That might actually be an interesting variety. I would certainly give them up to 6 months in the refrigerator before I decided what they were once they are ripe. Give them the tilt test from time to time to determine when to pick them.
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Yes don’t go by how they are now. Fragrant pears are in the market in March, they have been in storage for half a year before you bought them. Make sure to put some of those in your fridge until March.
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I have about 10 plus Asian pear varieties and I am not sure which one that pollinated my Yali and it is always loaded each year. I know my Yali is crunchy and crisp with no grits eating straight out of the tree. Scott and I also wish to get a hold of the real fragrant pear scion The USDA ARS at Corvallis gave Us the wrong scions. UGH!
Tony.
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I will store these but not very optimistic. Pear cold storage a slow soft ripening process. While Fragrant pears are fresh consumptions like other Asian pears, eaten off-tree. For my experience there is no fruits that can be stored to produce crispness. The reason the Frags are stored is strictly a marketing strategy to isolate them from other pear competitors.
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Your seedling Fragrant pear is a lot larger than the real Fragrant pear. Looks like a hybrid.
Tony
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Most European pears require a storage period after harvest, and the fragrant pear is supposedly partly descended from some European pears. If European pears are picked when fully ripe they will rot on the inside, they need to be picked a bit early and put in cold storage.
I had thought I read that the fragrant pears required storage but I can’t find any reference to that now. In any case for your hybrid they could improve in storage. Mine did improve quite a bit in long-term storage, but they were still gritty.
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Tony, I started my trees from seedlings of the market Fragrant pear.
If the “real Fragrant pear” is a true strain, then my trees should have produced the same fruits.
This tells me that the “real Fragrant pear” is a hybrid and not a strain.
So that you know I have two grafted seedlings growing side by side with a Ya Li in between; all 10ft apart.
One tree produced just that one fruit, the other tree produced 4 fruits, and the Ya Li produced none.
As for cold storage, it is a mean for soft ripening. Crisp juicy is tree ripening and cold storage is to prolong this texture.
A rock hard griddy fruit will not become crisp and juicy in cold storage.
This is my experience with other asian pears, european pears, apples, and persimmons which I have lots of.
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The best way to get a true Fragrant pear is to check with the USDA Corvallis again to see if they have the Scion from China.
Tony
Corvallis has three new supposed fragrant pears now (at least since I looked several years ago), one called Ho Mon and two seedlings they grew out themselves (like the ones we grew out). Given that Lantai Jujuli proved to not be a fragrant pear I am wondering that Ho Mon may also be similar.
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It would be cool if We know someone visiting China this Winter and have them mail some Fragrant pear scions to Us.
Tony
I think this is my last update for this topic.
Attached are a few more pics of the last fruit picked which is the same fruit last posted.
I finally picked this fruit today during a very stormy raining week in Western Washington.
It measured 3.5" wide and 4" long so roughly 3x the size of the market Frags found in our local Asian markets.
Still firm as a rock but the texture is not gritty. My complaint about the gritty core earlier is no longer an issue. And I believe this pear needs that “cold snap” to be fully ready. It is extremely crispy and juicy so texture wise is exactly as the market Frags. The flavor is a little different though. My entire family believed it to be much sweeter than the market Frags. Aroma is not the same as the market Frags. It does have a similar aroma but with a strong Guava touch. And we all preferred this flavor over the market Frag. In conclusion, it is a winner for us.
That means I will start budding this tree on Bet root stock next August. I am thinking about budding it and the Ya Li together on the Bet rootstock for convenience since Bet rootstock produces standard size trees. As the present time I’m still not 100% certain that the YaLi is the pollinating partner; however this question will be confirmed next spring. I am assuming this tree produced low fruit count this year because of it’s first season. So if it produced an abundant number next year, then YaLi will be confirmed. Lets hope so or I’ll be very disappointed.
I hope you guys enjoy these pics and feel free to share your thoughts.
Oh well, new users can only post 1 pic.
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Awesome! My one seedling that fruited sounds like it had a similar flavor, but it was always gritty. Tony I hope you got a take on the other one I sent as my grafts of it failed.
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Great catch. You are the only one so far that got a FG close to the real thing. Congratgs.
Tony
Here are the size measurements.
Extra large fruits have been because the few fruits were well taken care of by the healthy tree.
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RH,
I sent you a PM.
Tony
I may will acquire a couple more Chinese varieties in order to identify the most suitable pollination partner.
Will get Seuri and Tsu Li this year but Tsu Li looks like the closest relative.
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I suspect the Lantai Jujuli i grafted will produce in the next year or two. It will be an interesting pear to try.