Backyard Orchards, chronicling, musing and more

@scottfsmith @mamuang

Interesting thing happened to me this year the racoons walked by all other pears and stole many Karl’s favorite off the tree in the center of the orchard. The tree is half warren and half Karls favorite. I’m going to graft more of both i agree with the racoons they are pretty good. They could have picked any pear they wanted but didn’t touch any other pear.

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When did your Fondante ripens? If it was 2-3 weeks afo, the time would be about right.

I think mine can be picked now.

I have found Clara Frijs an excellent medium size pear. I also have an unknown pear that looked and tasted was as good. Maxine is a tad below.

My Fondante should be very good. Harrow Sweet is very good.

These pears are bigger and better tasting than Seckel. So I is not hard for me if I decide to remove Seckel.

I look forward to try my Docteur, too.

Raccoon went after my Asian pears and left Euro pears alone. I figured we had a drought. They needed water so they went after fruit with more water content.

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@mamuang

There are acres of water and pears here but they went after one tree which is a huge compliment. Maybe the warren is what attracted them and the Karl’s favorite were stolen as a result. Warren can be exceptional.

Who wants to drink pond water when they had sweet juice of pears to choose? :grin:

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@mamuang

Yes i think you understand those bandits. We leave the animals plenty of windfalls. Thats the first stealing they have done in years.


I have several red-fleshed apples this year. They are mostly late ripening, like into November here.

The earliest variety here is Redlove Calypso. They have dropped for a week now. Grown in my zone 6a, it is a smallish apple that is juicy but has more tartness than I like.

A few Rubaiyat have dropped, too early as they ripen in Nov here. A medium to large apple. Not sure if recent rain helps with the size. Some are quite large. In previous years, they were small.

With its under-ripe stage, I detected sweetness more pronounced than a more ripened RL Calypso. Definitely a better apple of the two.

While RL Calypso has pink flesh here, Rubaiyat is very red. Results probably vary due to differences in our growing conditions.

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For the past 3 weeks, my new Asian pears have ripened. A couple have clear tags. Others don’t.

Raja got fire blight.

Pai Li are small this first year.

Not sure which ones are these?


Anyone wants to guess?
@tonyOmahaz5 , @PharmerDrewee , et al.

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@mamuang

Pai li stay small but there are lots of them.

Those look like Jilin. Does that sound possible?

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YES!!

I have others in the fridge. I need to dig them up for ID😁

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@clarkinks
First year Pai Li fruiting on a small graft. I should have pinched off the flowers in the spring but curiosity got the best of me :grin:

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@mamuang

It is a very heavy producer. They bear so heavy i get to many if im not careful.

My 20th Century bears heavily, too. It sets up to 10 fruit per cluster. I thinned aggressively this year as this pear has small size. Well, my hard work went to raccoons, opossums and squirrels. They stripped 99.9% of the fruit off this and Hosui trees.

I like Hosui. Did not get one single fruit this year.

@scottfsmith
I just picked my “Fondante des Moullins-Lille”. It is 10/30/22, a late pear for me. That’s why I am not sure if mine is the real deal. I figure growing pears in partial shade may contribute to late ripening.
The side that got ome sun.

And the side that did not.

Whatever it is, it is a very good pear when I had it in previous years. This year, one dropped (something caused the drop, a bird?). The fruit was dark green and unripe but I did not want to throw it away. I put it in the fridge for several weeks. I took it out and ate it yesterday. It was smooth, no grit and quite sweet, considering how unripe it was. That’s a good sign.

I will put these in a fridge for two weeks.

I have a few on another tree which has even less sun. I will pick those later.

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Mam, those are delicious pears here. Our pears are just coming into the market place now. A week ago we had about three varieties. This week we will have 12. Had my first Abate Fetel. Perfect as always! (Sat on the counter for a week before they were edible).

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Does anyone have Tennesui ? The Euro-Asian cross? I grafted 2 scions of that one last year and neither survived. It was odd because everything else did pretty well.
I just wondered what it was really like?

And @mamuang, I have Raja growing on one of my pear trees as well. What do you think of that one? The place I ordered the scion from just raved about it. I was surprised to see that you have it - isn’t it supposed to be a pear that does well in the humid south? (maybe I’m confusing it with another Asian pear.)

@PomGranny

Dont have it but i do know the story from cricket hill

"This hybrid pear is an open pollinated seedling of ‘Tennessee’ possibly pollinated by ‘Hosui.’ Developed by Harris County, Texas extension agent Bill Adams, who collected seed of ‘Tennessee’ about 1992. The only pear flowering nearby at the time was ‘Hosui’. Excellent resistance to fire blight.

Fruit large, uniform, round like ‘Hosui’, but with European pear texture and flavor. Ripens well on the tree. One of the best pears for the Houston area. May be self fertile. Tree requires 550-600 chill hours."

@PomGranny
@tonyOmahaz5 grows it. He seems to like it. My grafts did not take. However, from Tony’s description, I don’t know if I will like it.

I like my Asian pears sweet, juicy and crunchy. I like my Euro pears sweet, smooth and aromatic (if possible). I am not sure if I like my Asian pears soft. :smile:

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