I planted a Paragon from Cummings Nursery grafted on OHxF87 in March 2016. It has grown slowly and produced light crops for the past two years. It had a significant fire blight strike this year requiring the removal of the central leader. The remaining tree looks good. The fruit were picked 9/1/2022 and placed in refrigeration. Not tasted as of this date but am anxious to compare it to Comice and Warren.
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Paragon tasting
Sunday, Oct. 16, 2022, the CRFG Redwood Empire Chapter had an apple/pear tasting. I donated Paragon and 15 other pear varieties, including Comice and my Jana’s (probably Warren). The Comice was not ripe and did not place in the favorites. Unfortunately, due to some health issues, I was not able to attend but my good fruit-growing and pear-tasting friend said his favorites were Jana’s pear, Paragon, Potomac, and Taylor’s Gold. The overall favorites of the public were El Dorado/Winkleman
Second: Harovin Sundown/ColdSnap and tied for third - Jana’s, Josephine de Malines and Scipiona. The last was donated by another grower.
I was surprised that Josephine was among the favorites as I don’t usually take it out of refrigeration for ripening until Dec.
Today Oct. 18, 2022, the family tasted Paragon along with Cold Snap/Harovin Sundown and Jana’s. Paragon was the decided winner. Jana’s was picked the second week in August so has been in refrigeration for over two months and has lost some of its acidity though the texture was still quite good with no core breakdown. Paragon was picked on Sept. 3. Cold Snap had been in the refer for the required 30 days and ripened on the counter for several days. No one liked it - the flavor was not to our liking though the texture was good.
I don’t think Paragon is going to last until Comice is ready but I’ll try to ripen a few to do a side-by-side taste before the Paragon is too far gone.
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I picked my El Dorado and Winkleman the first week in Oct. which is the expected time for them to be picked here. Most of my fruit - plums, peaches, pluots, early pears and apples have been at least a week earlier than expected this year. I still have a few pear varieties to pick.
Have you had any fire blight on El Dorado? We had a bad year and El Dorado had a lot of blossom blight but no running into twigs. It supposedly is tolerant of blight. I lost several trees and multiple grafts down to the calleryana tree they were grafted onto.
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