I have had Golden Boy grafted onto a couple of limbs a few years now. Blooms early but fruited 2 of 3 years. Ripens early and taste medium to good. Pretty good for an early pear but not close to Harrow Sweet or Korean Giant. It is a very difficult thing more me to do but long term I would like most of my pear space to be centered around 4-5 varieties.
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I have seen some of his videos on GB and that is why I’m growing it now. He will probably see this post and add his opinions later.
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Goldenboy has generally been a great pear for me given my S. Georgia climate. The two criticisms I have of it is that the pears get a lot of insect damage, and this year and two years ago I had to fight fireblight some with it.
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Thanks. I bagged my Golden Boy so insects were not an issue and so far it has escaped FB. To me it is one of my best looking pears that I grow.
Here"s my golden boy. 2 yr old graft. A couple dozen fruits. First fruits for this one. It has definitely taken a light green/yellow hue the last couple of weeks. I want to make ,sure my harvest timing is correct. So i check them every couple of days by lifting to horizontal and see if they drop in my hand? If not let them hang? Then fridge for a couple of weeks?
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I’m probably the worst one to suggest the best picking time for pears but they look like to me that they are ready.
Ive been harvesting a couple dozen goldenboys off my franken bradford pear tree. Trying to fine tune when to pick. They have been pretty decent. Very grity, crunchy, and juicy. When i cut then in half a drop of juice sometimes squirts out. Very refreshing out of the fridge on a hot day. Sweet enough to keep everyone interested but not super sweet. It has a very mild pear flavor with hints of apple in there. I tried letting one soften on the counter and it did soften up a little but was almost mealy. Not melting. It tastes a lot like my neighbors hard pear - i think its a pinnapple. But GB blooms later which is good to avoid frost here. Overall pretty good. Id be really happy if i had a fridge full of them, but not amazing like a high quality bartlett.
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Golden Boy is ripening for me now, and their flavor is ok but not great. I will probably keep it because it blooms heavily, sets fruit even through late freezes, seems fireblight resistant and leaf spot resistant (both of which are problems for other pears I have), and I don’t have any other apples or pears ripening in this window. It’s probably a better processing pear rather than fresh eating pear in this climate but the tree is still young so we will see. I get very little of the golden color but instead they stay mostly green, which is also an advantage because the birds and other animals don’t have a clue they are ripe.
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Wanted to follow up and see how everyone is doing with golden boy? Are you still a fan of this pear?
Despite my post above saying it sets fruit through late freezes, this year for the first time it got frozen out along with all of my other pears. Had a good year last year, with lots of decent but not great fruit and a few very tasty ones. Yellow color coincides with overripe fruit here. Additional info-blooms about a week before Ayers but there isn’t some bloom overlap. Seems to be a very vertical grower which quickly gets the fruit above the dear browse line but requires a ladder or extension pole picker to harvest a lot of the fruit. I should have been more diligent in training then tree. Some fireblight the past two years but not bad considering it is unsprayed.
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