Tilt the pear up gently and if it breaks off it’s ripe but if not it’s not ripe.
2 Likes
Ok, I will try that. Any other tips for judging ripeness in pears ?
( I have not done good with pears here ,in general,lost many varietys to blight .
Moonglow does good here, and warren .hoping to try others
Have heard people say a pear ripens from the inside out,and to pick and store to let them ripen,my timing was Allways off.
Thanks
1 Like
I would follow the Michigan US 437 crosses carefully if moonglow does well there eg. Potomac. Take a look at this link Question the History of a pear or know some history? Post it here! - #37 by clarkinks. You could say Potomac is an improved moonglow. Some pears rot from the inside out like clapps favorite and others like my red blushing bartlett turn fully ripe and yellow on the tree and never rot.
3 Likes
I’m really looking forward to this pear producing
“Warren (PI 541448).-Originated at Hattiesburg, Mississippi, by T.O. Warren as chance seedling. Introduced in 1976. Fruit: medium to large; shape variable; skin dull brown, sometimes with red blush, smooth; flesh whitish, buttery, smooth, moderately firm; flavor said to be comparable to Magness or Comice; ripens about with Magness; stores much better than Bartlett. Tree: vigorous; pyramidal, with flat crotch angles; cold hardy; tolerant of high summer temperatures; resistant, but not immune, to fire blight; disease free foliage. - Brooks and Olmo Register of Fruit and Nut Varieties
Due to much interest in the Warren pear I thought it best to give POMONA readers the history and other pertinent information about this fruit. I found this pear about nine years ago growing in the back yard of a friend. It hasn’t been determined if it is a named variety or a seedling though I tried hard to identify it. No other dessert pear will take our heat 60 miles from the Gulf, and not have blight with the good taste it has. Magness, Ayres, and Comice pears have the dessert taste I am speaking of. Magness grows here, Ayers does also, but Comice is limited to cool nights of West Coast regions. This pear is on extensive tests by many NAFEX members all over the U.S.A. Also most major federal and state horticultural stations have it on tests today.
The Warren pear is a somewhat drab brown color where sun does not reach it much, but can have a pretty red blush on the side exposed to the sun. It has a unique shape, a long neck, dew drop shape on maybe half the crop of medium to small size. Oddly enough larger specimens have two other shapes. One somewhat like Bartlett with a shoulder, and the other bell shaped like Magness. The long tapering neck of the smaller pears reminds one of the many times larger Devoe pear. This genetic trait makes it more difficult to identify the tree-three distinct shapes and sizes. Most pears don’t do this. Some may have bigger or smaller fruit but of the same general shape. Taste: very sweet and juicy; several drops of juice fall after each bite. The seed core is very small and you eat over 98% of the pear. It has a pleasant aroma, too. Blight: very resistant to blight. It sometimes appears only near the top of a few limbs, though tests show many varieties alongside of the same age that do blight. Bearing: I don’t have all the data to evaluate it properly but know it bears heavily some years, not like the Magness that is noted for shy bearing. Have patience. In some locations it fruits out the second year, but in my region it takes six, seven, or eight years to first hold fruit. This pear is very compatible on Pyrus calleryana rootstock and should do well on any good standard root base. I would not use quince as a base for it, as quince is in another genus. Growth is fast and rank on Pyrus calleryana in a pretty, pyramidal, Christmas tree shape with thick limbs and healthy medium size, dark green leaves. I rate it superb in flavor, even better than Comice, known as one of the best. This is unofficial, but tests I have run have proven that the Warren pear may well be self-fertile. I am almost sure this pear has Pyrus communis blood in its genetic background, from which most of our high dessert types come from. I am not too concerned whether we ever classify it. I’m just well pleased to have such a pear. It is the fastest, most healthy grower on Pyrus calleryana I have grafted in over 50 years. – T.O. Warren, 1986, Pomona.“ - https://npgsweb.ars-grin.gov/gringlobal/accessiondetail.aspx?id=1436384
5 Likes
Better flavor than Comice? That is a high bar to set for this pear, IMO. I love those Comice pears from Harry and David.
2 Likes
I agree royal riviera are delicious
1 Like
It does like Cally, grows like a weed. Just never fruits for me here in Dallas
1 Like
That’s a real bummer!
1 Like
Ever try it on Quince? My Magness has fruited in the third year twice for me now, northof Austin and in Dallas on quince. The squirrels sure are thankful too!
Drew
3 Likes
Yes & tree is only 6 ft tall after 7 years. But there may be other issues involved, nothing has grown well on that patch of land. A soil test last fall said the soil was very low in Phosphorous & 8.5-9 for PH, quite a bit different than the other soil here. This winter I added sulfur, I’ll add some phosphorous shortly, maybe the Warren will do better
1 Like
What size did you start them at? Mine runt out if I didn’t start them at a decent size. It’s weird! Start em big and they do well. PH 9 damn! Up hill battle there, maybe a raised bed.
1 Like
I’m doing tests with Magness on ohxf333 rootstock. Should have an update this year. Perhaps Warren would be a great pear to test on 333 as well. I used callery for warren. I tried a kieffer interstem with magness to test fruiting on callery. All together i think i have Magness on half a dozen trees.
1 Like
That is an interesting interstem that I had not thought of. It will be interesting to see if it imparts the Kieffers heavy fruiting.
2 Likes
@Auburn
Its actually an improved kieffer to be truthful. I did the interstem for several reasons Bill. It was a great place to park some scionwood, I know magness has pollination issues and the pollinators will be visiting the kieffer and pollinate the magness, I suspected most pear trees are compatible with kieffer because it is a hybrid itself so I have tried magness, korean giant, fondante de moullins lille, winter nellis, plumblee, quince, forelle, lanti jujule, shinko, parker,abate fetel, and worden to name a few and all have been successful, In addition the reason i use kieffer as an interstem is because of it’s fireblight resistance since its rumored that magness is very susceptible to fireblight in many areas. Matter of fact Ive not found a pear not compatible with improved kieffer. It may come back on me someday using kieffer in as many ways as I do but it works very well for me. At first I would graft the new pear tree on callery and use kieffer as the backup graft and then I realized the backups all took and the callery often didn’t so I flipped it around and grafted many to improved kieffer to gain compatability. The down side to my re grafting project is I have way to many kieffer pears that fruit from the interstem at times. You might be interested to know I have done the same thing with duchess and the results were identical its a great interstem for comice and many other difficult to grow pears. My small yellow pear is the best interstem I use though Ohxf rootstocks are likely better. If the issue Warren has is partially pollinator related a kieffer interstem might resolve the problem. Delayed fruiting might be changed because kieffer fruits heavily and fruiting is tree hormone related. Only time will tell if my suspicions are correct and if my tricks work on magness. Some pears are 100% fireblight resistant and imagine if you completely stopped fireblight from entering the trunk but still could eat your melting, spicy, creamy pears!
2 Likes
With all your pear varieties and possibilities I would never get bored. I bought my improved Kieffer because it appeared to be an almost perfect flowering match for the Orient. I also put a few Kieffer scions on my Orient limbs and each one bloomed and had fruit the second year. Now my Orient appears to be setting much heavier crops. These would not be most peoples choice but to me if they are picked at the right time and you remove the leather like peeling they are really good tasting. I’ve recently added Harrow Sweet and I must admit that it is much better tasting and ripens after my others are gone. Hope it handle the ever lurking FB.
2 Likes
@Auburn
Very smart Bill the trunk is fireblight immune and you still get to eat harrow sweet! @Olpea had his harrow pears destroyed by fireblight here in Kansas, This can be a tough location for fb as is yours I’m sure. Harrow sweet fruits very fast!
1 Like
Actually, just for clarification, I didn’t have all my Harrow pears destroyed by FB, only Harrow Sweet. I still have several small trees of Harvest Queen (from the Harrow breeding station) and Harrow Delight (also from the Harrow breeding station).
I’m sure Clark meant Harrow Sweet with his comment, but just wanted to clarify for others that not all Harrow pears are destroyed by FB in KS.
2 Likes
Thanks Olpea for clarification.
2 Likes
I plan to topwork my two 10 year old Bradford pears (callery) to Warren and Korean Giant this coming spring. Do you all think the Warren would fruit in decent time given the age of the rootstock? I had the chance to taste a Warren last month and it was without a doubt the best pear we’d ever had!
2 Likes
@nik_umesh
Try to leave as much of the upper branch structure as you can when grafting Warren. In my climate I would think warren would still take 4 years + to produce. Korean Giant will produce pears in two years typically. Asian pears are very fast producers. Warren is grafted on a callery I have and is showing no signs of fruiting but the tree is already nearly 10 feet.
2 Likes