Continued
Imamura Aki
Breeder(s): Chance seedling.
History: Pure P. pyrifolia, Asian pear found near Takaoka, Kochi Prefecture, Japan. Imported into the United States from the Narusada Fruit Farm near Fusan, Korea in 1929.
Rootstocks used: OHxF #513 and P. calleryana.
Orchards grown in: Pittsboro, NC orchards A & B.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is very good- sweet, juicy with nice butterscotch and watermelon notes. Texture is crisp with few grit cells. Fruits should be peeled for optimal enjoyment, though some members of my family seem to like the peels left on. Of the Asian pears, my family usually chose either this one or ‘Meigetsu’ as their favorites. University of California rated it only “fair”.
Fruit size: Medium-large. About 260 g/fruit according to the University of California. Mine ran a little smaller on average.
Fruit appearance: All-over deep greenish-bronze russeted fruit with prominent lenticels. Attractive, but not gorgeous like ‘Koyama’.
Culinary characteristics: We did not cook them, but, if peeled, would certainly make a good addition to salads.
Storage characteristics: Stores for at least 3 months, if held at 0°C/32°F according to the University of California and probably less than half that time in common refrigeration, which is typically set around 4°C.
Harvest season: Mid-September to early October in Davis, CA. Mid-August in Pittsboro, NC.
Bloom season: Early (like most Asian pears); a few days *** vs Spalding
Pollination: Good pollen for other cultivars, except itself and ‘Tsu Li’. Needs a pollinizer. University of California published more detais in their Publication 4068.
Diseases: Susceptible to fireblight. I lost several trees to blight, but it seems to be more resistant than ‘Koyama’. Resistant to pear leafspot and black spot.
Precocity: Moderately precocious; first fruit set in *** year on ***rootstock.
Productivity: Moderate yield, low for an Asian, actually.
Growth habit: Moderate vigor; crotch angles wide for a pear; With proper fruit management, either dwarfing or callery rootstock recommended.
Bottom line: Recommended only for the diligent risk-taking home-gardener who appreciates good quality Asian pears.
References other than my own experience:
Griggs and Iwakiri. 1977. Asian Pear Varieties in California. University of California Bulletin #4068.
June Sugar
Breeder(s): Someone who should know better than to have released such a thing.
History: Heritage pear whose claim to fame was that it 1) survived in the South and 2) produced pears very early in the season. The “Sugar” part of its name has been alternatively said to be as sweet as sugar (by someone who was drunk) or that its flesh was as dry as sugar.
Rootstocks used: P. calleryana & Provence quince.
Orchards grown in: Coal Mountain, Georgia.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is dry, astringent and basically inedible. Texture is hard, but not crisp. Maybe people who planted this were starving, but they would have been better off cutting off a big limb, killing a rat with it and eating that. The worst pear I’ve ever grown.
Fruit size: Medium. *** g/fruit
Fruit appearance: Pyriform, green. Unattractive, but not as unattractive as it tastes- that would truly be butt-ugly.
Culinary characteristics: Maybe you can cook with it. I didn’t try. Maybe you can boil a softball, add lots of sugar and make something of that, too. I suggest trying the softball broth first.
Storage characteristics: I don’t know and I don’t care.
Harvest season: Early in Coal Mountain, Georgia.
Bloom season: late; almost a month after Spalding.
Pollination: Unknown.
Diseases: Susceptible to fireblight, but not enough to kill this miserable tree. Very susceptible to pear leafspot as well. On calleryana, 60%, 90%, 20%, 30%, 70% leaf retention in 1982, '83, '84, '85, & '87, respectively. On Provence quince, it retained 90%, 20%, 70%, 30% of its leaves in 1983, '84, '85 & '87 respectively.
Precocity: Slow to come into bearing, but not slow enough; first fruit set in 7th year on calleryana rootstock. Provence quince did not significantly accelerate production.
Productivity: Moderate (frankly it’s too productive considering how horrible the fruit are- barrenness would be a blessing.
Growth habit: Vigorous and upright; crotch angles narrow; to add to this miserable cultivar’s bad characteristics, it has an unruly growth habit; Dead rootstock recommended so that you are never subjected to these awful pears.
Bottom line: At this point, do I really have to say? Not recommended in the Southeast or anywhere else this side of Hell.
References other than my own experience: May or may not be the same as ‘Early Green Sugar’.
Kieffer
Breeder(s): Selected by Peter Kieffer.
History: Thought to be a Chinese Sand Pear (P. pyrifolia) X ‘Bartlett’ seedling selected in Pennsylvania near Philadelphia and first fruited in 1863. Because of its resistance to fireblight, ease of growth and high productivity, it was the nation’s leading commercial pear for a time. It was during its heyday that U.P. Hedrick wrote the most amusing entry in The Pears of New York. He clearly didn’t think much of ‘Kieffer’, but in the South it has become quite a beloved pear. Because of fireblight, Southerners couldn’t grow pears. ‘Kieffer’ was a pear we could grow, and so we grew to love them. I have fond memories of my grandfather telling stories from his moonshining days or other mountain life stories on his front porch, while cutting up apples and ‘Kieffer’ pears. All of us sitting around got kernels of wisdom and slices of both life and delicious home-grown fruit from the Georgia mountains. Pear preserves are a quintessential Southern topping for homemade buttermilk biscuits or toast and these preserves were typically made from ‘Kieffer’ pears. Southerners also canned their 'Kieffer’s and yes, we even let them mellow and ate them fresh, and we like them! Now that I’ve grown and tasted better pears, I prefer buttery-textured classic European pears, but I still like ‘Kieffer’ pears, to the amazement of folks from up North or out West who don’t share this Southern tradition.
Rootstocks used: Unknown standard, probably ‘Bartlett’ seedling.
Orchards grown in: Coal Mountain, Georgia.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is mildly sweet and bland. The fruit acquire a nice perfume and become sweeter after mellowing, but they never become a great eating pear. As I say above, I (and many other fellow Southerners) like them, but given a choice between the best ‘Kieffer’ ever and an average ‘Comice’ or ‘Mericourt’ or ‘Potomac’, I’ll take the latter. Texture is crisp, but hard, like biting a softball until it mellows for a month or so in storage. After mellowing, it gets softer, but never buttery and the large and frequent grit cells do not soften.
Fruit size: Large-very large. 250-260 g/fruit
Fruit appearance: Thick-necked with a larger bulge near the bottom- The Pears of New York describes the shape well. Greenish with increasing yellow as they ripen, turning brighter yellow upon mellowing.
Culinary characteristics: Good for cooking. Kieffer makes decent pie (with enough lemon juice), cans pretty well and makes very good preserves. In my opinion, once I set aside nostalgia, ‘Spalding’ beats it in every category, but Kieffer was king in the South for many decades. A more thorough evaluation than I have ever done was done by the Georgia state extension service in 1966. Check out the results here. The USDA has even more detailed processing information in their Circular 941.
Storage characteristics: Picking-ripe fruit stores for at least two months in common refrigeration. If you lower the temperature down to just above freezing, then you can hold them in good shape for another month. Of course, eating-ripe fruit doesn’t store nearly as well. For detailed information on ripening and storing Kieffer pears, see USDA circular No. 941.
Harvest season: Late; mid-September in Coal Mountain, Georgia.
Bloom season: Early; a few days after Spalding.
Pollination: Self-fertile- another characteristic that made them a ubiquitous home orchard pear in the South. Being deprived of good pears for so many generations encouraged Southerners to turn to other fruits for desserts, but they could make room for a single ‘Kieffer’ pear. Both of my grandparents had a single pear tree in their yards/orchards, and it was a ‘Kieffer’. It was one of the first three pears that I planted in my first orchard.
Diseases: Resistant, but not immune to fireblight. In bad epiphytotic years, my tree lost 80% of its growth to blight, yet it always recovered quickly. Resistant to pear leafspot.
Precocity: Very precocious; first fruit set in its 5th year on standard rootstock, but that’s a little misleading because it would have fruited much earlier if it weren’t for the late Spring frosts, especially in that bottomland orchard. It bloomed its 2nd year after planting on standard rootstock and with my previous heavy-handed pruning methods!
Productivity: Very productive and an annual bearer.
Growth habit: Very vigorous; crotch angles narrow until the tree begins to bear, then it mostly behaves, but will send up vertical watersprouts with some regularity; Dwarfing rootstock recommended.
Bottom line: Recommended for the nostalgic or for someone wanting to try their hand at a truly Southern perry. You might have to add sugar or mix it with some sweeter fruit because Kieffers only go up to about 7% sugar. Not recommended in general due to its poor fruit quality.
References other than my own experience: Besides the ones cited above, check out USDA circular 941, which was devoted to commercial production of Kieffer pears.
Koyama
Breeder(s): Lon Rombough.
History: The USDA’s National Germplasm Repository (GRIN) states that Koyama originated as a ‘Nijisseiki’ (Asian,
P. pyrifolia) X unknown
P. communis (European). However, after growing and fruiting it for several years alongside many Asian X European and pure-species cultivars, I will state for the record that I will be shocked, SHOCKED, I tell you!, if this pear is anything other than pure
P. pyrifolia. It may be a self-pollinated ‘Nijisseiki’ (also known as ‘Twentieth Century’), if some reports on the Web are accurate, but like a lot of stuff on the Net, I doubt it. A scientific study done by the University of California found no self-pollination from ‘Nijisseiki’. Either way, ‘Koyama’ has zero European attributes. Mr. Rombough was an avid and knowledgeable fruit grower, especially grapes, an active member of the fruit-enthusiast non-profit,
NAFEX (North American Fruit Explorers), and a very good writer. He sometimes combined these two skills. His excellent book, The Grape Grower, is a good example of this. Lon also bred grapes for his Pacific Northwest climate. Lon sent scions of ‘Koyama’ to me and I grafted them wherever I had rootstock. Unfortunately, Lon passed away soon afterwards.
Rootstocks used:
P. calleryana, OHxF
#513
Orchards grown in: Pittsboro, NC orchards A & B.
Notes:
Fruit quality: One has to be patient with this pear. Its beauty far precedes the development of its flavor. When fully ripe, it is sweet and juicy with a nice watermelon-like flavor. Texture is very crisp with no grit cells. Peeling is required for maximal enjoyment. Pick them before they are ready, though and they have less flavor than a raw Irish potato.
Fruit size: Medium. 228 g/fruit (In 2014, the median fruit size was 314 g/fruit).
Fruit appearance: These pears are fabulously beautiful. They shine a bright bronzed golden color and have prominent white lenticels. They are round-oblate in shape. They would almost certainly sell well. I sold a few, but through an outlet that bought all my pears. I didn’t get customer feedback from the retailer- they were a bit sloppy with their produce and I wouldn’t sell to them again.
Culinary characteristics: We didn’t cook them, but they would almost certainly be wonderful in salads.
Storage characteristics: Stores for at least two months in common refrigeration.
Harvest season: September in Pittsboro, NC. The later in September they are harvested, the better quality they are.
Bloom season: ***; a few days *** vs Spalding
Pollination: Untested, as far as I know.
Diseases: Susceptible to fireblight. Resistant to pear leafspot. Like most Asian pears and other pomes with a rough skin, they are quite attractive to codling moths as well and require a good control program.
Precocity: Very precocious; first fruit set in second year on both rootstocks. Two of the top-worked calleryana trees even tried to set fruit the first year they were grafted! If this happens to you, don’t let them, it will runt the tree. I carefully removed the blossoms to prevent fruit set that first year, then let them make one fruit each the following year.
Productivity: Extremely productive and annual bearing. One must thin judiciously to get large, high-quality fruit.
Growth habit: Vigorous if prevented from fruiting, but this cultivar is geared to fruit and if allowed to fruit while young, vigor is easily controlled. Crotch angles wide for a pear. If managed for production early, it does as well on
P. calleryana rootstock as it does on OHxF
#513. On either rootstock, it is strongly recommended to thin aggressively to prevent overbearing. You just can (and should) allow more fruit to stay on the tree and allow it earlier in the tree’s life, if you use callery stock.
Bottom line: Not recommended for large-scale commercial production in the Southeast because of its susceptibility to fireblight. However, if one is willing to stay on top of the blight and ensure proper picking time for flavor, then it might be worth a try because it is so beautiful that customers would snap it up. Not recommended for the home-grower because there are better Asian pears, in my opinion. However, it would be quite interesting to cross it to ‘
Shinko’ for blight resistance, then cross the best seedlings to ‘
Immamura Aki’ and ‘
Meigetsu’ and see if some of the seedlings improve in quality and blight resistance.
References other than my own experience:
Rombough.
The Grape Grower: A Guide to Organic Viticulture.
Griggs and Iwakiri. 1977. Asian Pear Varieties in California. University of California
Bulletin #4068.
Lucy Duke
Breeder(s): Mrs. Lucy Duke, Beaufort County, North Carolina.
History: Supposedly originated from a ‘Bartlett’ X ‘Winter Nelis’ cross about 1880. For more information, see the entry in The Pears of New York.
Rootstocks used: P. calleryana and OHxF #513.
Orchards grown in: Pittsboro, NC orchard A.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is sweet, sprightly. Texture is smooth, juicy and buttery, but skin needs to be peeled for optimal enjoyment.
Fruit size: Medium-large. *** g/fruit
Fruit appearance: Hedrick sings the praises of its appearance, but the fruit on my trees were not especially attractive. They had thick greenish skin with some yellow color upon maturity.
Culinary characteristics: We did not cook them.
Storage characteristics: Stores for at least *** in common refrigeration.
Harvest season: *** in Pittsboro, NC.
Bloom season: ***; a few days *** vs Spalding
Pollination: Good pollen for other cultivars. Needs a pollinizer.
Diseases: Susceptible to fireblight. The trees I had on OHxF stock were killed by blight and the one I had on callery stock had significant damage every year after it started bearing. Somewhat resistant to pear leafspot.
Precocity: ***; first fruit set in *** year on ***rootstock.
Productivity: Not very productive.
Growth habit: Low-moderate Vigor; average crotch angles for a pear. Size can be controlled on callery stock if grown in sod.
Bottom line: Not recommended for the Southeast. It is too susceptible to blight and though the quality is very good, there are other pears of equal or better quality in its season that don’t have its failings.
References other than my own experience:
Luscious
Breeder(s): Ronald M. Peterson, Brookings, South Dakota Agriculture Experiment Station.
History: Part of a program to breed pears that were fireblight resistant, cold-hardy and high-quality. Introduced in 1973. SD E31 x Ewart; cross made in 1954, selected in 1967, tested as South Dakota 67SIl.
Rootstocks used: Unknown standard
Orchards grown in: Coal Mountain, Georgia.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is insipid. It is sweet, but without spiciness or complexity. Despite their small size, one pear is generally enough and you are ready to move onto something else. Texture is smooth and buttery. Skin is thin, but peeling is still recommended.
Fruit size: Pyriform. Small- slightly larger than ‘Seckel’.
Fruit appearance: Beautiful golden-yellow with a red blush on the sunny side. Perhaps their beauty raises expectations for the taste too high, because the taste disappoints.
Culinary characteristics: They make very good dried pears, though they brown readily.
Storage characteristics: Stores for at least a month in common refrigeration.
Harvest season: Mid-August through the first week of September in Coal Mountain, GA. This is roughly with ‘Magness’ and about two weeks after ‘Spalding’.
Bloom season: relatively late; about three weeks after ‘Spalding’ and 1-2 weeks after ‘Kieffer’, depending on the year.
Pollination: Good pollen for other cultivars. Needs a pollinizer.
Diseases: Moderately susceptible to fireblight. Tolerant of pear leafspot. It retained 80%, 90%, 90%, 50% and 30% of its leaves in years 1982, '83, '84, '85, & '87 respectively.
Precocity: Precocious; although the first fruit wasn’t harvested until its 8th growing season due to late Spring frosts, etc., it began blooming in its 2nd year on standard rootstock.
Productivity: Very productive.
Growth habit: Moderate Vigor; crotch angles wide for a pear. One interesting odd characteristic of this cultivar is the redness of the mature trunk and scaffolds. It is really an attractive feature of the tree and might be worth incorporating this trait in new, higher-quality, more blight-resistant cultivars for the home-grower.
Bottom line: Not recommended for the Southeast. The fruit is good, but not excellent quality and the trees aren’t sufficiently resistant to blight.
References other than my own experience:
Pears for the South. Donna Cook via Lucky Pittman.
Magness
Breeder(s): Howard J. Brooks, USDA.
History: Introduced in 1968 by the USDA as part of their program to breed blight-resistant, high-quality European-type pears. Originated from a ‘Giant Seckel’ X ‘Comice’ cross.
Rootstocks used: Angers quince
Orchards grown in: Coal Mountain, Georgia.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is sweet, perfumed ambrosia, like a perfect ‘Comice’. Texture is smooth, buttery and juicy.
Fruit size: Medium-large.
Fruit appearance: Blushed, smooth, aromatic skin. As beautiful as a well-grown ‘Comice’.
Culinary characteristics: We never cooked them.
Storage characteristics: Stores for at least two weeks in common refrigeration.
Harvest season: Late August-early September in Coal Mountain, GA, about two weeks after ‘Spalding’.
Bloom season: late
Pollination: Sterile pollen, so will not pollinize other cultivars. Needs a pollinizer.
Diseases: Odd interaction with fireblight; it is resistant to blight through the blossoms (the most common route of entry), but if the trunk is inoculated (in nature, this usually means a hailstorm), then it is susceptible. My tree produced several crops before a hailstorm hit when there was blight in the orchard and the tree quickly succumbed. The breeders also noticed this attribute. Resists pear leafspot. It retained 100%, 100%, 30%, 10% and 80% of its leaves in years 1982, '83, '84, '85, & '87 respectively.
Precocity: Slow to come into bearing; first fruit set in 6th year on Angers quince rootstock.
Productivity: A bit of a shy bearer, but bears annually if thinned properly.
Growth habit: Moderate Vigor; spreading habit (for a pear)
Bottom line: Recommended for the connoisseur who is willing to risk the loss of the tree, but not for commercial production in the Southeast.
References other than my own experience:
Van der Zwet and H. Keil. 1979. Fireblight: A bacterial disease of Rosaceous plants. Handbook No. 150.
Marks
Breeder(s): George D. Oberle, from Virginia Polytechnic Institute.
History: Its parent was sent to Cornell in the early 1930’s by a Mr. Marks who lived in a small town in the Hudson River Valley, presumably for identification. Dr. Richard Wellington of Cornell, was unable to identify the cultivar, but thought enough of its quality that he planted seeds from it, resulting in five seedlings. In 1938, Dr. Oberle started working at Cornell’s New York State Experiment Station and found that the fruit from one of these seedlings had exceptional flavor and fireblight resistance. When Dr. Oberle moved to VPI, he took scions of this tree with him and he eventually released it as the ‘Marks’ cultivar.
Rootstocks used: Angers quince
Orchards grown in: Coal Mountain, Georgia, Apex, North Carolina and Pittsboro, NC.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is reminiscent of ‘Seckel’, but not as intense. Texture is smooth, buttery and juicy. It may be better in colder climates.
Fruit size: Small, slightly larger than ‘Seckel’.
Fruit appearance: Attractive yellow russet skin.
Culinary characteristics: We never cooked them.
Storage characteristics: Stores for at least two weeks in common refrigeration.
Harvest season: *** Coal Mountain, GA.
Bloom season: late
Pollination: Needs a pollinizer.
Diseases: More resistant to fireblight than most European pears. Resists pear leafspot. It retained 100%, 70%, 20%, and 10% of its leaves in years 1983, 1984, '85, & '87 respectively in my Georgia orchard.
Precocity: Slow to come into bearing; first fruit set in 6th year on Angers quince rootstock.
Productivity: A bit of a shy bearer, but bears annually if thinned properly.
Growth habit: Moderate Vigor; kind of scraggly.
Bottom line: Not recommended for the Southeast. It doesn’t excel at anything. It is too shy a bearer for reliable production, its fruit is good, but there are better available during its season, it is not exceptionally resistant to disease.
References other than my own experience:
Southmeadow Fruit Gardens catalog. 1976. .
Maxine (a.k.a. ‘Starking® Delicious’)
Breeder(s): ***.
History: “Originates from Ohio, discovered in 1930 and introduced by Stark Bro’s in 1953.” (Stark Bros. catalog description) Maxine was the original name, but Stark sold it under their own name of ‘Starking® Delicious’. They are identical otherwise.
Rootstocks used: Standard, P. calleryana and OHxF #513
Orchards grown in: Coal Mountain, Georgia; Apex, NC; Pittsboro, NC orchards A & B.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is sweet, perfumed and delicious. Texture is buttery. I can’t remember if the peel was thin and tender or if peeling was needed for maximal enjoyment.
Fruit size: Medium. 225 g/fruit
Fruit appearance: Pyriform-shaped, smooth-skinned pears of a golden color when eating ripe, often blushed with red on the sunny side.
Culinary characteristics: We didn’t have enough to try recipes, but the Georgia state extension service did a thorough evaluation in 1966. Check out the results here…
Storage characteristics: I had not enough fruit to test storage, but other sources, including Stark, say it stores well.
Harvest season: Early August in Pittsboro, NC.
Bloom season: midseason; full bloom is about a week before ‘Seckel’ and about three weeks after ‘Spalding’.
Pollination: Good pollen for other cultivars. Needs a pollinizer.
Diseases: Resistant to fireblight, pear blister mite and tolerant of pear leafspot. It retained 60%, 90%, 60%, 40%, and 90% of its leaves in 1982, '83, '84, '85 & '87 respectively.
Precocity: Very slow to come into bearing, especially on non-dwarfing stock; first fruit set in *** year on ***rootstock. Interestingly, one pear tree in which I had grafted eight different cultivars onto a bird-planted ‘Bradford’ P. calleryana seedling included a ‘Maxine’ limb that bore the year after the others had begun bearing, suggesting that grafting a scaffold of ‘Maxine’ with more-precocious cultivars might bring it into bearing sooner.
Productivity: Maybe they are productive when they mature, but they are so slow to bear that I never got to see them be productive.
Growth habit: Moderately vigorous, upright growth habit with narrow crotch angles that should be spread while young and limber; Dwarfing rootstock highly recommended.
Bottom line: Recommended for the Southeast except the Deep South, where it would not get sufficient chilling to grow properly. Recommended for trial as a commercial cultivar in the South. Unfortunately, they are so slow to come into bearing that I have always moved away before I got many crops from these trees, but in my limited experience, the quality was very good and certainly the trees were healthy. A commercial grower would also need to account for the lost productivity in the first years as the trees matured because of its reluctance to start bearing.
References other than my own experience:
Stark Bros. Nursery catalog
Meadows
Breeder(s): ***.
History:
Rootstocks used: ***
Orchards grown in: Pittsboro, NC orchards A & B.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is sweet and perfumed when fully ripe. Texture is crisp and juicy with some grit cells, especially near the core.
Fruit size: Medium. 118 g/fruit
Fruit appearance: Wide oval shaped, rather like ‘Kieffer’ except they retain more green color when ripe.
Culinary characteristics: Good for baking, pies, preserves. We made some nice cranberry/pear pies with this pear in a blend, but we haven’t used it this way as a varietal. Almost good for salads, but the grit cells detract.
Storage characteristics: Stores for at least a month in common refrigeration.
Harvest season: late August-early September in Pittsboro, NC.
Bloom season: Very early; this is the first pear to flower in my Pittsboro orchard, sometimes in full bloom in February; *** days before ‘Spalding’
Pollination: Good pollen for other cultivars. I suspect that it is at least partially self-pollinizing because it is often ending bloom when the next cultivar begins, yet it almost always bears a good crop.
Diseases: Very resistant to fireblight- I’ve never seen a strike. Resistant to pear leafspot, susceptible to pear blister mite.
Precocity: ***; first fruit set in *** year on ***rootstock.
Productivity: Productive and annual bearer.
Growth habit: Upright and Very vigorous; Dwarfing rootstock recommended. This would like be a huge tree on non-dwarfing stock.
Bottom line: Recommended for the Deep South where fireblight resistance and low chilling are requirements. There are better quality pears for most of the country, though.
References other than my own experience:
Meigetsu
Breeder(s): ***.
History: The name of this Japanese cultivar of P. pyrifolia translates as “full moon”, one Japanese colleague told me.
Rootstocks used: OHxF #513 and P. calleryana(?)
Orchards grown in: Apex, NC; Pittsboro, NC orchard B.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is bland and insipid unless one waits until the fruit is fully ripe. Once fully mature, the fruit takes on a wonderful flavor- I can’t decide whether it tastes more like butterscotch or watermelon. Some people say it tastes like pineapple. I highly recommend peeling the fruit before serving because the skin detracts. Texture is crisp and juicy with no grit cells.
Fruit size: Large. 194 median g/fruit in 2013; 223 g/fruit in another year.
Fruit appearance: Golden brown with prominent lenticels. Round-oblate shape.
Culinary characteristics: Fine in preserves, pies and salads when peeled.
Storage characteristics: Stores for at least a month in common refrigeration. One of the references says four months, but they are Canadian. As I will explain again elsewhere, the main reason why the storage times are always longer for Northern-grown fruit is the reduced heat around the ripening fruit. In the South, the same cultivar will ripen much sooner than in the North because the trees start growing earlier in the year. Also, the days tend to be cooler and the nights much cooler in the North. Another trivial factor is that I have historically grown only one to a few trees of any given cultivar, and my family like fruit, so the fruit was usually consumed well before it reached its limits in our refrigerator. Despite this personal difference, you will notice that Southern pomologists generally report the same shortening of storage times, because of the heat. This is also why late-ripening cultivars that ripened too late for them to be grown in the North were so valued by Southerners. It allowed Southerners to have fruit store for just as long as their fellow Northern fruit-growers. One of my ‘Meigestsu’ trees was espaliered against an eastern wall, so it was shielded from the harsh western sun in the evenings. This tree always ripened its fruit one or two weeks later than otherwise-identical trees that were planted in full sun in the main orchard.
Harvest season: One of the last Asian pears to ripen in my orchard; September-October in Pittsboro, NC.
Bloom season: ***; a few days *** vs Spalding
Pollination: Good pollen for other cultivars. Reported to be partially self-pollinizing, but a pollinizer with an overlapping bloom season is recommended.
Diseases: Moderately susceptible to fireblight. I was able to control it with pruning, but some years it was so severe that a year’s production was lost. Resists pear leafspot.
Precocity: Precocious; first fruit set in *** year on ***rootstock.
Productivity: Very productive. Like most Asian pears and Asian X European hybrids, one must judiciously thin to prevent overbearing that will reduce fruit quality, fruit size and diminish tree vigor and health.
Growth habit: Very vigorous; crotch angles average to wide for a pear; Dwarfing rootstock recommended. Does well as an espalier.
Bottom line: Recommended only for the careful gardener who prizes excellent Asian pears and is willing to accept some loss to fireblight.
References other than my own experience:
V. Kraus Nurseries
Mericourt
Breeder(s): Crosses and selection done by Dr. J.A. McClintock. Released by Brooks D. Drain; University of Tennessee.
History: ‘Mericourt’ resulted from a ‘Seckel’ X ‘Late Faulkner’ cross and was tested as Tenn38S63.
Rootstocks used: OHxF#'s 333 & 513, P. calleryana seedling and Angers quince (Grootendorst Nurseries- avoid them!- insisted on sending ‘Mericourt’ scions grafted onto quince, even after I informed them that ‘Mericourt’ is incompatible with quince! These trees not-surprisingly failed to grow more than a few centimeters and then died.)
Orchards grown in: Cumming (Coal Mountain community), GA; Apex, NC; Pittsboro, NC orchards A & B.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Excellent flavor and texture. Flavor is sweet and juicy, but with wonderful perfumed aroma. Texture is buttery and flesh and skin are smooth, with no noticeable grit cells. One doesn’t need to peel these pears, as the skin is not objectionable at all.
Fruit size: Medium. 138 median g/fruit in 2009; 176 g/fruit the following year.
Fruit appearance: Attractive bright smooth yellow, often with a red blush on the sunny side when fully ripe; no russet. Pyriform shape.
Culinary characteristics: We’ve never cooked them. They are too good for fresh-eating and fruit salads.
Storage characteristics: Keeps in common refrigerated storage for at least 4 weeks- they were eaten before we could keep any longer.
Harvest season: Mid-season; mid-August to early September in Pittsboro, NC. Just after and overlapping with ‘Ayres’ and roughly with ‘Spalding’.
Bloom season: In my experience, ***vs ‘Spalding’
Diseases: Very resistant to fireblight. Somewhat resistant to pear leaf spot.
Precocity: average precocity; first fruit set in *** year on *** rootstock.
Productivity: Low productivity could be the most-limiting characteristic for using ‘Mericourt’ in a commercial setting. Then again, it hasn’t really been looked at by professional horticultural scientists, who may be able to boost yields. It tends to bloom heavily, but then set only a few fruit. I have seen productive specimens on both OHxF 513 and calleryana rootstock, but I have not had a chance to understand why those trees were productive and other trees were shy bearers.
Bottom line: Recommended for both home and commercial growers. This tree may challenge the commercial growers, but the fact that some trees are quite productive suggests that this one barrier to profitability can be overcome. The fruit is attractive and delicious. People who try these pears want more. This may be the University of Tennessee pear breeding program’s crowning achievement. Growth habit: Pretty decent growth habit on both dwarfing and calleryana rootstock. Spreading and mostly wide crotch angles (for a pear).
References other than my own experience:
B.S. Pickett 1966. The Mericourt Pear from Tennessee. J Fruit Var & Hort Digest. (APS) 20:76-77.
US-Michigan 437
Breeder(s): USDA and Michigan State University collaboration.
History: A numbered selection widely used in the USDA’s breeding program for blight-resistant, high-quality pure P. communis pears. It was never released, but can be found in the background of many pears released by the USDA in the last 60 years, including ‘Moonglow’.
Rootstocks used: OHxF #513 and Provence quince with an ‘Old Home’ interstem.
Orchards grown in: Coal Mountain, Georgia; Pittsboro, NC orchard B.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is sweet, but often with unpleasant notes of astringency. Texture is smooth and buttery.
Fruit size: Medium. 143 g/fruit
Fruit appearance: Pyriform, attractive golden-yellow with red blush on the sunny side.
Culinary characteristics: We have not cooked with them, but the Georgia state extension service did a thorough evaluation in 1966. Check out the results here.
Storage characteristics: Stores for at least a month in common refrigeration.
Harvest season: early-mid-August in Pittsboro, NC, roughly with Spalding, but a shorter season.
Bloom season: ***; a few days *** vs Spalding
Pollination: Good pollen for other cultivars. Needs a pollinizer.
Diseases: Moderately resistant to fireblight. Average susceptibility to pear leafspot. In my Georgia orchard it retained 80%, 70%, 10%, and 30% of its leaves in 1983, '84, '85 & '87 respectively. A previous, much more rigorously-done study by the Georgia Agricultural Extension Service suggests very high resistance to both fireblight and leafspot.
Precocity: ***; first fruit set in *** year on ***rootstock.
Productivity: ***.
Growth habit: Moderate vigor, very limber and floppy branches and therefore difficult to train; only ‘Green Jade’, ‘Tyson’ and ‘Colonel Wilder’ are crazier in their growth habit, in my experience. Crotch angles are narrow; Dwarfing rootstock recommended.
Bottom line: Not recommended for the Southeast, though
References other than my own experience:
Miss Label
Breeder(s): Unknown.
History: Miss Label started as an innocent purchase of a tree labeled as ‘Waite’ from Johnson’s Nursery in Ellijay, GA (my apologies to Jim Lawson for mis-remembering that the mislabelled tree was purchased from his fine nursery. I am correcting it now that I again have access to my records instead of just relying on memory).
As a brief aside, I would like to pay homage to Mr. Jim Lawson, who started the nationally well-regarded Lawson’s Nursery and who taught me a great deal about fruit trees. He was never one to put on airs, but was a store-house of pomological knowledge and practical information that rivaled many products of the universities. The last time I visited, he was in poor health and I fear this earth no longer has him around. He was a blessing on the human species. His daughter appears to have taken over the business and I wish her the best of luck. Jim started a great nursery that brought back and made available many old Southern fruit cultivars that might otherwise have been tragically lost.
Bill Johnson was also a wonderful nurseryman who I loved chatting with, but in this case my original ‘Miss Label’ tree was not labelled correctly, as I eventually found out from reading descriptions of true ‘Waite’ pears (and eventually growing them myself). To this day, I don’t know what it is, but it is certainly too good to let disappear. I briefly thought about calling it ‘Miss La Belle’ as another play on the phrase mislabelled, but this is not a European type pear, so I stuck with ‘Miss Label’. Rootstocks used: Calleryana, OHxF #513
Orchards grown in: Coal Mountain, GA, Apex, NC, Pittsboro, NC orchard B.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is surprisingly good considering that all its other growth and fruit characteristics suggest it is a communis X pyrifolia F1. Most first-generation hybrids between these species are not good quality, but this one retains the crispness a typical Asian pear with a perfumed juicy sweetness that is quite refreshing. This is only one of two pears I’ve grown that can be relished right from the tree, like an apple (the other is Green Jade). Texture is crisp and its thin skin only has a miniscule amount of bitterness- not objectionable in my opinion.
Fruit size: Large. *** g/fruit
Fruit appearance: Round, greenish maturing to a dull greenish-yellow. Skin is smooth.
Culinary characteristics: We made some nice cranberry/pear pies with this pear in a blend, but we haven’t used it as a varietal. Probably would make decent canned pears. In my opinion, its greatest promise is for perry, as part of blend, not a varietal.
Storage characteristics: Stores for at least three weeks in common refrigeration.
Harvest season: Mid-season, about three weeks after Spalding in Coal Mountain, Georgia. Starts in late August and continues well into September in Pittsboro, NC.
Bloom season: Early; a few days after Spalding in Georgia.
Diseases: Very resistant to fireblight. Resistant to pear leafspot. Susceptible to pear leaf blister mite.
Precocity: Precocious; first fruit set in 4th year on calleryana rootstock.
Productivity: Moderately productive as free-standing trees, highly productive on semi-dwarfing rootstock when planted two feet apart in trellised rows.
Growth habit: Very vigorous and upright; It is the most columnar pear tree I know of which makes it so well-suited for high-density plantings. Considering its extremely upright growth habit, Crotch angles below the apex are often surprisingly wide; Dwarfing rootstock highly recommended. Even on OHxF 513 rootstock one is constantly fighting the extremely tall central leader.
Bottom line: Not generally recommended, but worth considering for perry production.
References other than my own experience:
Monterrey
Breeder(s): ***.
History: “Monterrey pears were first grown in Monterrey, Mexico, about 80 miles southwest of the Texas and United States border.” They result from a ‘Garber’ X open pollinated (o.p.) made sometime in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s. It “…was first made available at a local nursery just outside of San Antonio, Texas in 1952.” “… Monterrey pears are primarily found in the San Antonio area.” (quoted text from Specialty Produce)
Rootstocks used: P. calleryana and Provence quince.
Orchards grown in: Coal Mountain, Georgia.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Flavor is said to be sweet. Texture is crisp, according to reports.
Fruit size: Large.
Fruit appearance: Round, golden-yellow when fully ripe with prominent lenticels.
Culinary characteristics: Some advocate using them in pies, tarts, cakes, savory dishes and salads. I doubt they would be superior to some of the other gritty, early pyrifolia hybrids, but because my trees dies early of fireblight, I can’t dispute it with much confidence.
Storage characteristics: Stores for at least a week in common refrigeration according to reports.
Harvest season: Mid-season, about three weeks after Spalding in Coal Mountain, Georgia.
Bloom season: Early; about a week after Spalding
Diseases: It is said to be resistant to fireblight, but my experience is quite different. I planted three trees, two on callery and one dwarf on quince. All of them died young of fireblight infection. Pretty resistant to pear leafspot. It retained 90, 90%, 40% and 100% of its leaves in 1983, '84, '85 & '87 respectively on calleryana and 100% of its leaves on quince in 1983. Oddly, it almost completely defoliated in 1984, retaining only about 10% of its leaves.
Precocity: Precocious; first fruited in 5th year on calleryana rootstock, but showed fruiting potential (it bloomed) in its third year. Spring frosts prevented fruit set in the 3rd and 4th years.
Productivity: About average. Most Asian and Asian hybrid pears are very productive, but Monterrey is just meh.
Growth habit: Very vigorous.
Bottom line: Not recommended for the Southeast. I don’t know how they are growing them in Texas, as some claim, because this cultivar was quite blight susceptible in my hands. Add to that a mediocre fruit quality and I just can’t see how to recommend it.
References other than my own experience:
Speciality Produce
Breeder(s): Brooks D. Drain; University of Tennessee.
Miss Label
