I have Harovin Sundowner now with the TM of Coldsnap. I purchased it from Cummings Nursery in 2016. It has never grown well nor have Harrow Sweet and Paragon all planted in the same hole with BRM on calleryana. I have grafted Paragon on other trees with great fruit size and growth. The Harrow Sweet is prolific and was quite precocious - the fruit are quite good. Coldsnap only has a few fruit each year. I have not had enough to evaluate it fully. Neither have had significant fire blight strikes. Paragon and BRM have both had minor strikes but no significant damage.
Thanks for that update! Always good to know what im missing out on!
HW 600 unamed above
HW 601 unamed above
HW 602 harvest queen
HW 603 harrow delight
HW 604 unamed above
HW 605 unamed above
HW 606 bliss
HW 607
HW 608 delicious
HW 609 harrow sweet
HW 610 harrow crisp
HW 611 unreleased
HW 612
HW 613
HW 614 sundown
HW 615 unreleased
HW 616 harrow gold
HW 617 unreleased
HW 618
HW 619 unreleased
HW 620 unamed above
HW 621 unreleased
HW 622 unreleased
HW 623 happi
HW 624 dew drop
Clark, there are 5,384,289 pear varieties worldwide. You have only grown a few hundred of them. Buy more land, get busy, plant pears. Don’t slow down, you can’t afford to die!!!
Contemplating the duality of having an unstoppable urge to grow more pears vs the reality that God says it is appointed to man once to die.
I think you mean im only growing over a few hundred pears now. Im cutting back and grafting most over to highly fireblight resistant types. I think i have closer to 400+ pear trees in the ground. I dont have an exact count. I have around 300 BET rootstocks and various grafts, 100 on ohxf333, idk how many on harbin, ohxf87 and 97 and callery. It is a legitimate pear orchard. Most are 3-12 years old. I also had a beaver prune about 30-60 to the ground for me! I dont know how many types of pears i have grown though i believe it is in the several hundreds but not 1000.
It is a shame harrow pears had resistance to old fireblight strains though only harrow sweet is still showing decent resistance for me to the new blight.
How does your Harrow Sweet look this year?
My HS was loaded with blooms this year. We had a 26-27 degree morning last week so the tree lost quite a few blooms, but there’s still a lot that looks like they made it.
There’s a Maxine next to it that hasn’t produced any substantial blooms until this year, altho not as much as the HS, it does have at least a dozen blooms that are beginning to open up.
Really hoping to get some fruit off this tree, we planted it because we tried some at an orchard near Lexington and loved them, and I typically don’t like pears. It and the HS has been in the ground since 2017, so we’re hoping for some fruit off them.
I was thinking of doing a thread on fast flowering pears. Harrow Sweet is a fast flowering machine. I’ve been impressed with it ever since I got it. In taste it’s not a top tier pear, but in every other respect it is. Think I’ve got 6 trees of it.
I gave my daughter a harrow sweet tree grafted last year. I already have one in my planting and will have access to hers if ever needed.
In other news, my Diamond pear tree purchased from Hutto in Jackson MS bloomed and has retained 1 fruit. It is about 1/2 inch diameter which usually means it will stay attached. The tree is definitely low chill but not as low chill as Hood. Since Hood is documented at 150 hours I’m guessing Diamond is around 300.
We had lots of cold weather but my trees appear loaded.
Its flavor improves with age and though it is not the very best it will likely make the top 20 pears on most orchardists list. In some areas like ours on a really hot year you will question if it is in the top 5 pears. That would be a great thread i agree!
Wow that is fantastic news! Make sure and grow large and small seckle and worden if you have room. That large seckle blew my socks off last year it was that good. It made small seckle taste like it was second rate. The year before it was the exact opposite small seckle was exquisite. Your moving up in the pear world fast. If you double your pears next year your going to have an amazing orchard. Let me know when you want something unusual and we will get it to you. Your kindness is much appreciated.
What do you think the Canadians are using for rootstock? my Harrow pears don’t seem happy on OHxF
Most use harbin. The ones in zone 5 use ohxf like is common in the USA. If they want dwarfs they might even use cotton easter.