After many years of growing this pear 25+ i find its been mislabeled (red bartlett was actually ayers) and under appreciated in so many ways. It seems its the only tree on my property consistently misidentified so many times An untagged pear wound up being Ayers - Been wanting that variety ! Since i thought they were two types of pears i have 4 full trees of this variety and many limbs grafted here and there. This year Kansas is short on pear blooms but ayers is covered. It seems to have good years and bad years like any pear. I had more i grafted over due to the excessive number.
Those Ayers look beautiful Clark. I planted Ayers tree in 2017, I think, and turned it into an espalier. I was excited to see football shaped buds on it. Bud they turned out to be lead growth. Disappointed that I won’t see any of those reddish beauties in my yard this year. Hopefully next!
@TangTang
They can have occasional grit in the skin but yes ive never met anyone who does not like them. Ive met a few who peeled them. A good quality pear you can ripen on the tree is hard to find. They keep very well on the tree even if you dont pick them on time. All these things make them one of the very best pears to grow.
Raintree is listing this as USDA zones 3-8. Would you say this is accurate? I’m in 9b and it seems like it would do well here if it performs well in other hot areas.
@TangTang
They grow ayers pretty far south. @coolmantoole or @Auburn or @jeremymillrood or @Richard may be able to give you better advise on this pear in a warmer climate. I know they grow them in Texas. Dr. Ethan Natelson M.D grows ayers around houston if my memory is correct.
Update: looks like it needs 600 hours of chill. This document is what your after. fruitnut.pdf (466.9 KB)
That tree in the top group of photos is over 30 feet tall and gets covered with these delicious little pears. Ive started finding seedling pears in the area so you may see me giving away improved ayers scions in a few years. Improving on it would be difficult though the size could be larger. I planted it when i was in my early twenties.
@snowflake
John your right sometimes good things come in small packages. They are delicious but dont wear your work clothes unless your leaning over a trash can because they are juicy!
If I recall, I grafted some ayers onto to one of my existing trees, but I don’t think I’ve seen any fruit…we don’t usually get anywhere near 600 chill hours.
Mine fruited in its second year. This a great pear, but does not hang
well on the tree. It ripens very fast and requires daily picking. Hornets and yellow jackets love this pear.
No i had a standard that took over 10 years and its producing very heavy now. @rayrose we do not have that problem here they can hang until fully ripe so far. That may be changing now that green june beetles numbers are up.
I have 7 of them on OHxF333, this will be their 3rd leaf after grafting. They’re still whips for the most part, but I may nip the terminal bud this year to see if I can get some scaffolds started. They seem happy and healthy in my Z4.
) It is loaded with blooms for a smaller tree. Been there 3 or 4 years now
