Thanks for all the replies. Encouraging to hear that they bear so soon.
@Jwsemo, are they sweeter than the usual pear? What about grittiness? What rootstock is yours on, and how big is it now? That’s a lot of production from juast a 3 year old tree.
@clarkinks, sorry to hear about the wind loss, that must have been a pretty strong storm to strip off pears from a tree. Did you lose other fruit to storms? I remember you said that the Pineapple tree you had got pretty big, but was damaged by storms as well? Same question about the HS fruit, what was the texture and taste like? What RS and age of tree?
@mamuang, thanks for the reply. Are they a good size, just not ripe yet? How have they tasted in the past? Have you been able to harvest any other pears this year?
My tree has put on a little bit of growth this year, but not a lot. Same for the Maxine we planted this spring. It seems the first year, the pears I plant take their time to get going, but the next year they have taken off, esp my Pineapple. My Moonglow was about a 5ft tall potted tree from Lowes, and it’s maybe 8-10ft tall now. Maybe I’ll get some fruit from those two trees next year?
I lost any pears that were out on there own like that. It was a nasty wind storm but they are always worse on the hill top I live on. It broke off hundreds of grafts again and it broke off 2 trees. When I grow a bunch of pear trees together they offer each other some shelter and the fruit is not damaged.
This year, mine are on a small size but overall, HS is a medium size pear if thinned. It’s not small like Seckel pear but not as large like store-bought Bartlett.
I do not have any other home grown E pear to compare. I’ve eaten store bought E pears. HS definitely is much better. It is sweet and melting. No grittiness at all. I also like the fact that it does not need to be chilled. You can eat it right off the tree. However, leaving them on a counter for a few days is good, too. I tried eating them in all manners. They all were very good.
My Blake Pride bloomed but does not set fruit. I have 10-12 grafts of other E pear varieties on it. One Magness set fruit but the pear was taken by a critter. One Bartlett-like pear is ripening and still hanging on.
My other pears are A pears. I have Hosui, 20th Century and Korean Giant (a several other pears grafted on these 3 trees). Harvesting fo Hosui and 20th C. is about done. Only KG that has not ripened yet.
I’m liking these pear updates especially the ones I have that have never ripened for me. I’m checking my two Harrow Sweet pears daily for a color change. I grafted in a few of the Blakes Pride onto mature limbs but they seem to be on the slow side to bloom and fruit. Harrow Sweet will spoil you with their early fruiting tendency.
Someone with an orchard full of harrow sweet pears is lucky indeed. They are the easiest best tasting pear I’ve ever grown. They produce fruit in 1 year and taste like a 7 year pear. They are disease proof and cold and drought tolerant. That is as good as it gets with pears. Finally a pear for the grower and not their heirs.
Many European pears take that long such as Warren, Clapps favorite etc… I recommend you do what many others do and put them on pyro or ohxf333 rootstock but even then you can expect a wait of 5+ years for many stubborn types.
The pears I ordered this year were on OHXF 87 with one being on OHXF 97. How do these rootstock fair? Maybe I should have asked a different questions - which European Pears Bloom/Produce fruit quickly? I am looking at Potomac, Shenandoah and Magness Pears?
Harrow sweet, Douglas, Duchess are all really fast to bloom and produc pears. Potomac and others you mentioned I’m growing but they are to young for me to know how quickly they will produce. Magness is supposed to take awhile but it’s much faster than its sibling warren. Ohxf87 is a fast to produce rootstock so you should be fine. Bet, callery, and Harbin rootstocks typically will take some time to produce European pear fruit. Harrow sweet produces in a year or 2 on any rootstock!
Well, its good to know I might get some European Pears in my lifetime, at least from the Harrow Sweet. I have 3 Asian Pears on Bet that I bought potted and they all produced first year. I am impressed with the Bet rootstock for Asian pears, it seems to thrive in the hard clay soil I have to deal with in my yard.
Yes bet and Harbin are goto rootstocks for Asian pears! Those harrows are good choices. My honeysweet is being a bit slow but I will keep you posted. It’s to early to say… harrow delight is very fast as well but about a year slower than harrow sweet. I bet the other harrows are fast as well. You already know that Asian will be quick. Most Asian pears are very fast to produce at my house with the average for me being 3-4 years. Those are all going to be good choices you made.
I also have a Harrow Sweet on OHF87, planted last year from Adams County. It’s been leafing out for a couple weeks, it didn’t put on a lot of growth this year, but guess it’s getting established. The Maxine next to it, also planted last year, has put out more shoots.
Although I’m prob not going to grow them, I am curious about Potomac and Shenandoah, I almost picked one of those instead of the HS.
The Pear Trees I ordered bareroot from Cummins Nursery in New York. The trees Cummins shipped were decent sized (but not great) with good roots. If I get Shenandoah or Potomac it will be potted trees from Edible Landscaping. They are located about an hour from where I live. They show 3 gallon on there website for both varieties. I am hoping they get 5 gallon or 7 gallon sized trees in this year, The Asian Pears that I planted last year and year before came from Edible.
Duchess is not as precocious or as annually reliable here as Harrow Sweet and is generally a much less productive pear- but I only manage a single Duchess on my own property where I study varieties most closely. It is not a common variety in my nursery. Harrow Sweet seems to bear every year even on over-cropped trees. Last year the fruit sucked, though- for the first time.
I hope this question is not off topic but how is the taste of Harrow Delight compared to Harrow Sweet. Love my Harrow Sweet and the fact that it is my latest one to ripen. Stark list the Harrow Delight as ripening in mid August which would be a nice early pear to add if it meets the taste test. Any input is welcome. Bill
Bill,
Harrow delight is a tree I just added a couple of years ago. In my limited experience it is so far less productive than harrow sweet. Harrow delight is by far more fireblight & other disease tolerant in Kansas than most disease resistant pears. Harrow sweet as @alan said is across the board a good pear because it’s consistently productive, easy to pollinate, disease rrsistant etc…Harrow sweet is not fireblight resistant at all locations so be careful going all in with it.
