Ur breeding a curl free?
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I am interested in getting a harrow sweet. I noticed that and Cummings and ACN has it. Cummings is a little cheaper-should I get it from Cummings. I am also thinking about getting a drippin honey pear tree it dose not look like many places carry this tree.
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@reg, that’s giving me too much credit. I grew seeds from peach tree “Oregon Curl Free”. I kept one that, so far, has only had a couple of spots of curl on a couple of leaves. It’s vivorous and clean looking, and healthy. The peaches are what i would call “normal peach delicious”. These are my only peach successes for the past few years. I want to see if I can propagate the tree by any means - grafting or cutting. Since peaches are often similar to their parent, I cant really claim much credit. Oregon Curl Free was pretty good but had more curl than this one so far, and it died of canker a few years ago.
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I think I’m probably set with getting “known” good pears to get, but I saw a “new” variety that looks pretty awesome at Cummins’ site. A search of this site for this pear yields no results, even with @clarkinks posting descriptions of every pear he can.
Honeysweet (+7)
From a 1955 cross of Seckel & U.S. 220. Selected from 137 seedlings planted at Purdue University, selected for survival of fireblight inoculum & severe winter damage and, finally, fruit quality. The tree is spreading and does not defoliate even without spraying for leaf spotting diseases. The tree takes fireblight but strikes typically cork-off in 1 or 2 year old wood. The tree is considered to have at least “Kieffer” level of resistance. The fruit can be picked the 2nd week in September in Lafayette, Ind. The pyriform-turbinate shaped fruit ranges from 21/4 - 21/2 inches in diameter and 21/2 to 23/4 inches in length, ripening to a golden russet. The flesh is very smooth and buttery with no detectable grit. The flavor is rich, very sweet, and resembles,
Seckel. The new variety of pear is named “Honeysweet.” “Honeysweet” SETS WITHOUT POLLINATORS but the size is reduced. Pollen is fertile. Honeysweet is resistant to fireblight and to leaf spotting diseases, making it great for home gardens and local markets.
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There are a few of us growing honeysweet @Joe but mine is not producing yet. It is a petite well mannered pear like seckel The pears you may not have heard of and should consider growing - #29 by kshaunfield . I think @Badger_gardener has grown them since 2015 and has a few photos Pear buds, blossoms, and fruit 2017 - #527 by clarkinks. Thank you for posting the details and a good source for them! I do love to grow pears but what i really like is everyone else growing them! My honeysweet seems a little to polite for Kansas so its just not done great. I would post photos if noone else did but my tree is nothing to look at! My first several seckles did the same thing.
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I’m in the market for low chill cherries and looking for advice. I’m considering the RL/MR duo and the recent self fertile one. Where would you order those please?
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I had to prune back my honeysweet quite agressively this past spring. In the thread Pear disease and Insect identification I shared photos and information about my Blake’s pride that was riddled with phomopsis cankers, and I removed the tree. After that I noticed many branches in the honeysweet had them as well so I had to prune many branches off or way back to remove them. Luckily I didn’t see any in the main trunk. I sent samples to our local plant pathology lab and they confirmed it was phomopsis. They speculated that our harsh winter caused physical damage to tree allowing for an infection site, and our cold wet spring weather provided good conditions for the fungi to spread.
The honeysweet has some decent new growth on it this year after all the pruning, but I’m thinking of grafting over it next spring. I have some suckers from the rootstock that I have been letting grow for this purpose.
I did get a few fruit from it last year, but I don’t think I can give a fair opinion on the fruit quality. It was the first time it fruited, there were only a few fruits, and I don’t know if I harvested at the right time etc.
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If its an overwinter fungi wonder if fall and spring dormant copper or captan would smack it back
I have 2 pears ( moon glow and anjou) is this mostly a pear disease that i should look out for?
Im organic and use dormant copper late winter/spring and fall
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Sounds too good to be true lol
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Credit is due, growing out something and gettin a good result is a significant time investment 
respect!
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Not a lot of information on pears specifically, but there are many different species of phomopsis that infect many different types of plants.
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Oh that is cool. I am in Hazel Dell.
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You are in Kansas? Late October ALDAcon will be in Kansas City, KS. I hope we can find good places to eat and farm fresh something ripe then.
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The first bite of cold weather arrives in Kansas in late October but keep us posted in case its a late winter. Sometimes November is when it gets here.
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Indian Free (not Indian Cling) = do it !
{Location is going to make a difference of course; I’m in Western Oregon, Z8.)
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I ate a Honeysweet off the tree yesterday, at its prime, considering…the core was just starting to turn. Like it said: rich, very sweet. Definitely on my list.
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Im in 7a. Peaches do well here. Just gotta find room lol
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Ordered and already got an Olympia fig (free ship deal) and a Texas EB (same as brown turkey, yes?)
That will make 4 figs for me. Going to keep these under grow lights to size them up for winter
I read that u are a Liberty fan. Found a nicely branched potted one in a local nursery. So u inspired me lol to take it home
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I placed some orders for next year. Mostly rootstock to make miniature apple trees - B9, and a few Geneva 32. I also ordered a dwarf Zestar and Cosmic Crisp. As for scion, I ordered some Winter Banana for grafting experiments, Macoun and a Blue Pearmain. Also a genetic dwarf peach El Dorado. Some Lovell rootstock to propagate my leaf curl resistant seedling peach that I designated “Cowlitz” to honor those who lived in this area. Next year will mark the start of a more accessible fruit garden for coming years. I will keep my older, maturing trees for the next several years until these new small ones are producing.
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