Korean Giant 2025

There is a reason they call them giant! Had a hard time squeezing 3 into the picture. Used a can for size.


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They look awesome. What’s the taste on those? I just ordered one.

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We have to seriously thin the heck out of our trees to get ones like these.
Olympic biggies

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@Lynn345 @jcf

These are truly delicious! They are as shown here truly Giant! I didn’t thin mine and they literally stood about the same height with the stem as a 12 oz can.

I wonder if this would be a good stand alone tree. They say it’s partial self fertile. Mine sets way too many fruit (nearby pears). If this was only pear maybe you wouldn’t have to thin?

They taste great but this year crows stripped my tree

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Thank you Clarkinks! Good to know you don’t always have to thin them too.

I don’t really like pears all that much, I’m mostly growing them for the local food bank and neighbors, but maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I have never had a good store bought Asian pear.

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GeorgiaGent I also ordered Giant Turnbull which is supposed to be a good pollinator for it. The Turnbull is supposedly a chance hybrid of Asian and European pears. Any extra I have is going to the food bank anyway, so I’ll be happy with good or excellent production.

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I had our first real good ones this year. I think they just ripen late and our season length is marginal before the rain and clouds with cool weather. I haven’t checked them since Sunday. Hopefully some are still hanging and ripe now.

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@murky

That is very true. Most climates dont have enough days to properly ripen late pears such as Korean Giant or Duchess D’ Angoulme. We struggle with that here in Kansas every few years.

Wow, these are incredibly delicious! This is my last one and the smallest of the 3! I decided to pull out the scale because i dont think people realize just how big these are. Like i said, i did not thin them, but if i had 1 1/2 - 2 pounds, it would have been easily obtainable. @alan asked the question recently about big pears such as Turnbull , Charles harris, duchess d’ Angoulme, kieffer, etc. Which can all be large. Korean Giant can easily hit 1 pound+ with no special care. Atago currently holds the worlds record at over 6 pounds. Atago pear







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I’m at 42°5’ latitude, zone 5b. It doesn’t usually get into low 20’s until November. My first KG crop was this year. I pulled all but a few back on the 10th of October due to threat of going below 25°F (it didn’t). The first ones I ate over the first few days had hints of starchiness, but everything since has been excellent. I know they’re not supposed to ripen off the tree, but it seems like an amazing coincidence that only the first few were underripe.

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OK, I will weigh one of my big ones too.

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@alan

I was shocked. I dont think i saw any under a pound this year. Many were considerably larger , maybe 1 1/4 pds i should have weighed them. Some years i see some small ones also. Stink bugs were mostly absent this year.

Stink bugs usually destroy most of my crop because I’m not really into doing summer insecticide sprays and I live in a stink bug paradise. They don’t do that much harm on other fruit though.

Funny how my year is just like yours in terms of stink bugs. Maybe you got a decent low this winter that wiped them out just like I did even though by historic standards -7F is no big deal. Maybe global warming is making them soft :wink:.

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@alan

We will both take the gains right? We are fortunate to get a year without them.

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Yeah, my wife loves to use them in her kimchi. I don’t really eat that many of them as I’ve long since lost my love for them. They used to be amongst my favorite fruit. I’m actually glad they aren’t any more, due to stink bugs. here. At least they leave me enough for my wife’s kimchi.

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I find that the Olympic trees can support the larger pears just fine. My Mishirasu trees, which are my personal record holders for size, will usually be ok with fruit up to around 1.5 lbs but after that there is a greater risk of them falling at the slightest breeze.
The pic is just over 3 lb Mishirasu. The only reason it was still on the tree at harvest was because it was sitting on a wire.

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Oof. Not good. I thought they were late September. My neighbors and I just finished harvesting an apple tree - early. Welp, when and if they get good production I can probably get the neighbors to harvest them in exchange for fruit. One of my neighbors likes processing stuff.

EDIT: just because between the pears and apples and figs I won’t have nearly enough time to harvest and process by myself…

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Interesting
So they are OK at as low as 25F for a several hours?

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That is a handsome pear. Looks like an Asian and European cross?

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