I have 2 productive grafts of RAJA. I believe I ordered a couple of scions from Fruitwood Nursery. They are a beautiful pear! Seem very easy to grow. And abundant. I think that others might have more flavor. But, I have noticed that my Raja, when left to ripen, has that butterscotch flavor. I like it.
My Yoinashi, Drippin’ Honey and Hosui are all very flavorful, each with a different tinge of some familiar taste that . . . 'you just can’t quite identify" !
I have 2 Raja from ogw that I will allow to fruit in '25. Growing nicely.
Gorgeous fruit again, Karen. Perfect ripening.
Why, thank you, Kind Sir.
All the Asians were incredibly clean and just about perfect! I wish all the fruit was like that! (My apples are a mess this year.) My European pears are very interesting. The Bartletts are monsters! I’ve never seen pears that huge. Seem to go from ‘Not Ripe’ to ‘Too Ripe’ within 5 minutes! LOL
Moonglow aren’t as perfectly pretty . . . but have ‘over the top’ flavor. I may paint these. The color is striking, even if they are a bit lumpy! (I think they are Moonglow. ?) But, they may be Harrow Delight. I’ll have to ‘fact check’ tomorrow. (I need labels!)
Nice display of Asian pears. For sure you do a better job than I do presenting your fruit.
Moonglow is solid green. Thinking those are something else. I got rid of my moonglow as I didn’t much care for them and they were extremely hard to ripen correctly. I’m sure whatever those are they are better than moonglow. @PomGranny
@Auburn
Bill . . . it’s the artist in me. ‘Always composing a painting’ - it’s just my nature. And I think it’s fun to set them up on pretty platters and cake plates. If I end up using them for paintings - I’ll post what I’ve done, using the photos as a reference.
Maybe they ARE one of the Harrows. I can check the branch’s tag tomorrow. I guess I should not post them till I’m sure what they are. Now, I’ll be very curious to try one of the actual Moonglows. Thanks for the tips.
This time of year they could be harrow sweet. Harrow delight is a much earlier pear.
I am a total newbie to Asian pears. I planted a 4 in 1 about three years ago and three of the four grafts died. The one that is still going is Hosui and is growing great vertically. It actually produced two small, a little larger than a golf ball, fruits this year and they were extremely juicy but very bland like Asian pears I have purchased at Asian markets. I planted a few Asian pears this year, Korean giant, Chojuro, shinsiki, 20th century, and Shinko. I was looking at Raintree Nurseries web site and see they have several Euro/Asian hybrids like Maxie and Reddy Robin. Has anyone grown or eaten these types and if so, do they have more/better flavor than regular Asian pears? I don’t have the most refined pallet and have a hard time distinguishing flavors but to give an example of the flavor profile I prefer my favorite apple that I have had is Cosmic crisp.
I’ve had a Niitaka tree for nearly 30 years. Probably my least favorite Asian pear. Overbears in a big way; if not thinned (I never get around to it), it produces limb-breaking loads of golfball-sized fruits, that are not tasty enough for me to bother with unless it’s the only thing fruiting at the moment.
I’ve grafted or grown Korean Giant - which always gets rave reviews - on at least 4 occasions, and each time, as soon as it got old enough to bloom… BAM! Fireblight took it out. I will not try it again. The first KG I planted managed to produce 2 or 3 fruits the first year it fruited (FB killed it the next year)… they were HUGE, watery, flavorless things.
When we first started this home orchard UofKY fruit specialists warned against Hosui because of FB… but I’ve had it for 20 years now, with no issues. It’s a nice pear, but Chojuro is much tastier, imo.
We have the exact opposite here. Everytime i plant chojuro it dies from fireblight. The korean Giants have no real problems.
Is anybody aware of an Asian pear that does not need major thinning each year? That would be a great breeding project in my mind. Every year I think I have thinned enough and every year I snap several branches from my trees.
My moonglows look exactly like Karen’s picture. I got those from Stark Bros
I was under the impression Moonglow were supposed to get a nice blush, at least some of the time.
This is what Moonglow are supposed to look like. The pics are from k8tpayaso’s post, but mine looked the same. @evilpaul
I wonder if they develop the blush in certain climates or there are multiple strains circulating. Seems like a lot of sources, including stark, mention or show photos of a blush.
Ive never had heavy enough fruit set on Ya Li to make me think, “Wow, i should have thinned those.” So… For me, it’s a relatively poor producer, compared to others, but i really like it, otherwise.
That’s a gripe I’ve always had with on-line vendors. They just use stock photos that are not of the actual fruit as well as poor descriptions. Sometimes they do get a slight blush, but most of the time they are a solid green. Mine were usually a darker green than the pics above.
