“German A” from Maple Valley.
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Has anyone gotten fruit or have recent disease resistance info on Beurre Alexandre Lucas? I’d still be interested in grafting that next season.
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I have only had Beurre Alexandre Lucas this year since grafting 4 months ago. So far, it is trouble free. Corvalis repository lost their tree a few years ago. It was provided to them with a few other accessions from France on a phytosanitary permit. A couple of scions were gifted to me.
Historic ratings including from the USDA breeding program suggest it is very resistant to fireblight.
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Thank you for the great recommendations. I used the new information to adjust my '26 shopping list.
Not a specific variety question but a general pear question. Why arent more pear trees grown from seed?
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Pears grown from seed do not produce the same fruit as the parent. They are highly variable. Most of the time, a seedling will be less than the parent tree. It may be less disease resistant or less productive or other traits which are lost easily when a plant is grown from seed.
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Thank you.
If seed grown pears diminish in some way every generation, how are new varieties created?
The articles that @ clarkinks linked on many occasions mentions lineages with open pollination and utilizing seedlings for rootstock. I apologize for my ignorance. I feel like i am missing something.
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Either someone finds a wild seedling that was a 1/1,000 or you plant 1000 seeds and a couple might be worthy of becoming a variety
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@Phlogopite @Fusion_power @Josh6b
Some trees like Wolf River apple produce nearly iddentical seedlings. Apples like honeycrisp produce nearly perfect seedling 20% - 50% of the time. I have several varieties of fruit trees i have developed like @SkillCult and others. The odds are not in your favor randomly, making a great pear but with practice you can develop new types. You can graft over your failures to others and i do.
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I’ve thought about this myself since starting in with apple seedlings. I honestly prefer pear and would like to try pear seedlings as well. It seems 2 of the bigger deterrents are time and space.
Based on a lot of data out there pear seedlings on average have a longer juvenile period than apples. With apples you can speed up the process and save space by grafting to dwarfing rootstock. With pears there’s not a great option for a true dwarfing rootstock. You could use quince but there is no guarantee your seedlings will be compatible. Another option would be grafting the seedlings out to franken trees which could save some space. So maybe plant some OHxF87 rootstocks ahead of time to get going. But overall I think you need to be prepared for a pear seedling project to take up more space than an apple seedling project. Do you guys agree with that?
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I probably think in different terms. I could put about 5,000 seedlings on an acre. Ten acres would get me 50,000 seedlings.
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That would be impressive! That brings high density to a whole new level. Now, where can I find that many pear seeds? 
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You still have the time issue, it would potentially be exacerbated by such high density planting too
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An acre is 43560 square feet. That would give 10 square feet to each seedling for a total of 4356 seedlings per acre. Trees could be 3 feet apart in the row by 3.3 feet between rows. Yes, this is very high density. Yes, there would 100% be issues with delayed production. However, it would rapidly identify the fastest growing seedlings and over time should eliminate the disease susceptible and slow growing seedlings. Just a guess, but in 10 years, I’d expect less than 1000 seedlings per acre remaining.
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Another question about growing pears not necessarily a specific variety.
In regards to timing for taking scions and grafting:
if i cut a scion from my tree, i want to take dormant wood correct(late winter)? Can i the graft to that same branch in early spring by cutting it a node or two lower?
Also when top working a callery pear, could i cut down and clean up the tree ahead of time? Then make a new cut and graft later on?
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Yes, you typically cut scions during late winter when trees are dormant, as that’s the ideal time. In a hobby, backyard-growing environment, I personally cut scions a bit later, past the dormancy period, but the downside is that those scions can’t be stored effectively, you have to graft as soon as possible.
For sure.
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New varieties are often created with hybridization, sometimes intentional, or sometimes by nature. The better the dna traits of the parents, the better a new variety has the potential of being. Although no matter how good the dna of the parents, certainly not all seedlings are going to be decent enough to be worth keeping. Add to that it can take a decade or more to get the first true fruit to see how the fruit are. Most people would not have the land or the patience.
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Bella di Guigno is PI 324125 in the repository and has been DNA tested as a seedling of Zutica as one parent.
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Is there anyone that is producing diverse pears out their ears collecting seeds intentionally for growing out?
I figure I have at least 30 more years in me and it sounds like a good time all around watching pear seedlings fight and earn the right for their very existence.
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