"The Magness pear is a soft, juicy dessert pear almost free of grit cells. Introduced by the USDA in the 1960’s, it was named in honor of Dr. John R. Magness, long-time director of the USDA’s apple and pear breeding program. Its parents are Comice pear and Seckel pear, not a bad pairing. The Magness pear tree produces medium to large slightly russeted fruit, buttery, rich flesh with honeyed juice, ruddy yellow when ripe, with a highly perfumed flesh of the very best quality. Insect damage seems to be reduced in this variety due to thicker fruit skin. Magness pear is very disease resistant, especially fire blight. The Magness pear tree has an additional bonus trait, ripens to perfection while hanging on the tree. Sterile pollen so needs a pollinizer. "
I have magness on both Callery and OHxF 87. My trees are not fruiting yet but I have bought the fruit online. Fruit was similar to Comice but without the disease problems. I forget which zone it goes down to. I have not had too many issues with it yet. Seems to be super hardy in all regards. As I have stated the only flaw in it is you need 3 pear cultivars instead of 2 because magness is pollen sterile.
Clark, nobody is growing Magness. It just isn’t done.
On a serious note, I recall a discussion a couple of years ago that “Seckel” is not the parent of Magness and Warren.
Could you check to see if the parentage is different than thought?
I have it, no fruit yet. Nice natural branch structure but not very vigorous here. I’ve heard it takes a long time to bear first crop and that’s my experience too
Supposedly one story says that the American giant seckel is one of the parents not the true seckle and doyenne du comice pear is the other. Other stories say its the seedling seckle x comice and not a seedling of seckle x comice. Many pears have a slightly different title that can mean something different in another language. This is the challenge as you have learned in identifying pears. Misidentification happens more often with seckle. Every sugar pear becomes seckle. As described here not every pear called seckle is really seckle. The american giant seckle is not the real seckle we all grow as seckle Giant seckle
If we go by the usda database we will still be confused
“No one is sure exactly when and where the Seckel Pear Tree originated, but it’s believed to have been found growing wild somewhere near Philadelphia by a farmer in the late 1790s or early 1800s. Having been discovered in the wild so long ago, it’s commonly thought of as an American Pear Tree, although it’s more likely that it arose from seeds that German immigrants had brought from the Old Country. In any case, Seckel is well adapted to the weather conditions of the eastern U.S. (many Pears prefer the West Coast climate). This tough heirloom is also valued for possessing a natural resistance to fire blight, a destructive disease that can strike Pear Trees.”
“Seckel pears, believed to be botanically classified as a hybrid cross of an Asian pear, Pyrus pyrifolia, and a European pear, Pyrus communis, are one of the smallest varieties”
" Warren pears were once nicknamed the Post Office pear because they were rumored to have been discovered by Thomas Warren growing naturally outside of a post office in Mississippi. Later on, as the variety was established and the rumor was deemed inaccurate, Thomas Warren changed the name of the variety to Warren pear, after his last name. In the modern-day, Warren pears are considered one of the most flavorful American pear cultivars. The variety has been praised by famous chefs, including Alice Waters, and celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart for their complex, floral and fruity taste.
Geography/History
The history of Warren pears is filled with mystery, rumors, and a touch of whimsy. The first written record of the variety was featured in Pomona Magazine in 1986, claiming that Thomas O. Warren had discovered the Warren pear growing on a tree in a friend’s backyard in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in 1976. Once the article was released, Warren began to tell a new story of how he found the fruit on a tree beside a post office and USDA soil conservation service office. This rumor remained the primary origin story for quite some time, and many growers in the present-day still retell this story as the pear’s true origins. At some point in the late 20th century, Warren was questioned about the validity of his post office discovery, leading Warren to change the story once again, saying he found the fruits at an old test site of Mississippi State University, where the pear variety magness was once planted. Magness pears were developed from the same cross as Warren pears, the American giant seckel pear and the European comice pear, leading many experts to believe the two pears were the same. Oregon State University eventually disproved this theory, deeming the two cultivars similar, sharing the same parents, but genetically different. Today Warren pears are available in limited quantities through specialty orchards across the United States. The Warren pears featured in the photograph above were grown at Frog Hollow Farm, located in Brentwood, Northern California."
The question you asked has a very complicated answer.
I grafted it to a large, mature pear tree on my property last year. No flowers this spring, but hopeful for next year. Also grafted its sibling warren at the same time.
Keep in mind Martha Stewart was a big promoter of Cosmic Crisp apples and you cannot get a consistent Cosmic Crisp apple from a patch. Magness and Warren are some of the best pears I can think of as they have disease resistance and are super yummy (I dare say there is no reason to grow Comice when you grow a Magness or Warren). They are the pears I have on standard size rootstock.
My Magness is in year 5 or 6. No fruit and in fact, it’s never flowered. I suspect it’s a lack of light. The tree is shaped really nice. The perfect triangle.
Comice is my favorite pear by far. I just hope Magness is worth the wait. Can anyone comment?
Ross- Have you bent any branches to horizontal? That worked for me, tripped grafted limbs into bearing in 3 or 4 years. I also notched buds at green tip.
Magness is a great tasting pear, similar superb quality to Comice, if not better. If you want to try it this year, pay a visit to Weaver’s Orchard (close to Reading, PA) in mid-late September. My third leaf tree on Quince rootstock produced four flower clusters, two of them fruited (hand pollinated them with Bradford pear), and two fruits by are remaining after thinning. I did extensive branch bending.
My Magness pear was grafted on OHxF 87 in 2019. I have done some branch bending. It flowered and fruited last year but squirrels took the few fruit the tree had.
Last year I also grafted a Magness from another source on this tree. I want to compare if they are same. This 2022 graft fruited this year. I let one fruit hanging. The tree also set a few more fruit.
My tree did not get sun until around noon to 5 pm so, not as much sun as I wish.
