After seeing some reporting of pear russetting on bagged fruit I started checking the ones I have. My Harrow Sweet appears to have a rougher skin than the Korean Giant and Moonglow. The MG and KG is much bigger than last year at this time. I’m wondering if these will ripen early or if they will just be big this season.
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Bull,
Those KG look big. I don’t have a lot this year after I let them carry too many for several years in a row.
Mine are still smaller than a thumb size. They are a long way to go.
I’ve picked mine as late as early Nov.
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Bill, since you are in the south, can I ask your advice on pears. I’m in the hot humid midlands of SC and might have space for another pear next year. Would you recommend Harrow Sweet or Harrow Delight? (Of course if there is a better disease-resistant, quick producing, great tasting variety out there, I’d love to hear about it.) Thanks, Meg
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Harrow Sweet in my opinion is a high quality pear that has performed well for me for the last three years and has been mostly disease resistant. I added HD this year and it is growing well but I haven’t tasted the fruit. I added it because I’m hoping that it will be high quality and disease resistant. I have several other varieties that I grafted in but I haven’t had long enough to evaluate them. Korean Giant is performing well but it did have a little fireblight. Ayers and Moonglow grow well for me but I’m still perfecting the ripening process. Above all criteria I would first select varieties that are rated high in fireblight resistance. If you graft or plan to learn I can provide you with several varieties of scions.
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Just seeing your post. Thank you for your offer of wood! I’ve been meaning to ask people’s recommendations on grafting tutorials as I would like to learn but don’t trust general YouTube videos. Been burned before in advice offered there. My 1 acre orchard is just about out of space for new plantings but have a couple of non-thriving trees I think I’ll take out before next year so could probably fit in a Harrow sweet. Do you have a particular nursery you like for your stock? I think Vaughan’s has just started orders for next year.
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My pear trees started out as volunteer Callery seedlings from my lot and has various pear varieties grafted from scion trades so I don’t think I would be the best source to suggest from whom to order. I’m tagging a couple of people that might be of help. @mamuang. @clarkinks
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It is interesting to see how advanced fruit size is from different climates. KG is almost always published as a very late ripening pear but looks like in my climate there is a lot of variation in timing. Even in my warmer area KG is a long way from ripening. My Ayers and Golden Boy will start ripening about the end of July.
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There are many great nurseries. Cummins nursery has great harrow sweet trees typically available on ohxf87 rootstock https://shop.cumminsnursery.com/shop/pear-trees . Many nurseries frequent this website and grow fantastic non patented trees at a good price but harrow sweet is a patented type and not one many nurseries grow. It’s difficult for me to recommend a specific place sometimes but in this case the question is who sells the tree at all and sells good quality trees.
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There are several excellent grafting videos that many members here like.
Some are done by @SkillCult, @applenut and a British man named Stephen Hayes. These gentlemen made excellent videos about grafting and fruit trees. Check them out.
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With new Euro pears (for me) setting fruit,I have always struggled with when to pick them. This is partly because several Euro pears need to be refrigerated as part of ripening process and partly because they break down internally when let hang too long on trees.
I hope all pears from the Harrow station do not need chill time. I know Harrow Sweet does not. This year I have Harrow Delight and Harvest Queen setting a few fruit.
@Auburn and @clarkinks Do you refrigerated Ayers and Duchess?
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@mamuang
Most pear trees do not require chilling when ripening but some are better quality when chilled. The pears i grow are not like bosc which really benefit from chilling. Most of my pears are the disease resistant type and for those mentioned such as ayers and Duchess D’ Angoulme ive seen little difference if chilled or not. Ive tried it with asian pears as well again not seeing much difference but Drippin’ Honey was particularly good that year which may have had something to do with the chilling. When i refrigerate pears its just to makes them last longer.
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Thanks, Clark. I don’t think I’ve Bosc. The E pear varieties I grow I can’t in supermarket.
I have fruited several Asian pears. Never need chilling before consumption. Like you said. I refrigerate them so they last longer.
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@fruitnut is the only orchardist i know who can grow bosc. The bosc pear is particularly finicky on where it likes to grow. Bosc is a disease magnet so the climate needs to be just right for them. Im going to try and grow it again at some point. Im growing some difficult types now such as forelle, clapps favorite, bartlett just to name a few.
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In addition to @mamuang 's great suggestions I would mention @Jsacadura’s videos.We have several people here who give excellent, experience-based grafting advice, but I’m not going to mention any because I’ll no doubt leave out somebody!
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Such a wealth of info here! Thanks for chiming in, everyone. Will check out those videos. A “nectarine” purchased specifically to cross pollinate another nec turned out to be a big (well, for me) sweet peach with little disease evidence so I’d certainly like to try grafting wood from that onto other peach trees.
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Most nectarines and peaches are self fertile. No need for cross pollination.
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The patent on Harrow Sweet expired in 2015 (USPP9863P - `Harrow Sweet` pear - Google Patents).
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That’s really good news for those of us who love grafting! It’s a nice late summer / early fall pear i must admit i would like some more of.
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I planted a Chojuro pear this year in Nebraska and started grafting Asain pear on the invasive species of Bradford. I’m wondering what varieties would do best here in Nebraska zone 5. Looking to grafting a lot of pears next spring.
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@tonyOmahaz5 lives in Nebraska. Between Tony and @clarkinks, you probably will get loads of suggestions.
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