Identifying pears by their leaves

[subdood_ky_z6b]

Hey all, I have a couple pears that I’m not sure which is which. They are Pineapple and Orient. I got them both from Plantmegreen out of Florida last year.

I knew what they were when I planted them, but have forgotten which is which. Does anyone on here have both varieties, and if so, do they have the same type of leaves, or do all pears’ leaves look alike. I know peaches can have different looking leaves, but don’t know about pears.

Thanks.

[ILParadiseFarm]

Some Pears do indeed have different leaves. Some are easily told apart while others are much harder. Something you can do is look up your Pears on USDA’s website…

https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/search.aspx

They have photos of the leaves and have helped me identify a graft when a storm blew the tags off.

[subdood_ky_z6b]

Thanks! I’ll check out the link.

[clarkinks]

It won’t be easy to tell those 2 pears apart by their leaves.

[Auburn]

I only have the Orient and untill recently it had a slightly bigger leaf than my Moonglow and Ayers pears but I added Korean Giant and Frost which also has big leaves. Leaf size alone will be a tough ID. The fruit is much easier to ID but I’m assuming the Orient has not fruited yet.

[clarkinks]

The problem is more complicated than can be easily discussed but let me give you some quick pointers on some obvious situations. Some pears such as citron de Carmes have reddish colored wood, some such as harrow delight have a brownish tinge, and then you have Douglas, duchess, kieffer etc that look an awfully lot alike by both wood and leaves. What am I talking about right? Mostly fireblight resistant hybrids are hard to distinguish from other pears in that class. Asian pears look a lot like those hybrids. Lets look at 3 different varities of pears with fruit on them so we can tell them apart easily. As you look below at Duchess, Kieffer, drippin’ honey imagine no fruit and you put pineapple and orient in the lineup .

[subdood_ky_z6b]

Thanks, but it wouldn’t give me any data on Orient or Pineapple. Maybe not in their database?

[subdood_ky_z6b]

Thanks Clark. Both of these varieties are fire blight resistant, so i guess it’ll make it harder to figure out. Maybe if someone could post pics of leaves from a mature tree of each variety?

I’ll take a look at the bark tomorrow, but I think they both have that brownish tint with a bit of green blended in. Both trees are just now pushing out new leaves, so it’ll be awhile to tell if there’s any difference. One of them put on lots of growth since planting, it has a central leader over 6ft, and multiple smaller branches. The other one, not so much. Kind of pitiful growth, but it may take off this year. My Moonglow has hardly pushed out any leaves yet, just some green buds.

[clarkinks]

I know how similar they are it won’t be easy to tell that way. I would wait until they fruit and call it good. It won’t be long to wait for pineapple is my understanding.

[subdood_ky_z6b]

Yeah, I know the ultimate factor is the fruit, but with pears it may take a few years. Hope the Pineapple does produce in a few years. They are both on Callery rootstock, so that might help them get going sooner?

[clarkinks]

How tall are the trees? Callery can be slow in comparison to some pear tree rootstock to influence fruiting. Hybrid pears are typically fast to fruit. Kieffer, orient, douglas, pineapple etc. are all hybrids http://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/catalogs/pyrblres.html and https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?1020096 and finally https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?1436890. Duchess is not a hybrid but does look like one by leaf. 333 rootstock is very fast to fruit typically taking 1/2 as long as others. Long term you were smart to go with callery because you will get a lot more fruit than you would have on ohxf333. If callery are large when you graft them they can fruit very quickly.