New to the Growing Fruit site. I have a small orchard here in Portland, OR. I have one of each- Italian plum, Comice pear, green gauge plum,Honey crisp apple, Marionberry, unknown fig, and four different blueberries, Liberty, Drapper and Pink lemonade with a pollenizer for it, Florida gold.
The figs are great in the late fall, and the birds do go after them. Very hardy tree. The Marionberries are huge, sweet and prolific. no pests at all, very hardy plant. The drapper blueberries fruit in July, the Libertys in Augst. NIce crops, but have to net them to protect the crop. The Honey crisp apples are large and will break the limbs if theres too many apples. I hope in the years to come to get stronger branches for a larger crop.
Very excited to have for the first time the green gauge and comice pears. Planted last fall they are just budding now.
If you have any qustions or comments about any of these different plants, I would like to learn more.
HI mamuag, my fig tree is close to thirty years old and produces deep into the fall.
Your right about the pollinators, I have a neighbor close by with a crab apple that does the job nicely on the six year old Honey Crisp.
My new green gauge is 4 years old should cross pollinate with my fifteen year old Italian. I will find out later this spring if that’s true.
The comice, three years old and new to us this spring, has a bartlett two doors down, and I hope that will work out too. I figured if Harry and David had a huge success with this pear I should too !!
The pink lemonade blueberry never produced anything because there was no similar plant close by and I just didn’t know. I then found out that the perfect pollinator is Florida Rose (not Gold) so I planted one next to it just this spring. Wish me luck on that.
I have learned that timing is so important to get the yeilds you want. Please let me know if you think these pollinators will indeed work, because we love fruit to eat and give away.
Pear trees can benefit from other pear trees growing up to 100 feet away, so a neighbor’s tree could theoretically provide cross-pollination. However, closer is better because pear trees do not attract bees as well as other fruit trees.
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Found that online…
To ensure pollination for your pears… you could trade some scion wood with your neighbor… learn to graft … graft some of his bartlet on your comice… graft some of your comice on his bartlet. Benefit you both.
Comice is one of the best tasting pears which is why it is so popular. You will have to tune your pruning to avoid fire blight though. Comice also needs a pollinator. Honeycrisp is notoriously fussy of a tree. I can’t speak of the rest except pink lemonade. Blueberries can be fussy on PH. I found them not to be as hard as say pink popcorn though.
Hi Peter, nice selection of trees, I also have a Comice Pear, a Greengage and 4 Northern Highbush Blueberries.
If the Pear down the street is a Williams Bartlett (flower group 3) it will pollinate your Comice, (group 4). The Comice is supossed to be a light cropper but is considered the best flavoured pear. Just saw others have already replied and said the same.
Yoinashi is a mid-season Asian pear, with large golden brown russeted fruits.
Flowering group: 3
Not self-fertile
Picking: Mid
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The corvallis pear repository is in Oregon as well. The website Pear gene bank open house | Good Fruit Grower will state the location. They grow over “1,000-plus pear cultivars preserved at the National Clonal Germplasm Repository in Corvallis, Oregon.” “The repository is located at 33447 Peoria Road, Corvallis, Oregon. From Corvallis, go one mile east on Highway 34, turn south on Peoria Road, and go one mile” though not everything is always open to the public. They do offer public services as needed NCGR Corvallis - Pyrus Germplasm : USDA ARS
I used to have Green Gage but I removed it because it was very unproductive. I have found that my Bavay is also stingy in its production.
I have two Euro plum trees that are multi-grafted. At one point, I have had 10 + varieties on them. I have gage plums are more picky regarding to pollination partners.
There are a few “Italian” and green gage plums out there. I hope yours will be compatible.
Green gage was very unproductive here as well in zone 6a Kansas. Standard american plums do very well here but insect pressure is very high. There are few climates that grow european and japanese plums well. Many years like apricots the japanese plums here are damaged by frost.
Thanks for all the info, great stuff. I will definitely be checking the pear repository.
Up the street from me, someone awhile back planted some Bosc pears between the sidewalk and the street. The people that live there don’t care about the tree or it’s pears. It is never pruned, sprayed, or picked. The trees are mature and healthy, one can get five gallon buckets of drop dead gorgeous pears in the fall. The over ripe pears have so much sugar that the the wasps are constant on the ones on the ground.
This wonderful tree is a gift for sure. I am hoping the same for my Comice, but the Boscs are welcome.
I am hoping the green gauge will benefit from being close to my other plum, and to other fruit trees.
Must have been disappointing to have put in the time and effort on trees you have to one day get rid of. I had to get rid of two cherry trees because the birds would never leave any thing. That freed up space for the Comice and green gauge.
Thank you to you all for welcoming me to this site as well as the hands on info.
I beleive that our total gardening efforts, including lots of veggies, roses, and other cut florals are dependent upon so many things. I have planted a lot of plants to attract bees, including wild bees. We have a family of crows we feed that keep at bay the starlings but leave the apples, pears, figs, and plums alone. Smart and entertaing, there welcome here. Our hummers, full time residents as well as visitors, work the flowers non stop. I am lucky to have what I have.
