Tony,
Remember I grow a small red blushing bartlett which is a very juicy, dripping bartlett type of pear that sometimes lacks the red blush. It can have some graininess under the skin but produces very heavy and is a nice addition to the orchard. It ripens in July. You can let it turn yellow on the tree since it’s a bartlett. It can be medium to large at times but may be smaller depending on the year. It’s typically a nice balance of sweet and slight sour and very very juicy. Much like most bartlett but typically better. The small yellow pear ripens typically just before the red blushing bartlett. It will rot from the inside out if left on the tree. The red blushing bartlett can be ripened on the tree as mentioned but never rots from the inside out unless it’s allowed to rot on the tree for weeks. I bring this up to avoid confusion because when the red blushing bartlett produces it’s not a bad pear but it’s not the small yellow pear. The small yellow pear will not keep at all. Once the small yellow pear is ripe you will see a slight color change on the tree green to a lighter color and pick ASAP. Bring them inside and let them ripen. When ripe they turn yellow and the quality is excellent with a unique pear flavor I’ve only tasted from that tree. It’s very welcome fruit that time of year. They ripen extremely close to the same time so when one ripens the other will be very close. Improved kieffer will be 2-5 weeks behind them and it will pull free from the tree when ripe using the tilt picking technique. It will not ripen on the tree but turns yellow inside when it’s ripe. It’s a common pear so nothing special used for canning or cooking. Tastes much like a grocery store bartlett but it’s not melting at all like others. It’s a heavy producer of large fruits. It’s your pear you will always have plenty of. Most people grow the others but these three you mentioned are not commonly grown and this description will help you grow them better. Since I’m 2 hours away you can be sure these 3 pears will be exceptional in this area. You will have so many pears from these 3 you won’t know what to do with all of them!
Thanks for the exchanged pear scions and the infos on them. That will give me a good knowledge when to harvest them.
Tony
If any of the newer growers needs to look up any of the above mentioned varieties of pears this link is a reference to many descriptions with pictures http://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/catalogs/pyrcult.html
Thanks for the link. I requested and received scion wood of a few pear varieties from Corvallis recently.
Based on the info in the link, a couple of them are virus infected. One was untested. I presume the virus detected is not a serious one to be concerned about?? So far, most of them grow vigorously after the grafts took.
As for best flavored varieties, I have only fruited Moonglow. They are very good, better than best store bought Bartlett but I like store bought Concorde better. I find it even better than store bought Bosc which used to be my favorite before I tasted Concorde.
My Concorde has not fruited. The one time it set fruit, I almost lost the tree to FB.
Earlier this year @alanmercieca contacted them about the virus issues and my understanding is they are 100% free of viruses now. Fireblight hit a Maxine pear I had today which surprised me since it’s reportedly very resistant. They cannot guarantee the wood is fireblight free.
I read that WA growers are finding Concorde very susceptible to FB. I have a 2 year old branch of Concorde but it hasn’t fruited yet. I tasted one from the store this winter that was good but probably past prime.
My Warren tree has a lot of fruits right now, last year was lean but bigger pears.
the year before an another big yield.
I like it better when posters reinforce my impression that my tree is a difficult variety to fruit and that I’m doing nothing wrong rather than make me feel like an inadequate orchardist failing at growing one of the most productive and best tasting fruits in the world. Shame on you!
What I think really needs to happen is a frank discussion with the local pollenizers. They are not doing their jobs nearly well enough.
You can always find a different forum that would serve you better, this forum is good enough for 99.99 of the members.
Mamuang is correct. That was a (clearly hamhanded) attempt at sarcasm, my native form of communication. My apologies for not being more obvious, Bob, or for not simply playing it straight.
Your results with Warren, much appreciated, suggest something isn’t quite right with my situation. My tree is plenty mature and should be producing better. It didn’t produce many blooms either, never has, and I was quite careful pruning it this spring (did no summer pruning at all last year). I do think I have pollination problems some years during cool springs (like this one), but the low bloom numbers, also present with neighboring Seckel, which at least set some fruit, but not with other pears in my orchard, all in close proximity, suggest that there may be a nutritional issue with these trees, possibly rootstock too, though I think several other pears are on the same stock. I have some work to do to get this tree to perform better…
It took mine 8 years before it start fruiting light the first fruiting season,the following year still light. If you don’t thin, you just get too many and than the following year light again.This tree is surrounded by asian pears.
Warren was a tree I went back and forth on but finally decided it was worth growing. I grafted it to a fast growing callery. Time will tell if it was the right decision. Doubtful that 333 would have been a better decision by what I’m seeing. Callery is a fantastic rootstock overall as is harbin and BET but they all have limitations also. Ohxf crosses are great trees but in many cases I prefer callery. Hopefully warren will do that good here some day.
Wanted to revive this old thread and see what people rated their best right now. Another year has went by and tastes change.
This year’s best for me:
Dana’s Hovey
White Doyenne
Seckel
Flemish Beauty
I only had two Harrow Sweet but they zoomed to the top of my list. My last years grafts should fruit a few next year and I anticipate big changes for 2018. I’m really looking forward to trying out Golden Boy, Frost. Blakes Pride, and Tenn.
Harrrow Sweet
Red Anjou
Bosc
Orient
Korean Giant
We all know comice is the standard most other pears are compared against. Comice is exceptional most of the time. Concorde is great as well but the problem is they are both very fireblight vulnerable. This year i’m grafting conference knowing its not the pear the other two I mentioned are in terms of taste. Conference is reportedly very disease tolerant. Stephen Hayes in his 2011 video mentions these three pears picking and enjoying pears, variety Concorde - YouTube & in the 2016 video Pear picking time in our orchard - YouTube
Warren
Magness
Harvest Queen
Harrow Sweet
Bieschmidt
Are you able to differentiate much between Warren and Magness?
Easily. In my area Magness it is a firelight magnet and Warren is not. I lose every Magness tree I plant eventually to fireblight, but Warren grown next to them is never affected. There seems to be a minor taste difference, but it may be my imagination. I like both more than Comice.