from the market for decades, although quantities can still be obtained as reclaimed lumber.[46] Today, they only survive as single trees separated from any others (very rare), and as living stumps, or “stools”, with only a few growing enough shoots to produce seeds shortly before dying. This is just enough to preserve the genetic material used to engineer an American chestnut tree with the minimal necessary genetic input from any of the disease-immune Asiatic species. Efforts started in the 1930s are still ongoing to repopulate the country with these trees, in Massachusetts[47] and many places elsewhere in the United States.[48] In the 1970s, geneticist Charles Burnham began back-breeding Asian chestnut into American chestnut populations to confer blight resistance with the minimum difference in genes.[49]”
So it seems that there very well may be some still living in the west and northwest, but like in the east, they’re very isolated and very rare (as mine had been. The only reason mine lived so long is because there weren’t sources for the blight nearby). Thanks for the info…
In the west there are plenty that thrive. Not sure how they got there, but I assume they were intentionally planted a long time ago. As I said, it is the humidity of the east that allows the fungus to dominate and decimate them. Yes, I’ve seen young trees here in NY that are actually very old trees that continue to live below the ground as roots that get enough energy to survive from their short lived above ground saplings. They sometimes live long enough to produce nuts- maybe in another century or 10 they will develop immunity all by themselves- except that man-bred replacements will probably have taken over by then,. .
This is very off-topic from the original post and I’ll surely understand if it’s deleted, but I thought some might like to see the large American chestnut that still lives (barely) on my property. It’s finally succumbing to the blight and it’s sad. As I stated before, a few years ago it was confirmed by the ACF as the 2nd largest living tree in Pennsylvania and it could very well be the largest at this point in time. It’s 19-20" DBH (diameter at breast height) and likely 100 feet tall or close to it.
Also, not about pears:
Based on the leaves, the assessment strongly favors American over Chinese. Last year there were quite a few ‘empty’ burrs; that is, they contained the deflated skins of non-nuts. There were no filled nuts, which reminds me there are trees around including a few of my own that are ready to contribute pollen. I should talk to her daughter to see if they want to experiment with that. The previous owner, who created the orchard back in the '70’s knew the tree was there (not in the orchard), referred to it as an American chestnut (as I recall) but didn’t indicate that he planted it, though it does have a very old ‘deer guard’ around it so he probably did. Majestic tree there, G. Green.
Great photo. With all the new hybrids being developed I’m pretty sure the forest will repopulate but it will take a long time.
I agree, the north American continent will see “American chestnut” again, but probably not to any large degree in my lifetime.
I don’t doubt that the dry air in some areas is probably a safer environment for them. Oddly, I contacted the American Chestnut Foundation to confirm that mine was a native American, which they did, but they seemed wholly disinterested in pollinating the tree. Of course I had that hope that maybe my tree was that one specimen that had some real resistance to the blight and would be the answer. They responded that mine would die of the blight eventually and that it was just a matter of time. Sadly, they were right.
Again, my apologies for hijacking, because I was and am very interested in the original topic about Euro pears. That said, I find this interesting and it may be of value to some of the members. It’s the American Chestnut Foundation page, specifically their page and tutorial about how to submit samples, which they encourage.
http://www.acf.org/find_a_tree.php
I think it’s interesting to note that they give different people and addresses to submit your sample to, depending on where it was found. They ONLY list sources as far west as Indiana, nothing in the American west. I wonder if the trees weren’t native to the west and all the trees there now were transplants at some point and they doubt the genetic purity. I may have to make a phone call on Monday and try to get some of this figured out because you guys have me really curious about those western trees now. One would think that if there are large trees in the west that are escaping the blight because of isolation or dry climate, that they’d be ideal seed sources for the ongoing research and hybridization project. (For what it’s worth, I’ve sent an email to a research tech from the American Chestnut Foundation and asked if she has any thoughts about this. If she responds to me, I’ll be sure to post her thoughts, probably on a separate thread so as not to hijack this one any more).
I’ve worked full-time as a wildlife/conservation professional for nearly 3 decades in northern Pennsylvania and during that time, I’ve seen dozens of “big” American chestnut trees and hundreds or thousands of saplings, but I’ve only seen one living tree that was larger than mine and that tree died about 20 years ago. What’s really sad about that is that my tree is really an impressive specimen, but it’s not even remotely as large as the monarchs that were common in the eastern forests back in the day…
Maybe the other way 'round, thinking that the trees would be sick if they were in the East = not resistant. We have some pretty good sized trees out here, too.
I’d like to see those some day too Seedy…
Hello friends, this is my first intervention in the forum, and I will try to choose varieties of European pears that I like ( but it is impossible to reduce the list to five varieties).
These varieties are my favorite :
CLASSIC VARIETIES :
RECENT VARIETIES :
Of all these pears , the variety most sensitive to fire blight is the variety Passe Crasanne, so I do not recommend this variety (despite being really delicious).
As a first barrier in the struggle of fireblight, is the choice of the variety and rootstock.
In my orchard, the rootstock Farold 87 Daytor has very good behavior
Joseph
On this topic i would have to recommend the best portuguese Pear we have (and for me one of the best in the world).
It is known by “Pera Rocha” or “Pera Rocha do Oeste”. In my orchard it was the only Pear cultivated by my ancestors.
I still have trees of this variety that are more than 40 years old.
If you ask a Portuguese nacional to name a pear variety he will name this one. It’s the most widespread over here because of it’s qualities - it matures in August and it has a hard pulp (soft if you let it mature a bit more), very juicy, with lots of sugar and excellent flavour. I like it on the optimum point of maturity when you bite it and the juice drips from your mouth. Apart from that it has quite a low chilling requirement when compared to other European Pears.
A few links with more information:
http://www.perarocha.pt/custompages/showpage.aspx?pageid=fbc7d132-7aa2-4b33-bc19-b7d40f286e87&m=b31
The production is concentrated precisely where i have my orchard ( West of Portugal - see map)
If you don’t mind me asking, how has your Potomac pear done in 2017 and 2018?
