I’m in Plano (north of DFW). We easily get 800 chilling hours. I planted a wide variety of Asian and Euro pears. Lots of Bradford pears around for pollination too. Womack nursery has a good pear selection for our area (though probably sold out of bareroot by now).
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@k8tpayaso @fruitnut @wildscaper do you have anything to add for a Texas grower. I think Ayers and Warren are great pears to grow but I am concerned about pollination. Ten, Leona and others are blooming for me but have not made fruit so I don’t yet know their quality. I would use Karl’s favorite aka ewart as a pollinator but that might be a bad move since fireblight can be bad in Texas.
I have Orient, Moonglow, Harrow Sweet, and Ayers. Most of them all overlap in bloom. I lost a Le Conte to fireblight and Moonglow had a hard time with it but is looking good this year. Ayers fruited well two years ago, no bloom last year and only scarce bloom this year. Harrow Sweet was next door to Le Conte and had minimal fireblight and blooms it’s little heart out every year. I haven’t let it fruit yet but this year is third leaf and I may let it keep a couple of pears this year.
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Thank you for some great info. I receive 800-1000 Chill hours and apparently Warren and Ayres are fire blight resistant. I’m not hearing anything very exciting about either one. I guess I need to add another pear that’s a better polenizer. I will read your reply carefully in the morning and I may have another question or two if you don’t mind.
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Thank you for such an in-depth answer! We decided to put off buying any pear trees until fall. We receive between 800-1000 chill hours each year. We are very North Texas. I appreciate your knowledge!
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About LeCont getting fireblight. There are at least two varieties out there under the LeCont name. The impostor has poor quality fruit and is susceptible to fireblight. The original LeCont is slow growing, very resistant to fireblight and makes good pears that soften well indoors in a cool room. If left to fully ripen on the tree they tasted like over ripe golden delicious apples. Yuck! But if you pick them at just the right stage, they are great, super productive, big yellow bell shaped pears, very sweet with a hint of apple in the flavor profile.
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Makes me feel a bit better about losing mine…