Rather than take up a lot of space posting about 100’s of varities i grow and have already talked about i should ask what do you want to know more about? I grow pears that i’m guessing would be lost if i didn’t send them to a few nurseries. @39thparallel is working on saving multiple ancient types i grow by growing some to sell every year. I gave him Estella and Ayer scions and peviously douglas. You cant out give Mike. I bought from half a dozen other nurseries this year as well. Sometimes i spend a thousand dollars on an experiment that fails miserably on some fruits like pomegranate or oranges. I love doing what i do the same as some people like concert or superbowl tickets. If things dont go my way its ok but not desirable. If your not a gambler you will never make it as a farmer.
I am putting pears on hold now. I have Bartlett, Moonglow and Nijiuseiki left. I see Moonglow is now doing very well since the heat died off. It is leafing well now.
I have a small row of moonglow, and i plowed a ditch in front of them to collect water. I grow a dozen moonglow in total. They seem to sensitive. In the old location they would seldom bear fruit. I decided to treat them more like a pawpaw in a somewhat microclimate in the middle of the orchard. They are very happy now. If they dont like where they are you wont like moonglow.
I do have 6 or 7 surviving root stocks left. I think I will let them grow out and franken graft on them when I resume.
Thought I had Tsu Li; but something chewed the leaves off. It does not seem to be budding replacements yet.
I don’t have a particular pear in mind, but do have a question. Are there any pears you grow that might appeal to those in ny house who think store bought pears have the texture of slime with sand?
To bad there is no LOL like button. In these parts the most sought after Pears are Sand Pears canned with all there gritty gloriness…lol…Great over pancakes sans syrup. Virtually an essential Rite of Passage.
I’ve been going with mostly disease resistance. The trees I’ve grafted in the past couple of years (still small) are Magness, Warren, Harrow Crisp, Sweet, and Delight, Bell, your Clark’s small yellow, Tyson, Turnbull, Korean Giant, Shinko, and Drippin Honey. I also have a couple of red fleshed for fun.
What do you have on Tyson? My spring graft never took, but I tried a new one a week ago. Trying to decide if it’s worth retrying next year.
Tyson is very small , late to producethough absolutely delicious. You will love it. Be prepared to wait 7 years on fruit in some cases. That list is all great choices!
Could you recommend some varieties for the following conditions?
- Early ripening
- Late ripening
- Heavy fruit set (wild life tree)
- Long ripening period
- Slow growing
- Huge, massive tree
Bonus condition 
every description of a pears taste i see says “buttery, sweet, and juicy” but are there pears that are spicy and gritty like punk rock pears or something?
Thank you in advance for suggesting any pear varieties that might be described by any of these categories. I look forward to reaseaching and learning more. Be forewarned after google-youtubing, i may come back with more misinformed, misguided questions.
For research, i would start here
I would look at this also
Let me just name a few
Early june as the name implys
Duchess, kieffer, orient are great wildlife pears and produce more pears than possible to pick. They have an excessively long ripening period. That means the same thing aslate ripening with duchess D’ Angoulme.
Turnbull or douglas are your uniquely flavored pears that are not buttery, not melting, not anything anyone expects.
Slow growing try
(Shannon pear aka Grand Champion pear).
Huge pears you will like these or other seedlings Napoleon’s army planted pear trees fact or fiction?
If you want a spicy pear harrow sweet has a slight clove taste on certain years and it is just a subtle hint. It mostly tastes like bartlett.
A few asian pears like chojuro taste like butterscotch
buttery, sweet, and juicy pears are rare
Juicy - ayers is an actually juicy pear
Buttery - any pear that starts with beurre in its real name. They tend to be french pears that are very high quality. The trend started with the grower van mons.
Sweet - asian pears tend to be very sweet so drippin honey might be a great place to start.
I am interested in large culinary pears. Pound and Black Worchester. BTW I read Black Worchester can grow into a massive old tree.
Winter storing too.
There is also “Hebe” from South Carolina. Often seedless. 6 average pears weigh 8 pounds. Some weigh 34 ounces, Flavor is very good. But only Corvallis has it.
I told my husband this. He seems skeptical, but perhaps this gets me an excuse to buy a tree, haha. Thank you.
How about some red FLESH pears that taste good?
There is really only one nice tasting red flesh i had which is joeys red flesh but it is a fireblight magnet. I dont grow it anymore.
How about best pears to grow in the US for making perry? Besides making tasty perry, qualities should probably include disease resistance (esp. fb) and high yields.
That is a very short list for me because disease resistance and perry pears dont go together in my area. Fireblight is a huge issue here. There are pears like douglas that make an ok perry. If you want to take your chances i would start off with this thread Perry Pears Cider
Clark, don’t forget Summer Blood Birne. Also, there are a few dozen red-flesh pears floating around in Europe.
My list of interest for next year is limited after getting about 40 more varieties grafted this year. I’m looking for more gulf coast adapted varieties along with a few more Asian varieties that are hard to find in the U.S. Here is what I am considering:
Acres Home
Akizuki Nashi
Biscamp
Cocomerina
Dixie Delight (asian)
Farmingdale
Johantorp
Klementinka
Korean Golden (Santiam nursery)
Leopardo Morettini
Monterrey
Nanguo Li
Savannah
Vavilov
Wilder Early
Yulu
I’ll find a few more to think about this winter.
Here are the varieties I have growing currently:
Abate Fetel, Ambrosia, Aurora, Ayres, Barlow, Bartlett Nye Russet, Beierschmitt, Bell, Beurre Alexandre Lucas, Beurre Superfin, Blake’s Pride, Butirra Rosata Morettini, Cabot, Chojuro, Clara Frijs, Clarks Yellow, Conference, Daisui Li, Dana Hovey, Devoe, Diamond, Douglas, Doyenne du Comice, Drippin Honey, Duchess d’Angouleme, Early Yellow, Elliot, Ewart (Karl’s Favorite), Flame, Foley’s, Golden Boy, Harrow Delight, Harrow Sweet, Harvest Queen, Highland, Honeysweet, Hood, Hosui, Improved Kieffer, Kalle, Kieffer, Korean Giant, Lazy J, Le Conte, Ledbetter, Leona, Lincoln, Luscious, Magness, Maxine, New World, Niitaka, Onward, Orient, Pai Li, Plumblee, Potomac, Red Bartlett, Red Zao Su Li, Rousselet de Reims, Scottsboro Callery, Seckel, Seckel extra large, Seuri Li, Shenanadoah, Shin Li, Shinko, Spalding, Sucre de Montlucon, Summer Blood Birne, Summercrisp, Sunrise, Turnbull Giant, Tyson, Very Late, Warren, Winter Nelis, Ya Li,