I fruited ayers and potomac spray free for years. I’m going to tell you a secret i have never mentioned elsewhere. Keep them away from your walnut trees as they attract coddling moth. It is not about variety it is about location. I have another thing i have said before which is PC get crushed quickly in a pear because pears grow to quickly for them. Im not saying you cant get early drops due to insects there are always 2 or 3 under my trees. PC scar kieffers etc. Here but they get crushed by the rapid growth. I grow all my pears spray free 99% of the time. Your giving @Fusion_power a qyestion he cant answer because bell is a pear we have grown a short time only. I have grown Shenandoah just over a year myself. I hope that helps you out. Orient is a great choice by the way it is much like kieffer. Consider TS hardy also it is fantastic in my opinion superior to both in disease resistance. It is slightly smaller and has a similar taste. It’s only downside is it will have sooty blotch every year which is strictly cosmetic.
@clarkinks … Thanks for that tip on Walnuts… that will be easy for me since there are no walnuts on my place. The wild ones just do not grow on my ridge top location… my daughters place (down by a creek in a hollow bottom) they grow all over.
I do have CM… and PC… and they have been wrecking my apples.
Little plastic containers with small holes drilled near the top, filled with 50/50 mix of molasses/water… hung in my apple trees… in no time those were loaded up with CM. Since 3 of my apples recently were removed for FB issues … I have 4 of those CM traps in my little NovaMac espellar… and so far a dozen apples on it are looking nice. Those traps do appear to be helping,… hopefully that would work on pears too, Others told me recently that a bug zapper hung in the tree will take care of CM well.
Note on Orient… the new fire blight strain in TX z8… killed Orient and Kieffer.
I was really planning on those two varieties being the majority of my pears… they are not fancy… but I don’t need fancy. I just need a pear that will survive FB and that will make some decent pear preserves (and Kieffer pears do that)… well they used to survive FB… but now it is known that both Kieffer and Orient trees die of the new strain of FB.
That is why I am having second thoughts on those two.
I have some nice scionwood of Bell growing now… I will replace part of my kiefer trees with that next spring. I may just replace the rest with Ayers, Potomac and see how that does.
Thanks
Here is more information on the codling moth walnut relationship Monitoring for Codling Moth in Walnut Orchards. I never brought it up but learned it 10-15 years ago from @39thparallel. I grow nuts on one place and pears on the other.
We figured out long ago that most people here on the forum are nuts, but you don’t have to tell us you are cultivating them.
TNhunter, As Clark says, I don’t have enough years in yet with these varieties to say how they will do.
Ayers - I have a tree grafted last year that is over 10 feet tall and growing rapidly again this year. It has had zero issues with fireblight.
Potomac - I have a large tree grafted on a 3 inch diameter callery that should fruit heavily next year. It is a very healthy tree with no sign of fireblight.
Shenandoah - I have 2 small grafts set 2 months ago. Neither has had any problems with either disease or pests, but are not old enough to say anything definitive.
Bell - Purchased tree from Grandpa’s orchard and set it out 6 weeks ago. Yours is a scion cut from the top of the tree. I also grafted on a 3 inch diameter callery which looks like it will produce 30 or 40 scions for next year. So far, no black leaves and no sign of fireblight.
What is worse, my friend Darrel got me interested in cultivating a bunch of them nuts. Lets see how they do for me. I hope it doesn’t turn into a pear type addiction.
What do you mean by “they”. Is “they” = “pear”? The article you linked mentioned using pear ester as an attractant.
Yes pears and walnuts are not advisable to plant together if you want to avoid coddling moth. Those huge black walnuts will bring them in. I dont want everyone cutting down their walnuts , hickory, pecans, butternuts etc. either.
It sounded like pears would bring the CM to the walnuts. I have walnuts but not too close the pears. I’ve never seen CM in the walnuts. Maybe the apples and pears are my trap trees 
Nice doc with pear details @rubus_chief.
Thinking I will graft most if not all of my kieffers over to Ayers, Potomac, Bell…
I have my doubts about them surviving here though.
Checked my (very resistent to FB) Novamac apple tree again today and had to take off two more fruit buds and the last 8 inches of a scaffold branch.
Should I really expect these pears to do any better ? IDK… will see how these do.
TNHunter
I grafted Mericourt so hit me up in winter if you want to try it
TNHunter, I have Warren that is fireblight free after grafting on a large rootstock in spring 2000. It has a few fruit set that so far are undamaged by insects or disease. Ayres (or Ayers) is completely fireblight free, only 2nd year from graft, but shows signs of very good resistance. I have a very large older pear tree, variety unknown, but very susceptible to fireblight. It has about 20% infection but still has a large crop set. Fireblight affects blooms, fruits, and fruit spurs but does not affect branches.
IMO, you can graft enough varieties with very good resistance to produce a boatload of pears.
You all are giving me hope for pears…
I have really enjoyed working with my Novamac apple espellar. Think it is very likely to die… considering how much FB i have cut off of it this spring.
When we get our new home built… on the south wall… think I will try an espellar of Warren. I bet that will bring it to fruiting faster.
@rubus_chief … in that document link you provided… under Kieffer pear it had this to say…
…
Kieffer’, but in the South it has become quite a beloved pear. Because of fireblight, Southerners couldn’t grow pears. ‘Kieffer’ was a pear we could grow, and so we grew to love them. I have fond memories of my grandfather telling stories from his moonshining days or other mountain life stories on his front porch, while cutting up apples and ‘Kieffer’ pears. All of us sitting around got kernels of wisdom and slices of both life and delicious home-grown fruit from the Georgia mountains. Pear preserves are a quintessential Southern topping for homemade buttermilk biscuits or toast and these preserves were typically made from ‘Kieffer’ pears. Southerners also canned their 'Kieffer’s and yes, we even let them mellow and ate them fresh, and we like them!
…
I know a lot of people here dont care for Kieffer pears… but that info above describes exactly how we feel about them. My grandmother, mother, sisters, wife… all make pear preserves from kieffer pears for many years… and they are absolutely delicious. We give them as a special treat for Christmas. We pick them when they start falling and let them mellow in 5 gal buckets in the basement … they yellow and soften and to us are delicious.
We have not been spoiled by all these fancy pears…
Question… do any of these fancy soft melting pears … Bell, Ayers, Potomac, Warren… make good pear preserves?
Thanks
TNHunter
Graft Warren with a branch of Karls Favorite im swimming in warren fruit! The problems everyone complains about are pollination.
My Warren produces hardly any flower buds for some unknown reason.
Hood, Maxine, and Turnbull are FB resistant pears with texture good for processing, but I’m not sure how resistant they are to these new strains
I think Hood is susceptible now, hopefully others can comment
If you could get your hands on Old Home that might be even better, supposedly produces tons of small very sweet and hard pears great for canning and is the mother of all Fireblight resistant pears (literally the mother for many) but I’m not sure about a source
It’s about 6 or 7 years old and 've trained a lot of limbs horizontal or close to it. I grafted in Karl’s this Spring.
Warren is a terminal blooming variety. Counter the growth pattern by pinching the tip of green growth forcing more laterals to develop. More tips means more blooms which will result in fruit set. Also, as Clark has stated, pollination is key. I have more than enough pollinizer varieties and I am a beekeeper so I also have an abundance of pollinators. Almost any mid-season blooming pear will be in sequence with Warren but just because they bloom together does not mean they are pollen compatible… Many pears are pollen sterile and incompatibility is common. Ayres (Ayers) is one of the most often mentioned varieties on GF and happens to be pollen sterile.