Anton Callaway reports here that “a molecular assay done by Oregon State University scientists showed that while it was related to ‘Magness’, ‘Warren’ is distinct (Karp. 2011).”
Callaway shares @clarkinks’ assessment of Magness’ greater fireblight susceptibility, and notes that Magness “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.”
Edit: I tried to find that study, and the source Callaway relies on seems to be an article in the LA times about the Warren Pear that refers to unpublished enzyme analyses cited by Richard Bell.
Clark and I have written about Magness and Warren on multiple occasions. My experience in both MS and northern CA is a little different. Both pears are arguably the best-tasting pears you will have from late August until Comice is ready in November. For the past several years, Magness has been the best annual cropper - Warren had one limb-breaking crop in 2021. In my experience growing both for many years, Warren is a healthier tree overall but I have never had serious fireblight in either.
We have a local pear on the campus of an old institution for people with intellectual disabilities. The campus has been around since the late 1800’s and at one time it was self sustaining with their own wells, greenhouses, fields and orchards. A lot of the old trees have been cut down years ago and the facility is closing for good this summer so I imagine the rest will go away at some point too. I went up this spring and grabbed some cuttings from a few trees that are left, just in case.
One of the trees is a small early pear that I just call the “Little GRC” pear. The facility is now named the Glenwood Resource Center (GRC). It has a classic euro pear shape with a good red color, but it’s small. Maybe 2 or 3 inches long. It’s crisp and usually eaten right off the tree. I’ve never tried storing it but I suspect it doesn’t store well. Definitely an early bloomer, it sets heavily and it’s a large healthy tree. I’ve never noticed disease on it, but if there is any it just keeps on trucking anyway. Nobody sprays it, in fact I think a lot of people assume it’s ornamental and not edible. The pear has a mild flavor that won’t knock anyone’s socks off, but it’s a nice crunchy treat early in the pear season. I did two grafts of it this spring on OHxF 333 and both are pushing some decent growth now.
I think it would probably make a good wildlife tree as well.
Agree Warren is much healthier tree and withstands fb well, still no flowers. My surviving Magness is fruiting this year. If you want to plant Magness, be sure it gets plenty of morning sun. Afternoon sun location led to eventual fb on trunk and death.
This list is a work in progress! Hopefully we have signifigant changes by 2025 or 2026. Clara frijs and Harrow delight really let me down last year. TS hardy is great for disease resistance but it does not have anything in flavor that Orient and kieffer don’t. Douglas and Duchess D’ angoulme are fine but don’t belong at the top unfortunately. They are about the same in disease resistance as kieffer.
I planted a Seckel last year so it will be a while before I can compare the two. I definitely can’t rule it out. Based on descriptions I’ve read of Seckel this mystery pear seems a bit earlier and it’s more on the crunchy side and not super juicy. Very mild flavor. But that could be due to how heavy it sets and there’s no thinning done on it of course.
Seckel is a good lead. I can’t wait to compare the the fruit on them. I see Seckel is on your disease resistant list so that would seem to match as well.
Clark, I’m going to object (mostly for discussion sake) to your rating of your small yellow pear as 10. Why? Because by your own admission it is variable, some years very very good and some years very very blah. Would it be better to rate it as 7 - 10 allowing for the off years?
Also, you have Tyson in 3 separate places in your ratings. It is #9 in your list with a ? and rating of 8. It is in your “undecided on” list. It is in your “other pears to try” list. Which is it? and why the confusion?
Good questions the rating of 10 is absolutely strictly based on flavor on the best year. The last several years the flavor has been terrible due to weather here. This pear is rated on potential alone. Tyson similar to my small yellow pear is excellent. Be prepared to wait and try 1 or 2 fruits in the next 15 years if any at all. Are they always going to be good? Will there be any more? Was one taste in 17 years it? I just don’t know how to rate Tyson highly when it produces less reliably than my small yellow pear. Where does that leave me with Tyson long term? Anyone else have an opinion? I doubt they do I have several trees of Tyson and it has been a real bummer for me. Here is the thing it has never had 1 fireblight strike, flavor is great, it is very very small. 1 or 2 tiny little wonderful pear is hardly better than seckle but yet it is taste wise better. That leaves me undecided on it. My small yellow pear produces something every year but it can be so bad it gets composted, it is fireblight proof, blooms very very late so it avoids frosts, produces within 5 - 10 years depending on rootstock. Crop is normally heavy and variable based on weather. That means my small yellow pear can be grown in California, the south etc. .Land is at a premium in some places and for those warren or Magness is clearly the best choice for flavor and reliability. Magness gets fireblight worse than warren but neither are normally problematic on most years. When problems arise warren is the better choice of the two for many reasons. In the south problems may arise every year due to severe fireblight. Magness in some locations produces a very heavy crop compared to warren. This appears to be based on regional weather. Our weather patterns changed this year and Magness is loaded. Warren has consistently out performed Magness the last several years in the doubt. The drought is letting up some and the tables turned and Magness has a heavier crop. If you want the best easier to grow pear choose warren but pollination can be tricky. Most people won’t get a warren in the next 15 years. If grown with ewart aka karls favorite it is going to be a winner! I have a pear that is extremely good but I dont know what it is. It will be on the list soon.
my seckle had frost damage to the tips and I’ve trimmed it back to about knee high. hoping it bounces back. my comice is doing well. I put in an additional harrow sweet and it seems to be starting off well; I would like to get more than one of this or the Clark pear, but unsure of sources (I originally planted 3 harrow sweet, two were so dry and had little roots on arrival so I’m a little gun shy to try again)
I’m interested in those that do well in weather extremes. do any of the resistant ones do well in high heat+very cold/long deep chill hours?
I wasn’t sure about your tree but I’m hoping that the Karl’s Favorite will help my Warren set. I set an 8-foot Tpost near the graft and tied Karl’s to it. It is a lot straighter but still tends to grow with some twists and twirls. Any more thoughts about how a graft would affect a tree and cause it to be more productive other than the proximity of pollen? Do you have links to scientific articles about such things?
" Evaluation of individual roles of plant hormones in fruit development is difficult because various plant hormones function simultaneously. In this study, to analyze the effect of plant hormones on fruit maturation one by one, plant hormones were applied to auxin-induced parthenocarpic woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca ) fruits. As a result, auxin, gibberellin (GA), and jasmonate, but, not abscisic acid and ethylene increased the proportion of ultimately mature fruits. So far, to produce comparable fruit with pollinated fruit in size, auxin with GA treatment was required in woodland strawberry. Picrolam (Pic), the most potent auxin in inducing parthenocarpic fruit, induced fruit which is comparable in size with pollinated fruit without GA. The endogenous GA level and the result of the RNA interference analysis of the main GA biosynthetic gene suggest that a basal level of endogenous GA is essential for fruit development. The effect of other plant hormones was also discussed."
" Metabolic Profiling of Developing Pear Fruits Reveals Dynamic Variation in Primary and Secondary Metabolites, Including Plant Hormones
Metabolites in the fruits of edible plants include sweet sugars, visually appealing pigments, various products with human nutritional value, and biologically active plant hormones. Although quantities of these metabolites vary during fruit development and ripening because of cell division and enlargement, there are few reports describing the actual dynamics of these changes. Therefore, we applied multiple metabolomic techniques to identify the changes in metabolite levels during the development and ripening of pear fruits (Pyrus communis L. ‘La France’). We quantified and classified over 250 metabolites into six groups depending on their specific patterns of variation during development and ripening. Approximately half the total number of metabolites, including histidine and malate, accumulated transiently around the blooming period, during which cells are actively dividing, and then decreased either rapidly or slowly. Furthermore, the amounts of sulfur-containing amino acids also increased in pear fruits around 3–4 months after the blooming period, when fruit cells are enlarging, but virtually disappeared from ripened fruits. Some metabolites, including the plant hormone abscisic acid, accumulated particularly in the receptacle prior to blooming and/or fruit ripening. Our results show several patterns of variation in metabolite levels in developing and ripening pear fruits, and provide fundamental metabolomic data that is useful for understanding pear fruit physiology and enhancing the nutritional traits of new cultivars.
Citation: Oikawa A, Otsuka T, Nakabayashi R, Jikumaru Y, Isuzugawa K, Murayama H, et al. (2015) Metabolic Profiling of Developing Pear Fruits Reveals Dynamic Variation in Primary and Secondary Metabolites, Including Plant Hormones. PLoS ONE 10(7): e0131408. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0131408
Editor: Sonia Osorio-Algar, University of Malaga-Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, SPAIN
Received: January 2, 2015; Accepted: June 2, 2015; Published: July 13, 2015
I would like to add the pears in your top 10 list. Do you know of nurseries that sell scion would for those cultivars. I just looked for dripping honey and drew a blank
Clarks small yellow pear - I will have 3 or 4 sticks offered in January/February
Warren - Will have plenty
Drippin Honey - I should have 2 or 3 sticks
Potomac - Will have plenty
Korean giant - Will have a few
Ayers - Will have plenty
Karls favorite - Do not have
Seckle - Have but not big enough to cut scions
Tyson - Should have 1 or 2 scions
Leona - Do not have
@Fusion_power kind offer would be a great place to start and https://39thparallel.com/ nursery is a good place for most of it. @39thparallel can cut scions here when he wants to help people get what they need. .
@clarkinks I need to get you a Turnbull to sample this year. It’s my new favorite Euro pear. The sweet-sour balance is perfect to me but probably doesn’t suite everyone’s taste. They say it’s very FB resistant and I have not seen strikes yet.
I think you’re right about Korean Giant being the most bight resistant Asian pear. The lower sugar crisp flavor not for me but the softball size fruit is always impressive.
