Trialing several new disease resistant pears.
@clarkinks are you planning on distributing the small yellow pear to 39th? I would like to add it at some point.
Think i have distributed it fairly well but i will talk to Mike and ask him to carry it. Clark's Small Yellow Pear
Well, darn I must have missed when you were distributing it then!
I have two growing grafts of the Small Yellow. I donāt yet have Maxine but look forward to getting scionwood and grafting it next spring.
Message Mike at 39thparallel. I bought some Small Yellow Pear scions from him this spring.
Letās hope by 2025 or 2026 this list will change some.
@clarkinks I am curious how you rate Maxine (aka Starking Delicious) and Hood for fruit quality / FB resistance.
Right now, I have Ayers, Bell, Daisui Li, Hood, Korean Giant, Potomac, Raja, Shin Li, Shinko, Starking Delicious / Maxine, and Warren in zone 8A . Disease resistance in the Deep South is my number one concern, followed by fruit quality. I donāt care too much about precocity or quantity of fruit production as I soon will be swimming in pears.
I am already itching to squeeze in one more pear ā I have a wild callery near the woods line that will be ready for grafting next year ā but Iām afraid of the Harrow series because of the recent FB reports. Especially in light of the gaps in ripening time, if you had to start over with a little orchard with just my pears, what would be the next one you would add?
Hood is a good pear for the south. Harrow sweet is much more fireblight resistant than Harrow delight in my experience, but the opposite I would have thought would have been true. Rootstock was used in the breeding of Harrow delight so it should be very resistant. Harrow sweet is much more resistant. Maxine tasted very off the first year for me. The next year it was good and unique. It will be some peopleās favorite because itās unique. I would rate Maxine as a very good pear but in comparison to excellent pears like warren it cannot hold up. Warren is comice like in flavor but honestly most years slightly better. Comice is what other pears are compared to. Harrow sweet is better than Maxine and itās better than Bartlett most of the time. All that said Maxine is going to at least be in most peopleās top 10. Potomac is very good and it shades Maxine also ,but it tastes very much like anjou.
In a fireblight prone area I would say this about your picks
Harrow sweet - I know it gets fireblight but you will see what I mean quickly it produces within 2 years usually.
Maxine - great pick it also gets fireblight but it has some resistance like Harrow sweet.
Hood- also gets fireblight but it is not a bad pear. Maxine will be better than hood.
My small yellow pear is better than any other pear when its on which is seldom lately. It can even beat warren by margin. Warren is far more dependable and it is consistently good. My pear is the hardest pear I grow by far. It is hard to pick at the right time. It is better by a wide margin from all the others when it is at itās best. It is the difference between a wild and tame strawberry. It has similar fireblight tolerance to ayers. I consider both twice as resistant as most resistant pears. They will get strikes but it will not slow them down. I would plant my small yellow pear for the years it was on or Harrow sweet. Both pears in the south your asking for heartache. You will love them and your standard will change by which you judge other pears. That is where the heartache comes in the next year after you had really good small yellow pears it will let you down. Harrow sweet might get some fireblight and you have to prune, but it can grow there.
Marten, consider Shenandoah and Tyson.
Harrow Delight, i love the early ripening time, the fact that it eats well right off the tree and the flavor is excellent. But by no means is it fireblight resistant here in the central valley of California. If it werenāt for the points that I opened with it would have been out years ago. I have, how to deal with Fireblight videos, using my Harrow Delight where I had to remove large sections of the tree. Love/Hate is my vote
Iām sure it will. Things I used to consider bulletproof took a lot of FB strikes the last couple years. Each year certain varieties are at their best and other we can sample for the first time. I Need to let you try Turnbull Giant.
It has been about 20 years since I grew Turnbull and I never had an issue with fireblight on it. The taste is considerably different from any other pear that I have tasted.
Do you like Turnbull taste? For some reason Iāve never tried it here.
The only way I can think to describe the flavor is crunchy lemonade
Wow! Sounds fabulous.
Mr. @clarkinks could you please recommend 10 nice sized, tasty and disease resistant (mainly FB) european varieties. Iām in southern IL (USDS zone 7a) Iām going to set out OHxF333 root stocks in a row to graft onto next spring. I hope iām not asking for too much.
Thanks ![]()
Early to mid August -
Harrow delight - very disease resistant medium sized soft and melting pear for fresh eating, early to start bearing but can overcrop so some thinning is needed to reach size and good quality
Tyson - extremely disease resistant and very high quality soft eating pears but they are rather small and the tree takes a long time to start bearing
Ayers - disease resistant and very productive and early to start bearing but the buttery pears are smaller and the skin may have an off flavor some years
Mid to late August -
Bell - very disease resistant modern European pear similar in flavor and texture to Bartlett, stores for 4 months in refrigeration
Drippin honey - very disease resistant and productive, soft, sweet, and juicy, especially for an Asian pear, stores for 4+ months
Late August early September -
Orient - extremely reliable, disease resistant, and productive, firm and mild hybrid pear excellent for canning and baking and good for fresh eating
Turnbull - very productive and extremely disease resistant, starts bearing early, huge and round crisp hybrid pear excellent for baking and canning and good for fresh eating
Maxine aka Starking delicious - extremely disease resistant and productive multi-use European pear that is juicy and has excellent flavor, can be eaten when more firm or after it gets softer on the tree, though somewhat slow to start bearing and fruit size is inconsistent without thinning (though quality is still good)
Early to mid September -
Blakeās pride - productive and early bearing, soft pear that can be rather bland some years, flavor increases after about a week in the refrigerator and stores for 10+ weeks
Potomac - large buttery European pear for fresh eating, flavor increases after about a week in the refrigerator and stores very well, very vigorous grower, stores for 4-6 weeks
Spalding - high quality juicy and crisp medium sized European pear for fresh eating, highly productive
Warren - extremely disease resistant and very high quality soft eating European pear, late to start bearing fruit, stores for 10+ weeks
Mid to late September -
Karlās favorite - high quality and disease resistant soft European pear with a melting texture
October -
Douglas - zesty and thick skinned, though blooms may get frosted
Duchess dāAngouleme - very high quality and self fertile
Josephine - very late and stores extremely well, best flavor after being stored for weeks
Warren is the only one I have on that list. ![]()
I know you have Warren on your list so I will leave it off this list, but how do you feel about these:
Hosui
Shinko
20th Century
Red Clappās Favorite
Bosc
Highland Pear
Louise Bonne dāJersey
Abate Fetel
Packhamās Triumph
Beurre Hardy
Magness
See any bad decisions?