Asian pears: eating and growing. Experiences and thoughts, please

General Fruit Growing
#41

Wow, 19 years, I would chop my pear tree down just to show them squirrels. It’s a lose lose situation for them too. Ok, I kid.
I have a pear on my 20th century and a tiny Hosui right now. Last year one pear tree with one big fruit was removed due to fire blight.

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#42

20th Century set fruit like mad. I have to thin 80%of them off to get them to size up. They still smallish pears, juicy, mildly sweet. Hosui is a lot tastier.

I grafted my 20th over to 10 other pear varieties. No regret.

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#43

Mr. Fox takes care of them. I used to put them in a special spot for Mr. Fox but eventually realized I could put them anywhere and they would be gone the next morning.

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#44

I’m thinking of planting my 20th century in the ground, right now it’s in container. I will also move my Yali pear to the ground, but in the bank. It’s still tiny and I can move it easier to the bank.
I still have one Giant Korean pear in a container, it’s doing so well but not sure it will ear fruit here. I was going to give my brother this tree because he is in zone 9, I’m zone 10. He may have more chill hours. But this tree is a huge tree, I do t want to be blamed for causing him any back trouble. Not sure what to do. Maybe it will just be a non bearing fruit tree in my garden, like the rest of the lychee trees, but at least those trees are evergreen.

#45

Pear trees can take pruning well. I keep my 12 years old KG at 12 ft. It always produce new vertical shoots in the air. I just remove them. I am not going to attempt to reach fruit higher than that.

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#46

I might do that to all my Asian pears, they tend to be tall. Maybe I do that with all my jujube trees too. I don’t like super tall trees, I can’t reach that high anyway. I also espalier all of my apple trees around my wall.

#47

How big is the tree? This warrants a picture!

#48

It is not big at all, maybe 12’ tall. I prune it back every year. Will try to remember to take a picture.

#49

Yep, I love those too!

But a benefit of the Kieffer is that it is very blight-resistant. Whereas not all Oriental Pears are, I believe…

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