Asian pear chill hour requirements?

My Korean Giant pear is not blooming and won’t break dormancy. I thought Asian pears were fairly low chill. Bradford pears in the area have bloomed but my brothers capital pears are in the same state although they do have one or two patches of flowers here and there. Euro pears in the area had no problems. My Carmine Jewel cherry is also not doing much.

My kg bloomed after the local Bradford. Shinko and shinseiki bloomed first.

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I should add this is my first year to get fruit off of my kg so it is not verifiable yet.

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This should be the third year for it to bloom, in years past it would have bloomed by now. All my other trees bloomed early this year, so this and cherry are late.

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My KG is late to bloom and only has thin scattered blossoms. Bosc looks weak as well. Comice more normal. Apples are just starting to bloom. So I think I’m well behind many of those like Clark further north with more chilling. This is the least chilling I’ve seen here and the bloom looks like it. The delay in blooming is nice.

A neighbors apricot tree didn’t bloom at all and is barely leafing out.

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What kind of chill hours did you see this winter outside?

I have chill similar to Clark, I am 200 miles south or so.

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This is my chill for this winter

Below 45 Model: 468 chill hours
Between 45 and 32 Model: 388 chill hours
Utah Model: 354 chill units
Positive Utah Model: 654 chill units
Dynamic Model: 27 chill portions

We were similar to Mark in SC.

I think my Korean Giants are just starting to open their blossoms. Having a problem because I got a bunch of Korean Giant and Hosui from a friend and he was not sure which is which on his Asian pears.

Clark,
In my experience after a couple of years, Hosui tastes as good as Korean Giant. They look similar, russetted skin, roundish. KG, when thinned well, is larger.
Hope you can tell them apart :grin:

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The bloom on KG looks different than Hosui. And it usually sets way less fruit. At least that’s my experience down here.

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I have to pay closer attention to the blooms of both varieties this spring. My Hosui sets far fewer blooms than KG.

I thought because of the few factors 1) poor location, closer to a row of large pine trees of my neighbors 2), not enough sun, (poor location) in a partial shade area 3) a younger tree (3 yrs old Hosui vs 8 years old KG).

Maybe, Hosui naturally sets fewer blooms. It will never catch up to KG which is in a great location and flourish.

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Two of the trees just had a few blooms on them so I wonder if they are Korean Giant.

Mine will bloom in late April. I will take pictures of both varieties to compare with yours.

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The bark of one pear is darker Brown with some spots which I think is Korean Giant. The buds are not fully open and there are fewer of them. The lighter tan colored pear that bloomed like crazy I’m assuming is hosui. They bloomed earlier and more. Now all my deductive reasoning may not apply and they could be shinko for all know but I’m going off what’s been said so far.

I originally bought KG and Hosui together but have grafted Hosui over to Tennosui because of fireblight concerns. I only had the Hosui for two years but it bloomed more and slightly before the KG.

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KG has a higher chill requirement than many other Asian pears. Lots of others are pretty low chill.

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