Any one growing this French pear? It sounds interesting, "sweet but a distinct acidity "
Derby,
Why are you trying to provoke us when we are trying to be good? Anyone who grows as many pears as I do is not good at resisting temptation.
Orange pipen lists its fire blight resistance as “some”
I found an old list of pears online. It seems that many people now don’t like a really soft pear but I Wonder if older varieties were more melting, you know just doing some pear research
Two different sites also note it shows some resistance to frost.
I have had it growing for some years here, I had to move it a few times due to various crowdedness issues in my over-packed pear plantation. So no fruit reports. It has several synonyms including Louis Bonne des Avranches which is the name I use for it.
No problems at all on the growth … no fireblight etc.
That’s good to know Scott, I was a little concerned about the fire blight. Do you know what rootstock you have it on? Do you suppose the name you know it by is more American, when I google Louise bonne de jersey I get mostly hits from the UK.
I have had it on several different roots, now its on OHxF513, and it was on quince before that and OHxF333 before that. All were fine. I may have double worked the quince graft, it was long ago that I don’t remember.
Looking at my records I originally purchased it from Trees of Antiquity as Louis Bonne de Jersey. I think the French more commonly use the Avranches name and I was mainly growing out French/Flemish pears so I generally was using the name they preferred.
Good news, My Louis Bonne has lots of flower buds this year. So hopefully I will be able to try it out. Nearly all of my pears are going to bloom this year, I think only three of my original 2003 planting are still being stubborn: Tyson, Josephine des Malines, and Marie Louise. Those three win the “I never want to bloom” prize
I hope you get fruit and can give us a report,
We will be very interested in the results Scott. Pears can definitely be a little stubborn. Are you growing Warren?
No, I didn’t try Warren. It has been on my “list” as a good one but I never put it in. Magness also has been stubborn, the only reason why I got any is I put it on quince.
I considered getting some quince rootstock this year but I haven’t pulled the trigger. What quince do you like?
To me quince is quince but I think I have quince A.
Quince has gotten a bad rap in the US, the fireblight concerns are overblown. Only if you are down south in flaming fireblight territory would I skip it. Its also not for too far north due to hardiness issues. Yes there is a little bit more risk but it beats having a non-fruiting tree for 15 years.
Thanks Scott, now I’m going to have to buy some quince, lol. Really appreciate the advice
Derby I’m not going against @scottfsmith advise but I’ve read quince does not like alkaline soil. I’m not sure Scott knows what soil you have. We are very high in ph in Kansas so it’s something worth bringing up. I added quince on pear but never put pear on quince. I’m not sure quince will work out long term on pear since technically I’ve read not to do that either.
I think we are more acidic here, thousands of years of oak leaves maybe. They have to add like here to grow corn, it may work with quince or at least a try .
Clark thats a good point about alkaline soils. I don’t worry about that here but it will make quince more hard for places with low annual rainfall.
I’m not sure to what degree it makes things worse, nearly all the rootstock data is for commercial growers where 1-2% difference is basically their profit margin so a strong magnifier is put on all aspects of rootstocks. How much do we backyard growers care about 1-2% yield? Looking up data on quince, here is a study from Turkey with around pH 8 soils: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4289542/ – you can see the iron concentrations are lower in the quince by a bit, but they still recommend a quince rootstock as the best overall for high density plantings. Given the small difference you may be able to do well on quince where you are, perhaps with mineral supplements to be one the safe side.
Still waiting … it hasn’t produced enough to get any fruit to harvest yet, only a couple which get swiped. It is “only” 7 years old though.