Is it worth it to grow the Warren pear

Rosdonald · September 22, 2021, 7:45pm

Moonglow might be a good choice for early August.

snowflake · September 22, 2021, 8:40pm

I’ve had to cut out fire blight from Moonglow two years in a row. I’m not exactly in a heavy FB area, so I’m hoping the tree shapes up. The FB hasn’t killed the tree yet, but it took out several feet of branches each year. I haven’t been too impressed with the flavor thus far, but it’s been a small sample size.

Rosdonald · September 22, 2021, 8:49pm

I’ve not had any on mine. I thought it was somewhat fireblight resistant.

snowflake · September 22, 2021, 9:09pm

I might be the unlucky one

Rosdonald · September 23, 2021, 1:23am

One of my worst cases of fireblight was on a Wolf River apple, supposedly resistant. I had to take off large parts of the central leader several times and it changed the shape of the whole tree. Nothing is a sure thing.

AJfromElmiraNY · October 8, 2021, 5:03pm

I have Warren on a multigraft tree. The rootstock is a random seedling with dwarfing characteristics. It bloomed the 3rd year, but fruitlets eventually dropped. The same happened the following year. This is the 5th year and it finally had a crop of about 3 dozen fruit.

I wasn’t sure when to pick them, so a did the lift test and collected a few at a time over about 3 weeks. I started picking around the second week of September, but probably should have waited a little longer. The first ones I picked have been on the counter for weeks and are just now ripe enough to eat.

The flavor is very intense but hard to describe. I’ve never tasted a anything like it, but I don’t have much pear experience with pear varieties. It invokes memories of exotic flowers. The flesh is smooth and it seemed very sweet, even though it only tested 17 brix. The family likes it.

Overall, a high quality pear that seems relatively easy to grow. I’m far more impressed with this pear variety than the popular Harrow Sweet.

mayhaw9999 · October 15, 2021, 1:36pm

I am happy to see that Warren is doing well for so many folks. Here are a few of my observations based on growing Warren and Magness for over 30 years in two very different locations - northern Mississippi and just north of San Francisco. CA. The fruit of both varieties is almost identical in taste and appearance. The trees are a little different - I think Warren is a healthier variety and seems to be somewhat lower in chill requirement according to Dr. Ethan Natelson who has grown both in Houston, TX.
The fruit starts maturing a week to so after Bartlett and has about a 3-week window for picking. That is usually the last week in August here in Sebastopol. Taste is improved if you refrigerate the pears for a few weeks before ripening but they will ripen on the counter without refrigeration. If picked as soon as they will easily come off the tree with lifting, they will store in the refrigerator set in the low 30s for at least 2 months and I have had some last with good quality for 3 months. This year I had a huge fruit set on my Warren and did not thin so had a few limbs with a lot of small fruit that were not picked early. I finally picked them last week and they are ripening now in my kitchen. I don’t expect they will be as good as those still in the refer.

mayhaw9999 · October 15, 2021, 2:05pm

I suggest that you consider adding Potomac and Blakes Pride to your varieties.

Potomac is doing quite well for me. I pick it about the same time as Warren/Magness. It will be bright green. After a few weeks in the refer, they ripen well in a week or so. I think because of its d’ Anjou parentage it will still be greenish when ripe. It has a different taste than Warren with more acid. USDA has stated that it is their best tasting pear but I think Warren/ Magness is better.

Blake’s Pride is earlier and has good flavor off the tree and after a few days on the counter. I have not had enough fruit to test refrigeration but have been very happy so far.

I’m not a fan of Moonglow. Moonglow is also from the USDA fireblight resistance breeding program. One of their early releases.

Here is a link to an article I wrote for our Redwood Empire Chapter CRFG group about fire blight resistant pears: http://crfg-redwood.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Fire-Blight-Pear-Varieties-02_22_2020.pdf

AJfromElmiraNY · October 15, 2021, 5:59pm

The low acidity of Warren must be why it tastes sweeter than other pears despite having the same sugar level. I tend to think of pears as a low-acid fruit, but Warren is making me notice the acidity in other pears. I love acid in fruits when it contributes to a more complex flavor, but Warren is great without it.

This pear is also redefining smooth-flesh for me as well. Other pears I considered smooth don’t seem to be as much any more.

clarkinks · October 16, 2021, 7:23am

@mayhaw9999

I’m sure it’s all about location when it comes to taste. @mamuang grows Blake’s pride and it is challenging to grow well in their climate. My experience in my area with Warren and potomac so far is potomac has been slightly better but more difficult to grow. Potomac pears in a protected area can be literally blown from the trees. Wind has never impacted Warren. Warren is hard to fruit in some areas but is very easy here. Warren does not produce heavily and potomac is slightly heavier. Magness is the real mystery as it produces very little. Like you Magness and Warren are very good quality here in Kansas. The ripening times are different by a couple of weeks. Thank you for your excellent report. Moonglow does not do well in my experience at my orchard.

elivings1 · October 17, 2021, 7:40pm

From what I have read magness is going to be one of the bests pears you can grow but you really need at least 3 trees. I talked to the owner of Mehrabyan nursery about that. He basically said 3 trees were basically needed if I wanted to plant it. He said it is a rather remarkable pear and one of the best though. I read above Warren tastes like magness but it will pollinate other trees to my understanding. It just takes a few years to take off. Mehrabyan nursery states that potomic is more acidic which some people may not like. There are people like me who like their stuff tasting like a sugar bomb in your mouth.

clarkinks · October 17, 2021, 11:04pm

@elivings1

Magness tastes and looks exactly like Warren so much so we absolutely cannot tell the difference.

Fusion_power · October 18, 2021, 1:48am

Magness is often suggested as a full sibling of Warren.

clarkinks · December 9, 2021, 6:14am

@gsims1997

How did your callery trees turn out? Can’t find where we responded to your questions.

Lucky_P · December 9, 2021, 1:50pm

This was kicked around for years on the old NAFEx email discussion list. Warren and Magness are both pollen-sterile, and evidently don’t make much in the way of nectar, so are less attractive to bees than most other pears.
Several folks recommended grafting branches of Warren into other fruiting pears (and vice-versa) rather than necessarily having free-standing trees of Warren, as a work-around to get past poor fruiting. I never did that - have one Warren tree in amongst 20 or 30 other pears…though it is at the end of the row. It bears well enough… never enough to require thinning, and certainly never enough fruit load to break limbs like some pears do here.

clarkinks · December 10, 2021, 2:37am

@Lucky_P

Half of my Warren is Karl’s favorite aka ewart it works perfect to pollinate it. Karl's Favorite aka Ewart Pear

mayhaw9999 · December 12, 2021, 6:42pm

Lucky,
This was kicked around a long time before the NAFEX email list started. It was about that time that I stopped participating in the NAEX discussions.
Please see my post #116 in this thread.
TO showed me the tree that he claimed was the original Warren he obtained his scions from but apparently he later admitted to Ram Fishman that he found it at an old abandoned test site. Ram died recently and I never got the full story from him.

clarkinks · December 13, 2021, 3:29am

Yes on this thread Magness and Warren sibling pears

This pretty much says it
"

Geography/History

The history of Warren pears is filled with mystery, rumors, and a touch of whimsy. The first written record of the variety was featured in Pomona Magazine in 1986, claiming that Thomas O. Warren had discovered the Warren pear growing on a tree in a friend’s backyard in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1976. Once the article was released, Warren began to tell a new story of how he found the fruit on a tree beside a post office and USDA soil conservation service office. This rumor remained the primary origin story for quite some time, and many growers in the present-day still retell this story as the pear’s true origins. At some point in the late 20th century, Warren was questioned about the validity of his post office discovery, leading Warren to change the story once again, saying he found the fruits at an old test site of Mississippi State University, where the pear variety magness was once planted. Magness pears were developed from the same cross as Warren pears, the American giant seckel pear and the European comice pear, leading many experts to believe the two pears were the same. Oregon State University eventually disproved this theory, deeming the two cultivars similar, sharing the same parents, but genetically different. Today Warren pears are available in limited quantities through specialty orchards across the United States."

elivings1 · January 12, 2022, 12:00am

I was talking to a person at the nursery that sold me the Magness pear. He stated they were siblings. When I asked if they would still pollinate each other if I only had the Warren, Magness and Comice he said he was not sure but he hopes. Do you know if they pollinate each other?

clarkinks · January 12, 2022, 12:12am

@elivings1

Use this link Online pollination checker for fruit trees. We do know that these pears listed below work to pollinate Magness. Graft a limb on your Magness and your problems are over.

Magness pear trees

Magness (Pyrus communis) is in flowering group 3. Magness is not self-fertile and needs a pollination partner of a different variety nearby.

Geography/History

Magness pear trees

Varieties that will pollinate Magness in our catalog

Hosuiin stock

Shenandoahin stock

Shinsuiin stock

Pollination of Doyenne du Comice pear trees

Varieties that will pollinate Doyenne du Comice in our catalog

Hosuiin stock

Shenandoahin stock

Shinsuiin stock