According to Corvallis "
A very large, slightly oval Asian type pear developed as a selected seedling by Mr. Charles Harris and reported by him in Pomona. Vigorous tree on calleryana - appears to need about 400 - 450 chill hours.
‘Charles Harris - an Asian pear named after myself. It is a huge pear I selected from several Chinese seedlings. The fruits are oblong, extremely juicy and sweet. It produces some fruit nearly every year. This sort begins ripening in late August and will continue maturing through October in Zone 8. It is a heavy-bearer and its fruit reaches a weight of three pounds under the best conditions. It has very high resistance to fireblight.’ – Pomona 24(3):9. 1991
Pear Tree Commemorates Bicentennial Of Bill Of Rights By BILL MCLAUGHLIN Daily Press | December 25, 1991 The Williamsburg Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, recently planted a rare pear tree on the Rawls Byrd Elementary School campus to commemorate the bicentennial of the Bill of Rights. The tree is named for Greta Klingon, second vice regent of the local DAR Chapter. It is a hybrid developed by Charles Harris of Griffin, Ga., from a pear tree growing in the Jekyll Island, Ga., yard of Greta and A.J. Klingon. It is marketed for the first time this year by Ison’s Nursery in Brook, Ga. The catalog describes the “Greta Klingon” as a “very exciting European type dessert pear.” (not sure if this is the same as the ‘Charles Harris’ pear)." - https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?accid=%20PI+617599
It’s one of the varieties I was considering on getting from Corvallis because it sounds incredible for an Asian pear variety that can produce pears up to 3 pounds. It has no virus in it either.
I am thinking that regardless if the pears are up to today’s Asian pear standards or not it would make a great variety for pollen hybridization, tree must be very strong, pears are very sweet, very juicy, high production, up to 3 pound pears and a very high resistance to fire blight all great things to have in a hybrid pear project.
We will see how they do. My first grafts are usually my worse grafts. I tried pineapple and Charles Harris today. Yali will be one I do tomorrow. These are all going on wild callery so I’m taking some chances with compatability. Some of this years scions are tricky because they are as large as your index finger and others are as thin as pencil lead. Typically in this world we don’t get perfect pencils unfortunately. I’m feeling very fortunate to get any of these varieties.
This tree is going to be a multi graft. It is my backup. Charles Harris wood is large and I’m looking hard for something big enough and yet still small enough to work. I use these callery to get fruit 2 years faster than I would with a bench graft. CH is said to graft well to callery rootstock.
I grafted Charles Harris to OHxF 87 a couple of weeks ago. It started pushing a bud as of yesterday.
The original CH was found, or selected, in south Georgia. We have so many disease issues here that I’m always on the lookout for fruit that has a proven track record locally.
Beachwreck,
Those Charles Harris are certainly vigorous! This is the one I grafted to the callery in the picture above. I’ve considered burford though am not growing it yet.
This is what the Charles Harris grafts look like on today May 12th. My first graft I made on March 24th and the others I did a couple of weeks later. It’s a vigorous growing pear on both callery and harbin! If you look at picture #2 I grafted a pineapple pear on the same tree in case my Charles’s Harris graft died and the Charles harris grew 10x more than the aggressive growing pineapple pear.
My best Charles Harris graft was broke off during some extreme storms here. Lucky I made some backup grafts. I’ll trade the 2 inches of rain for my best graft even though it’s painful to me it’s still a fare trade.
Yeah, I was watching those severe storms in KS and OK last night on the weather channel. I was wondering how you and @Olpea fared.
We actually had a tornado warning earlier this evening just south of us. Thankfully it didn’t develop any further. We ended up getting about four tenths of rain, tho, but no bad storms.
The wind has been blowing pretty hard the last few storms. Unfortunately it seems like every time we get a strong wind storm, it blows a few more peaches off the trees. I was spraying the other day and and it wasn’t uncommon to see about 20 peaches blown off under the peach trees. We’ve already thinned just about everything, so I hate to lose those.
Peaches are golf ball size here. We are past pit hardening.
Will you have a few scion from your Charles HARRIS THAT YOU COULD SEND ME NEXT WINTER? MAYBE january 2019. I have pear scion that I can send you in exchange. Southern King and Southern Queen . Also Savannah. My land is in west central Georgia. Thanks. Bill Harper
Hi Bill, sorry for the delayed reply. Haven’t been on in a while.
My Charles Harris died a few weeks after grafting. I was hit hard with fire blight and lost most of my grafts that year. I’m going to try for more scion wood this winter. If I have any remaining I’ll let you know.
Thanks Fred. Sorry to hear of the loss to the grafts. Charles Harris is in short supply. I did not know of a lost due to fire blight. Did you have other graft failures or was it just Charles Harris? I thought it was more resistant to the blight. Bill
Bill, I lost several new grafts that year to bight: Charles Harris, Harrow Delight, Harrow Sweet, H 601, H604 and Harvest Queen. All were supposed to be resistant. Potomac and Maxine survived as did all trees 3+ years old. I guess the tender growth of a new graft was too susceptible.
