Is anyone growing Clara Frijs pears? Mine is around 10’ tall and will be bearing soon. I was hoping someone might have pictures or comments about flavor etc… It is doing very well resisting FB. I found this picture of the grafts I originally made and realized I posted an incorrect question when I called it a Madame Boutant pear which is another variety I grow. Fortunately that year I traded with a fellow grafter who sent me some great scion wood which I’m forever grateful for. He sent me around 15 varieties so to keep track of them I wrote it on the tree I grafted at the time and took pictures to record locations and varieties.
Bench grafted a few Clara Frijs this past spring. Scions were fom GRIN. Strong growers thus far.
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What did you use for rootstock? I have a feeling Clara frijs is a winner. Going to graft it on several trees this year and then I will know more.
OHxF87 root stock.
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Doesn’t sound like anyone has got fruit from it on here yet. I’ve read it’s delicious by people not selling it. I’m looking forward to see if it will graft easily on some of these difficult callery. Douglas and Clara frijs both seem to show incredible growth and disease resistance. Every rootstock imparts it’s own flavor, size etc on the scion so we will see how they taste soon. Do you have any others that are fast growers that graft easy? Here’s one perspective on Comptesse Clara Frijs http://tallcloverfarm.com/12265/comtesse-clara-frijs-pear-best-pear-never-ate
I have had above average growth out of Luscious, Vavilov and Kieffer with about 100% take on grafts. I see you wrote that root stocks impart flavor changes in the scion. That is the first I have heard that statement. Care to elaborate?
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TurkeyCreekTrees,
It does seem to be something not discussed a lot so little is known about it. Not just rootstocks but interstems. I made a post specifically in regards to apples and interstems just last week Interstem questions - #6 by clarkinks. The article https://www.researchgate.net/publication/239804625_Interstem_and_Its_Relationship_to_‘Fuji’_Apple_Quality says the following
“In 1989, an 8-yr-old commercial block of ‘Granny Smith’ and Oregon Spur I Delicious’ apple trees on M.26 rootstock were grafted over to ‘Fuji’ (Nagafu 6). Before grafting, the original trees were cut back to 90 cm, leaving 20–25 cm of the original scion to serve as an interstem. In 1991 through 1993, 1 to 2 days before commercial harvest, 20 apples were harvested from each of 20 trees of each interstem treatment selected randomly throughout the block. Fruit characteristics (firmness, color, soluble solids concentration, acids, fruit weight, physiological disorders, and mineral content ) were assessed on half the apples at harvest and on the other half after 120 days at 1 °C. At harvest, apples had similar starch levels regardless of interstem, but interstem effects on fruit quality were significant. ‘Fuji’ apples from trees with ‘Delicious’ interstems were larger, and had more acidity and more bitter pit than apples from trees with ‘Granny Smith’ interstems. ‘Fuji’ apples from trees with ‘Granny Smith’ interstems were firmer with more red color development and higher soluble solids concentration than apples from trees with a ‘Delicious’ interstem. After storage, ‘Fuji’ apples from trees with ‘Delicious’ interstem developed more scald than apples from ‘Granny Smith’ interstem. Fruit-flesh Mg, P, N and K; fruit-peel Mg, K, P, N and B; and leaf P, K, B, and N were greater in ‘Fuji’ apples with ‘Delicious’ interstems compared to ‘Fuji’ apples from trees with ‘Granny Smith’ interstems.”
The part that discusses in the article “more acidity” imparts flavor. Typically you hear experts discuss acid / sugar balance in regards to taste. Beyond knowing size of fruit and mineral content varied based on rootstock i’m not sure why I overlooked acidity and starches previously. Even more interesting the article notes “interstem effects on fruit quality were significant”. You might like this article on plums as well http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S030442380800229X or this one http://irrec.ifas.ufl.edu/flcitrus/pdfs/short_course_and_workshop/factors_fruit_quality/Wutscher-Rootstock_Effects.pdf
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Clara frijs will hopefully fruit for me next year. It’s definitely big enough and has lateral branches. No signs of any diseases.
In my yard, the most vigorous pear variety with the cleanest foliage (no fruit yet) has been Burford out of a couple dozen varieties I am growing.
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Jesse,
I’m going to check if I’m growing that one. If not I will add it to my list for next spring. I have a bunch of 1 year old grafted pear trees that are tagged that I need to find my list of.
I can help you with a stick or two if you need it, just remind me this winter.
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Thanks Jesse let me see what I have. I appreciate the kind offer.
I continue to hear good things about clara frijs but I still don’t know anyone that has one of these pears producing fruit. Anyone have any luck with fruit yet?
Clara frijs like most pears seems a little slow to produce fruit. Hopefully this year I will have some fruit so I can provide some additional details. It’s growth is similar to Seckel and Worden in a way but more vigorous. Small leaves , thin stems which appear very similar to sugar pears. Getting more suspicious it’s one of those high quality pears you wait awhile on to produce fruit. I did graft mine to callery so if necessary I will add a couple to ohxf333 this year.
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Anyone have theirs flowering?
Wanted to post an update that Clara Frijs had no diseases this year and so far there have been no flowers to date. The rootstock I used is callery which is slower to produce pears than the ohxf series rootstocks. No fireblight at all to date even on bad fireblight years. My tree is around 20 feet tall and spurring up nicely! I won’t know Its susceptibility to FB until it produces its first pear crop.
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My clara frijs is covered with fruit buds this year so I might be able to tell you this year how good the fruit really is.
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Clara Frijs is making me wait another year and so far I just see a couple of fruit buds for 2019. I think that is 5th or 6th year on a top worked full grown pear. I have a couple of trees of Clara Frijs. That means this pear is a 12+ years to produce pears on its own roots if you use a standard rootstock and likely 4 or so years on ohxf333 or quince for dwarfing. Had it not been for the drought this year some things might have been different and I might have had a good crop of clara frijs. Plan on waiting on this one like clapps favorite here plan your pear orchard early in life because you will be waiting on these pears! Don’t forget girdling and bending branches can cause early fruiting if that’s your goal. My goal is to go the distance with these pears and bend braches as they age if needed.
If there were fruit buds, why no fruit? I thought fruit buds always result in fruit assuming they were pollinated.
No age of tree, freeze, drought etc. all impact getting fruit.
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