So far unimpressive but disease resistant and easy to grow. This is my first pear of Carrick it was not ripe. Today is September 24th and it fell off in my hand. It would likely need a couple weeks to ripen inside. Though the pear is not terribly interesting the ripening date could be of value. It ripens during a slow time so one tree might be worthwhile growing. Seeds are not viable. Overall appears it will be a lower quality easy to grow pear typical of a canning pear. Detected an off flavor I didn’t care for but in future years we will know more. The first year of and an unripe pear is not a good indicator yet.
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This pear is fast to produce and its productive but it’s to early to know what the real merit of this pear is. Today is April 7th and one notable quality is the blooms are not fully open as shown below.
Comparing it with improved Kieffer shown below you can see it avoids earlier freezes slightly better. Improved Kieffer is one of the first group to open typically
This type of data for these types of pears is very difficult to get if it can even be had I have not found it.
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This pear is very disease resistant but there is really no other reason to recommend this variety. It is sour and lacking any complexity in flavor. Today is September 25th.
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Hopefully they are better tasting this year. This is a graft only i did not grow a tree of these.
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A little more about carrick from here
https://www.chathamapples.com/PearsNY/PearsSEUS.html
" Carrick
Breeder(s): Brooks D. Drain, University of Tennessee.
History: Originated from a ‘Seckel’ X ‘Garber’ cross made in 1934. Named after the Reverend Samuel Carrick, who was the first president of the organization that would become the University of Tennessee.
Rootstocks used: Provence quince (Georgia) and OHxF #513 (North Carolina)
Orchards grown in: Coal Mountain, Georgia; Pittsboro, NC orchard A.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is sprightly and sweet, most of the time, but the first crop I got in Georgia was so astringent as to be inedible. Texture is smooth and buttery, but with some scattered grit cells. Should be peeled for optimal enjoyment.
Fruit size: Medium. *** g/fruit
Fruit appearance: Described as yellow with a rose blush overspread with russet. The fruit from my trees had mostly red skin, but with enough russet as to make it not shiny. Pyriform shape. It is attractive, but not beautiful.
Culinary characteristics: A more thorough evaluation than I have ever done was done by the Georgia state extension service in 1966. Check out the results here.
Storage characteristics: Stores for at least two weeks in common refrigeration.
Harvest season: About 3 weeks after ‘Spalding’; *** in Pittsboro, NC, late August in Knoxville, Tennessee and Coal Mountain, Georgia.
Bloom season: Very early, often overlapping well with ‘Tsu Li’ and ‘Ya Li’ in Pittsboro, NC orchard A. Unfortunately, there were no 'Spalding’s in orchard A, so a direct comparison vs. Spalding couldn’t be done there. In the Georgia orchard, it was also an early bloomer, but varied widely in bloom when compared to ‘Kieffer’, with full bloom ranging from a week before to a week after. In the Georgia orchard, it was pretty consistently in full bloom about a week after ‘Spalding’.
Pollination: Good pollen for other cultivars. Needs a pollinizer.
Diseases: Moderately resistant to fireblight. I had severe damage on a couple of trees during epiphytotics, but generally, they have little blight. Pear leafspot resistant according to the originators, but my trees were susceptible. In Georgia, it retained 50%, 20%, 10% and 90% of its leaves in 1983, '84, '85, & '87 respectively.
Precocity: slow to come into bearing on Provence quince; first fruit set in 5th year on Provence quince rootstock. Fill in 513 info
Productivity: Said to be quite productive, but mine had a tendency for biennial bearing unless thinned judiciously.
Growth habit: Moderate-low vigor; crotch angles***; Dwarfing rootstock recommended
Bottom line: Recommended for limited planting in the Southeast. The red skin color gives it an unusual eye-appeal that balances some of its less-desirable traits.
References other than my own experience:
Drain and Safley. 1957. “Morgan and Carrick: Two blight-resistant pears”. University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station. Bulletins."
I’m glad to read someone besides me tasted the first crop with a similar or worse flavor experience.
This is strange my tree is tagged but its like im mixing up carrick and hoskins because they are right beside each other because they turn colors! Carrick when will you ripen this year? It better start turning tan soon! It is about as red as ketchup right now! Im taking these pictures for reference not to intentionally make myself look bad trying to figure these two pears growing side by side!
For reference
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