Last year I had a first crop of 7 or 8 on a multi-grafted tree. The Karl’s Fav. was spectacular dehydrated. I look forward to a larger crop this season, God willing.
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They are a very delicious underated pear in my opinion. As more members grow them the word will get out. Originally i shared scion wood after a few years of growing them. Back then noone had really heard of them. Had it not been for the fluffy bunny i might have never tried them. They are also called ewart.
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Thanx for that background. It was Jung’s catalog that first made me aware of that variety.
I am re-reading my old Pomonas for the second time, and seem to recall a writer and contributor who called himself the fluffy bunny. I don’t believe he was one of the very early Nafexers. And on that note, Pomona # 1, October 1967 had something of interest about determining the ripeness of pears. V. Quackenbush says to cut the pear in half in the center of the seed packet (not as for canning , longways, but horizontally).The pear is mature if juice is coming out of the cells from skin to core.
The need to refrigerate most pears to get proper ripening was a long time coming for me. Someone said of Clapps Favorite: it’s unripe in the morning, ripe at noon, and rotten by evening. I learned to refrigerate it quite early and leave about two weeks, and then ripen it for canning at room temp. Clapps cans very well. .
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Fascinating background! @TheFluffyBunny is an old nafex guy. He has not been around the website in awhile but he always has friends here. Love my Clapps favorite! Clapps was hit hard by fireblight last year. 1 tree will likely die from it. Many of us were old gardenweb people before they closed up and sold out to houzz. The reason i like karls favorite so well is as a pollinator for warren.
I’ve still got an old stash of Pomonas and was an e-friend of FB as well. The man loved his pears. I wonder if he still lives.
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I have all the Pomonas from #1, 1967 to around 2010. They were not organized by year until I had an index finger fusion last December. Then I had to design low impact tasks to do while my hand was virtually unusable. So–I sorted out the issues by year, then by season, and found only two issues missing . I had read them all little by little recently, and never did come across the article about the 90 lb. peach! (Based no doubt on the theory that by thinning a fruit, one can double the size of the remaining fruit). And now, since the first rereading was both enjoyable and profitable, I am starting another review.
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Yes, I joined the old Gardenweb site and recognize some of the people here whose advice I used in my own orchard. When it became Houzz, I lost interest.
I treated my North Star cherry with Revitalize repeatedly last summer and it seemed to revive. The season before I noticed what appeared to be fire blight on it (guess it’s blossom blight, but I didn’t know that then) and last season this disease reappeared. I pruned out all the afflicted branches and sprayed both the branches and drenched the soil with this biofungicide. It seems to have worked. This season will tell. The tree is budded and remaining branches look healthy. This is one Bonide product that worked well for me. However, the weed killer they make did not kill.
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