I have 3 new varieties of pears that I got from GRIN this year. Wondering if anyone has experience with these Jonatorp, Vavilov and Comtesse Clara Frijs? Especially in regards to fire blight resistance.
Thanks
Turkey, I’d be interested in seeing if any of our forum members are growing these. In the meanwhile, try checking with both Trees of Antiquity, Green Mantle and Tierra Madre Farms (which may be out of business, sadly). I read up on the cultivars, some are native to areas that do not have much if any FB, so may not have any data on that, unless you can find someone growing them here in the USA. Are you in a colder zone in the USA? You don’t have your zone or profile built, just curious. Are you grafting into existing pear trees, or grafting to rootstock? Love to find OHxF333 rootstock for sale somewhere, can’t find it anywhere. That’s probably one of the best for me in my area, and my yard.
I am in 5B. I was hoping someone had went down the road ahead of me and tried those varieties in the USA. I have customers in the northern states that would like more of a selection of cold hardy pears, but the informed buyers always ask about fire blight resistance (which they should) I graft 90% of the trees I sell. Pears on OHxF 87. Copenhaven Farms lists x 333 on their website.
I should probably reach out to the staff at Corvalis, but I assume they spray for fire bilght control in general so they probably dont have any knowledge other than what they include in the descriptions.
I too am interested in hearing how these do. I’ve grafted 11 different pears from ARS (4 last year and 7 of them this spring) and feel optimistic that I’ll find something good. Two of them have fruit this year (Mericourt and Rous. of Stuttgart x Dr. Jules Guyot V), so the wait may not be too long.
This link says that Fedco calls “Comtesse Clara Frijs” a “solidly rugged hardy tree”, which sounds encouraging.
Vavilov sounds pretty good as well- quality of 7, and pretty good disease resistance scores. I wasn’t able to find Jonatorp at all, even on the ARS site- is there a spelling variant?
I’ve gotten OHxF 333 rootstock from Raintree.
Bob, it is, “Johantorp”.
I have Valilov ordered from GRIN for next year, because it is supposed to be very fireblight resistant. No actual experience with that though! I have Clara Frijse in the nursery bed growing out. I got it from Bob Purvis, maybe send him an email and see what he thinks of it. He described it as “solidly hardy” too, also a taste of honey and vanilla. Sounds great on paper!
What is GRIN?
Thank you, Mark!
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