Favorite pear varieties?

Agree. Had our first crop last year, and I absolutely loved those Ayers pears. Sweet, juicy—could eat them daily.

I’m a big fan of Asian pears, too. Large Korean is always tasty. I’m fond of Chojuro as well. These have shown good fire blight resistance here so far. Hosui is good, but was killed by the blight.

@BlueBerry Have you tried growing Bosc around here? My Mom put one out years ago, but it was eaten by fire blight pretty quickly. This, however, is very interesting:

I’ve got scion wood on order, excited to see how it does.

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It’s kind of funny that there is other threads talking about pears at the moment and I happen to have a rootstock but no scion to graft on and been reading and trying to determine what to get but at this point I would graft anything! Better than nothing. The other varieties that they are talking about is Ya Li aka yali, Orcas Magness, Seckel and Comice.

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You don’t really lose an entire year not grafting now, getting roots growing is more important and you can either bud it later in the season or graft next year.

We’re in the Willamette Valley, so not quite the famous pear area of the Rogue Valley. The climate is similar, just a little cooler and actually our GDDs recently are similar to the Rogue historically. Bartlett is good, but it just ranks low on my list given the other fruit available at the time and since the picking season is so narrow (a week or so), I wouldn’t give it a high recommendation.

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Hi, Steve. I’ve seen pictures of your nice, vigorous Turnbull tree on here. Pardon me if you’ve already answered this elsewhere, but how would you describe the taste? Seems that, love it or hate it, folks always seem to point to a unique flavor note in Turnbull that sets it apart from other pears. Hope to find out myself eventually, as I just planted it out this past fall—may be a bit of a wait, though, as it’s just a little fellow. Reports of high disease resistance, a long bloom period–and of a second flush of bloom after a spring freezeout—are already enough to make me predisposed to savor it!

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Don’t have any local experience. Bosc. (I’d graft if if I had a piece of scion.)
I have 6 multi-graft pears and a Rescue I bought.

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@Ruben

You have been on this forum for years. I’m surprised your having trouble finding pear wood. Typically others members in the south are better references in zone 8a than what we can be in Kansas but there is some overlap Southern Pears . Pear wood is for sure in shortage this year everywhere. It’s my opinion ayers and warren would be good pears to start with in that zone. As many have mentioned it’s wise to grow the rootstocks out at least a year before grafting. My pear rootstocks are fully established before I graft them.

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@clarkinks

I had no trouble getting scions thanks to some kind members, what happened is that I had one rootstock leftover after I used all the scions. So I’ll do what @Evenfall suggested I would plant the rootstock and next year I would grafted and maybe I go for one of those two ayers or warren! Thanks for the input.

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ive seen that with my romance cherries and honeyberries up here as well. they all seem to bloom in a 2 week time period which is great for pollination. even the late blooming cultivars are getting some pollination from early varieties.

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I use them as baking and cooking apples. When they are turning colors they are very crisp and juicy and taste like apples. I don’t let them ripen all the way because the animals will eat every one. It does have a very long bloom period. When it starts producing you will need to thin fruits to keep limbs from breaking. I have since grafted one to Callery pear roots.

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@clarkinks - wondering how you liked the El Dorado pear? I hear it’s a keeper which is pretty cool but wondering how the quality is?

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@Quill

For a late season pear it’s higher quality than expected. It was very good Eldorado pear - Spanish for Golden One . We can’t go by one years worth of data alone but indications are it’s very late.

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I live in Oregon pear country home of Harry and David’s famous pears. I used to buy a few every year until I tasted a Paragon pear from a local farmers market. Paragon is a Red Bartlett x Comice cross ( as is the Cascade pear). Both were developed by OSU Extwnsion breeding program years ago. Paragon is hands down the best eating pear I have ever tasted! Not sure why it never caught on commercially. I got some scionwood from the extension office and grafted a tree for my orchard. It has it’s first blooms this year. I don’t know if the Cascade pear is as good since I haven’t tasted it. The Cascade is available from Raintree but to my knowledge Paragon scionwood is only available on request from the OSU extension service.

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They offer scion of Paragon. Their description says Paragon has a little FB problem though.

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@Ciderlady Whom would I contact at the extension to inquire about Paragon scion? I live in Eugene, Oregon.

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I will try to get a name for you when the office opens Monday.

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The Bartlett flavored Jelly Bellies are good though :slight_smile:

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I have not tried those :blush:, haven’t eaten candy in ages, with the exception of chocolate every once in a while…

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@NoraGardens @Ciderlady
Yungen aka Paragon
Ask for yungen https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?id=1574253 which is the new name for Paragon

im not a candy person either but jelly bellies are awesome! i can tell you every flavor blind folded. the buttered popcorn really throws you for a loop. Ronald Reagen had some put on the space shuttle for a treat for the astronauts in the 80’s.

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My current favorite pear for eating is Concorde. It has a slightly fragrant flavor and just a bit of crispness when ripe; and a long, slender shape. So, so delicious! But it never shows up in the markets in Walla Walla; I occasionally find it in pear season in Seattle or Portland.

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