Is it worth it to grow the Warren pear

@Tomj welcome to the community. I believe this post may have been intended as a reply to someone or on another thread.

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My young Warren pear tree starting to leaf out.

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Warren is not ripe yet but the sugar is increasing finally. They are later than normal this year today is August 21st.


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If you talk about intentions to plant Warren Pear, be careful who hears you as you could go to jail :slight_smile:

http://pathology.med.upenn.edu/department/people/481/warren-s-pear

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:joy::joy::joy:

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Ate my first one a couple weeks ago. It started to develop some rot in the fridge so I ate it crunchy. Very sweet. Tasted kind of like a bosc at that point. I can imagine a perfectly ripened one would be awesome.

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Here in northern CA the Warren and Magness pears started falling the last week in August. I picked most of the Magness on September 4 and will try to pick the Warren today. I had a great crop on both this year. I should have thinned the Warren and lost several small limbs due to the heavy fruit load. Barry, if the fruit are rotting in the refer I think you are waiting too long to pick or your refrigerator temperature is too high. I have excellent storage for two months and sometimes longer but my storage refrigerator is set in the low 30s. Here are some pictures.

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Everyone has to experiment sometimes. Today is September 19th and clearly Warren has intentionally been left to long on the tree not improving the flavor just turning to mush. They will hang like this until golden. The wild animals on my property let me do experiments like this not easily done elsewhere. The wild animals eat many pears from the ground and are content with windfalls. Everything is living in peace as nature is in balance here. I’m finding the peak ripening times of many pears. These had their peak about 1 week ago.

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Coincidentally, I picked most of my Warren pears ~2 weeks ago. But I left a few on the tree. Some turned yellow, dropped, and were eaten by animals. But at least two were left. I pickled them today, still green but fully ripe. But even so, they were inferior to the pears picked earlier and ripened inside.

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A late response – I have Warren on OHxF333, planted in 2017. It fruited in 2020 and produced a nice crop this year 2021. FWIW, I bought the tree from Trees of Antiquity and it was very high quality, large and well-branched.

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Someone is bound to ask what a ripe Warren pear should look like. Here is one with some character to use as an example. They have an unusual red blush. They are a greenish gold when ripe. It’s not unusual to have a mark or two on them as they are very high in sugar content. These were harvested recently and ripened inside to perfection. I’m guessing that Mark was a PC strike from when the pear was very small or a bird might have pecked it due to that red color but it’s highly unlikely. So how do they stack up against other high quality pears you might ask? My personal rating would be an 8 or 9 this year out of 10. It’s very hard to beat any of these exceptional type pears for quality. Should mention all very high quality pears are different in flavor as well. What about the question is it worth it to grow Warren? My advice would be only if you have the room! Warren is not a heavy producer but Harrow sweet is and ripens at almost the same time. So why do I grow Warren you might ask and it’s because i do have the room and as good as Harrow sweet is its not Warren. Warren and Harrow sweet are completely different flavors in their own way. Potomac rivals both for flavor and also ripens at around the same time with again a completely different flavor from either one. Drippin honey is also ripe with a very different flavor also. They all rate in the 7-10 range depending on the year on a 10 scale.




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That’s looking good

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How is your magness this year in comparison? They have been extremely good for me this year. Even one that blew down early from storms.

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Magness and Warren are identical in flavor. So much so the flavor is a match. No doubt the trees are siblings .

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How did you train your Warren? Did you cut it at knee height when you planted it?

The tree I received was roughly 4’ tall and extremely well branched. I’m talking (from memory) maybe ~15 fairly thick branches. I knew that I should remove most of the branches but, right or wrong, I didn’t want to risk traumatizing the tree. I headed the tree at roughly 3’ and probably removed half (i.e. 7-8) of the branches, including most of the low ones. Over the past few years, I removed another half (i.e. 3-4, so now I have a manageable number of scaffolds (i.e., 4-5). These are moderately well branched. At this point, the tree is probably ~15’ tall and ~8’ wide with a fairly open center.

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I have one on order for next spring on the same rootstock, so was encouraged by your good results. I like to train all my trees to open center, but heard that I should leave pears alone so that I don’t delay their already late fruit production.

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My experience provides only one data point, but my tree (pruned as I described) produced a small crop after 3 years and a modest crop (maybe 35-40 fruits) after 4 years. The tree has been a vigorous grower. It’s in a sunny location and it gets plenty of water. It has been fertilized lightly with dolomitic limestone and 10-10-10. I avoid heavy N on apples and pears for fear of fireblight.

My choice of a modified (low head) central leader was dictated by the tree. Branches grow up and out, so it might have be OK with a higher head and fewer scaffolds. But with the scaffolds I had, if I didn’t open the center it’d be too crowded.

FWIW I also have a Magness on Quince A that I planted this year. It was also well branched but nothing like described above. I headed it similarly and pruned to leave 4 scaffolds.

On the other hand, I have Harrow Sweet on OHxF87 between them, planted in 2016. That tree produces very horizontal scaffolds. It’s the most “perpendicular” tree that I’ve ever seen. I didn’t see any alternative other than a high central leader with numerous but well spaced horizontal scaffolds. I headed that tree this year at roughly 15’. I took off 5-6’ so probably I should have made that cut last year,

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I planted a Magness on Quince A too this year, I headed it at planting and it is growing to a modified central leader. I am pulling down all the side branches to near horizontal. It is growing very well. I also used dolomitic lime and 10:10:10 :blush:. My other pear planted this year is Seckel on OhFx87 and for some reason it broke its buds very late, in mid June, so it has not grown as much as the Magness, but I think it put enough growth to survive the winter. I plan to graft a few other varieties on the Seckel, probably in 2023.

This is my first experience growing pears, so excited to see how it goes…

Well, good luck. Keep us posted.

I am far from an expert on pears, but I’ll add my 2 cents. Many years ago, I lost all of my few trees to fireblight. it was traumatizing. Now my #1 criterion in selecting a variety is firelight resistance. Ditto for apples. So I gave a lot of thought to my selections. The basic question was: What are the best tasting FB-resistant varieties, providing some variation in ripening time? FWIW, the entire current collection is: Warren, Magness, Harrow Sweet, Harrow Delight, Kieffer, and Shinko (Asian). Magness and Kieffer were planted this year.

I also bench grafted scions from a very good winter/storage pear that grows in an abandoned field across the street. I don’t know what it is, but it’s obviously a very old tree that requires no care and produces very good pears that can be picked in early November and can be stored in the fridge forever.

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