Clark what’s your opinion on Maxine compared to Ayer’s?
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Both of them are very good. Maxine are twice the size of ayers. Ayers is a melting , sugary, dripping good pear. Ayers can have an off taste in the skin. I prefer maxine to ayers slightly myself. The size of ayers and the off tasting skin some years are why i prefer maxine. Both are easy to grow. I’d not like to be without either one.
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Wow great information! Thanks Clark. Do they both have a similar texture?
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No they are totally different. Ayers is melting , juicy, dripping, sugary. You will wear ayers if you dont lean over something. It is very very juicy! It will be the juiciest pear you ever ate. Maxine is very good , delicious, large, normal pear texture , not dripping.
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Just stumbled onto this thread from the Southern Pear thread.
I’m not finding much info on Maxine for chill. I wonder if it will go to 9a.
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Maxine is an old and not well known pear except among our circles. It was released in 1900 in Ohio, United States. It was a chance seedling and the first cultivar originated in 1845. Buechly, E.M. was the propagator of this pear. There is precious little data available. @coolmantoole may be able to tell us if Maxine will work that far South.
" History
Maxine has an interesting history. The original tree was found as a seedling pear tree in Preble County, OH. It was named and commercialized by E.M. Buechly around 1900.
In 1930 Marvin Cook of Tipp County, OH discovered a seedling pear tree which was subsequently released in 1953 by the famous Stark Brothers nursery as Starking Delicious.
The similarities between these two varieties are such that they are now considered to be identical."
Everyone says it is zone 5-8. If you would want to try to grow it you might have mixed results.
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Yes that is the one of the few articles I found except for this forum.
Thanks.
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The best ones I’ve observed were 42 years ago about 30 minutes southeast of Nashville, TN.
So, I’ve not actually fruited it in KY except that I have it on a couple pear multigraft trees and may see fruit next summer.
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It fruits very heavy here.
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Added plenty of extra Maxine trees last year.
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It’s still one of my favorites . Im trying to limit posting more than one photo. Some people want more photos and info, and some want less. This is a 30-foot tree, and it’s all loaded. All my pears are.
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I grafted Maxine to a callery rootstock in my front yard last year. It is in a prime location with plenty of room to grow. You might guess I have high expectations.
What does it look like now? it is developing 3 main stems of which I have tipped 2 and letting the third grow. Growth this year has been rapid starting from about 3 feet tall to 7 feet so far.
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I grafted a Maxine pear to Callery rootstock in my backyard where the Callery sprung up. No transplanting needed
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I have a Maxine on OHF333 and one own rooted.
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Mine is in the front yard and also a bird planted seed that made a nice rootstock in exactly the spot I wanted it. Serendipity is hard to beat.
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I grafted 2 Maxine to '87 last spring and they were both snapped off by freezing rain and snow this past winter. I saved the broken off whips an regrafted this spring to the same root stocks and both are leafing out quite late. (Same story with Flemish Beauty).
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My Maxine is 8 years old, about 15ft tall. I’ve never had it fruit for me, it really never started blooming until last year. This year it bloomed more, but there’s less than a half dozen fruit still on it.
There’s a Harrow Sweet about 20ft away from this tree, it’s the same age but a bit shorter. But it’s loaded with quarter sized fruit this year. It started blooming about 5 years ago, but never produced any harvestable fruit. A lot of my apples are still loaded this year as well, maybe because the squirrels have to left them alone, so far.
May this be the year??
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