Here comes the 2018 apple & pear harvest!

clarkinks · August 16, 2018, 1:14am

Harrow sweet (ripens later in fall) & harrow delight
( ripens early in summer) would be excellent pears for your area! There are many others but those 2 will get you pears quickly , reliably, very cold & disease resistant. They will produce pears fast and taste good http://www.growingfruit.org/t/harrow-pears-my-observations/10506

Bhawkins · August 16, 2018, 1:47am

How big are your Harrow Delights? Mine seem small

clarkinks · August 16, 2018, 2:15am

@Bhawkins Harrow delight are smaller than a normal sized pear for me as well. I will show you a photo from one of my young trees as soon as I get a chance. They are not as small as Seckel but more of a medium sized pear.

Update *This thread has a photo http://www.growingfruit.org/t/harrow-delight-pear/11496

Poorwolf · August 16, 2018, 6:53am

Those really are beauties. After watching your Pear harvest for the last 3 years Clark, I’m hoping that my Bartlett is another mis-marked tree, and that it actually turns out to be Red Bartlett. It’s 3rd leaf now, 2nd year in-ground for me so I’m hoping to see some activity on it next year.

clarkinks · August 16, 2018, 7:31am

Yellow Bartlett sufferred badly from fireblight here so I top worked it. It’s difficult to say if it was really Bartlett or one of the many seedlings or sports. The only disease resistant pear of that group labeled as Bartlett’s I’ve seen is this red Bartlett. Williams aka Bartlett has many sports , crosses, etc. so there are more than I could ever try available. Kieffer as an example is believed to be a cross of Bartlett x sand pear.

Heirloom · August 16, 2018, 10:25am

Thanks Clark, will the two Cultivars cross pollinate?

clarkinks · August 16, 2018, 11:37am

@Heirloom
Harrow delight is actually only hardy to zone 5 so we need to rethink that one. Because it was developed at the harrow station in Canada I remembered that pears hardiness incorrectly.

This is a post discussing some newer cultivars Hw623 & hw624 pears scheduled release in 2021

Harrow sweet pollination & description are shown below
https://www.jungseed.com/P/30858/Harrow+Sweet+Standard+Pear
Pollination is always the tricky part as seen here
https://www.acnursery.com/resources/pollination-charts/pear-chart

There are many other good zone 4 pears as seen here at grandpas
https://www.grandpasorchard.com/_ccLib/attachments/pages/GO-Web-Chill+Hours+Chart-PEAR+(2013).pdf

Love this nursery who has many new hardy releases
http://www.cumminsnursery.com/pear.htm

I use my small yellow pear as a pollinator for harrow sweet but I suspect moonglow would overlap it at most locations as well. Moonglow is not a fast grower for me.

Auburn · August 16, 2018, 3:04pm

Moonglow and Harrow Sweet overlap bloom at my place.

northwoodswis4 · August 16, 2018, 3:43pm

I have a Summersweet pear that I am not impressed with. Also have three other pear varieties, so don’t need more trees. However, I see on that Grandpa’s Orchard list, they list Shinsui and Shinseiki Asian pears as zone 3, I don’t even know if I like Asian pears, but thought maybe I could try grafting one or both to the Summersweet. Has anyone in Minneapolis area ever tried that? Harrow Sweet also sounds good, but I have Luscious that ripens at about the same time, so probably don’t need both. Luscious is very good, but bears in clumps of five and I’m not sure how to thin them, since the tree is on a steep hillside, so can’t use a ladder. I use a pole for picking.