Hi I need some help. I have a shinko pear and the trunk looks very dark. Is this fire blight. I have a Korean Giant and a Shin Li and there are dots on the trunk. Should I be worried the trees.
Here is full tree . Here is a picture with dots on the trunk. As always I appreciate the help. Thanks.
That be normal bark
As @gray said dots on the bark are normal with Asian pears. This is a picture of fireblight http://www.growingfruit.org/t/late-season-fireblight/2548. Fireblight is a devastating bacteria that blackens areas of healthy growth similar in appearance to having been burnt with fire. The bacteria often leaves a characteristic Shepard’s hook behind at the tip of the branch it last struck.
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Thanks.
Thanks for the link. I appreciate the help.I do not want to hijack my own post but I have another question for you. About three years ago prior to becoming interested in fruit trees. I planted a Kieffer and a Ayers pear tree. Both pear trees are at least 10 ft tall and about 5ft wide. I bought them at a big box store. If I were to guess I would think that the trees are at least 6 years old. The trees have not bloomed and I have not received any fruit form the trees. Is this normal? Is there anything I can do now so that next spring I can get some fruit from the trees. Here is the Kieffer
. Here is the Ayer
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I did trim them back a little last winter.
@DAVELn17
Unfortunately Ayers & kieffer are known to be a little slower on standard rootstocks. They are close to producing. The more horizontal the limbs the faster they produce. Another trick seldom used but that might be used if you were moving and wanted a pear from your tree regardless would be girdling Want early fruit? Do the girdle & http://www.growingfruit.org/t/how-do-you-make-those-stubborn-varieties-produce-fruit/6467
Thanks I really appreciate the advice.
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Some pears can be really slow to start production
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Good thing to bring up @ltilton Lois. Pears have been known to take up to 15 years to produce. Time depends on the variety, the tree itself which is unique, the growing conditions which are unique even 20 feet away from another of the same type on the same rootstock. I have had kieffer produce 3 -12 pears a year for several years whereas their sibling 20 feet away produces several 5 gallon buckets of pears. The water underground can be deeper from one spot to the next and who knows a buffalo may have died in that other spot 200 years ago so it’s full of bone powder. Voles May eat under ground roots and stunt or kill a tree or build a nest under it and piss out nutrients on its roots they gathered from elsewhere and nourish that tree.
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Ok. Thanks
I guess I need to be patient…since they are decent size trees…I thought I would be getting pears by now…oh well
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Can I ask your opinions on best pear tree for north Texas. A&M likes Warren but in another forum it seems they don’t produce very well. I’ve never grown pears.
Personally i like Asian pears, and they are supposed to do well in North Texas. Often what you see form A&M is aimed at commercial growers and not the backyard grower. I really hate the way A&M maps their recommendations for Texas as well, there is no North Texas. So if you live in Tarrant county (Ft Worth) or east of there, Warren wouldn’t be a good choice, but if you live west of there, Warren is recommended.
So far, in North Texas, I haven’t had issue getting my pears started (Spring 2019, so my experience here is limited). i have Pineapple, Sekel, Maxie (not Maxine, Maxie is the result of an intentional cross between a European and Asian pear), a 4 in 1 asian pear, Korean Giant asian pear, and 2x 2 in 1 pears (plus a mystery one that i don’t know the variety). I will also be planting a Blood pear this week when it arrives.
I would say if you are east of Dallas, then you probably have more fireblight to worry about than I do, so Kieffer, Moonglow, Orient, Magness are ideal European varieties. For Asian, Shinko and Chojuro would be good. If you are west of Dallas, then you can expand to just about any variety, just don’t over feed or water them to keep vigor down. Most red pears a highly susceptible to fireblight, so they should also be avoided (unless you intend to spray).
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I live west and north of Dallas. So would the recommendation be a Warren and maybe Ayers? Or do you have an additional suggestion? Thank you!
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Warren and Ayers are both excellent choices. I think you better plant more for pollination. Ayers will not set fruit without pollination and Warren is difficult to pollinate. Even flowering pears will do it.
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They should both do well. Otherwise it is all about preference.
Do you suggest I plant any other pear with those two? Will Warren be pollinated by any variety in particular?
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I would plant Karl’s favorite with them. It overlaps both. It’s not the best pear for that area it’s only moderately resistance to fireblight. Maybe @coolmantoole could suggest a southern pear that would do better there as a pollinator
I would love to make suggestions, but sense both Ayers and Warren have too high of chilling requirement to ever bloom where I am, I can’t say for certain what will bloom with them. I’ve heard lots of anecdotal comments about how both Ayers and Warren are weak pollenizers. Anyway check and make sure you get enough chilling hours in your area. I believe Ayers requires over 600 hours and Warren requires 800 hours. About the most I can count on getting is around 500 hours. Talk to someone who has both and make sure they bloom together. In my opinion, it would be hard for someone in the Deep South to do better than to plant LeConte and Goldenboy. Both are fireblight resistant. Both are mid season bloomers for a southern pear. Both are fairly early ripening, July here in SE Georgia 9a. The only commercial source for Goldenboy that I know of is Just Fruits and Exotics. I know that their LeConte is the original high quality one with good fire blight resistance. There is an impostor out there sold under the LeConte name that lacs the latter’s table quality as well as its fire blight resistance.
Baldwin and Acre’s Home are go really well together. Both are early blooming and are a bit more vulnerable to getting yacked by frost on account of it. Baldwin is a semisoft pear with good flavor and fabulous canning qualities. It’s my absolute best canning pear. It’s my bosses favorite pear for salads because it’s so sweet and juicy, has just the right crunch and does not brown quickly. The pears ripen in late July or early August here, bout a week after Goldenboy which is about a week after LeConte. Acre’s Home originated from a community in Houston TX by that name. It has won one over nearly every other southern pear in flavor reviews. It’s a huge, very juicy pear. It’s probably too soft for my liking when fully soft ripe, but mine rarely make it that far. Another one which many people absolutely love but is too soft for me is Southern Bartlett. That one has to be fruit thinned or it will over crop and then skip a year. However, as long as you fruit thin, it’s a super polliniizer in so far as it has its main bloom early in the season and then a new cluster of flowers will arise out of the original ones and bloom mid season. That second batch of flowers only set fruit if that early batch gets yacked by frost, but it will pollenize mid season bloomers like Goldenboy and LeConte even though those two show every sign of being self fertile.
The last two I will mention are Tennosui and Scarlett. Tennosui originated from Texas as well and is a hybrid between Tennessee and Hosui. It supposedly has the fruit charactoristics of Hosui but without the fireblight. Mine bloomed for the first time this year, so I can’t comment on fruit, but it blooms a bit too late to be pollenized by LeConte, Goldenboy or Orient for that matter, but blooms too early to be pollenized by Asian pears like Korean Giant and Shinko. My hunch is that it would make a good pollenizer for either Ayers or Warren. But what I know blooms with it are Scarlett and Savannah. As with Tennessui, it’s the first year those trees have bloomed, so I can’t talk about fruit quality first hand.
Last comment. Just because a nursery in your area h as a given variety in stock, that does not mean that it will work. They get what they can get from whole sellers, and most nurseries haven’t got a clue what they are doing when it comes to fruit trees. But before spending money on a Warren pear, make darn sure that you can count on 800 chilling hours every year. Good luck.
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