Found these on the ground today. When is everyone picking theirs?
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I like to let them ripen on the trees before I pick them. If I find them on the ground before they are ripe, then I will gather them up and leave them on a tray to ripen/blet. I haven’t noticed any ripening yet here, though I imagine they will start earlier than usual this year due to how much warmth we’ve had. Probably won’t be too much longer. I’ll also leave a bunch on the trees through winter just to have something to snack on when I’m outside.
Was going to leave them on the tree myself. Lee Reich was saying in one of his writings that left on the tree is drier than ripening indoors. We will see. I grafted a lot more medlar this year and I’m looking for more varieties. As a side note, I’m not seeing much difference in size between Breda Giant and PM.
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Interesting. I’ve found that they tend to go bad and get dried up more quickly when harvested and brought indoors. They can keep well for months if they stay on the tree. I’m sure that depends on local climate and storage conditions though.
The size difference between BG and PM is pretty noticeable to me, but I only have those 2 to compare. I know varieties like Monstrueuse and Macrocarpa can get quite a bit larger.
I am curious about how much the taste varies with other varieties. The bigger ones will certainly be nicer for processing, but I really like the taste of Puciu Mol for fresh eating. A larger fruited variety with some acidity would be hard to beat.
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I’m after the Notingham. Many people say the smaller varieties taste better than the larger ones. I want a large one just to get more out of them.
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My Monstrueuse fruited for the first time this year. The fruit is easliy twice the size of my BG. Next year i should be swimming in medlars just from two trees!
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How was the taste/quality of Monstrueuse compared to BG?
2 trees certainly can be plenty for most people to get a good crop of fruits. I’m very pleased with how productive they are and don’t feel the need for more than the 3 I have. Having fruits that are twice the size of BG sounds very enticing, as processing smaller fruited ones is pretty time-consuming.
TJ,
None of mine are close to being bletted yet. Ill snap some photos later. Once i get a taste test ill let you know.
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I should’ve realized they weren’t ripe yet lol. Mine aren’t either. Found some droppers yesterday though. Thanks, I’m curious to hear how they compare.
Interesting thread! My dad mentioned eating them when he was growing up, and they graft onto ohf84, like RTree has them.
Anybody here need pear scions for medlar scion trades? I have many varieties. And baby hazenut trees. Or could pay postage too.
PM me later, I’m sure we can work out another trade. Picked up a few new items since our last trade, so may have some other things your interested in.
Does anyone know how the size of Marron ™ compares to varieties Breda Giant and Royal? Breda Giant seems slightly bigger than Royal. I am given the impression that there might be a higher more meat-to-seed ratio in Breda Giant.
I’d order a Macrocarpa for it’s reviewed flavor and higher meat-to-seed ratio, but I don’t see them listed for surviving Zone 4b and I don’t know if it would finish producing a crop in 4b? Otherwise Breda Giant is my fallback.
I saw the link above that Marron is similar to Macrocarpa and Nottingham, but I haven’t seen pictures to suggest their sizes are comparable.
EDIT: 2ND QUESTION: Also, anyone know between Marron and Breda Giant if any are more susceptible to Cedar-Apple Rust? It’s bad in my town.
I’m interested in Medlar due to last harvest of the season status, and I don’t see info suggesting it gets apple maggots. Plan to place it with a few dwarfing things in a semi-dwarf plot.
Not “similar,” but rather more likely the same exact clone. This often happens with very old plants. They get rediscovered multiple times and get a new name each time. In the end you still have one clone, but circulating as if it is multiple clones. The fact that this has happened is a testament to how good this clone is.
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Some of the ones I’m bletting have a juice collecting in the pit end of them. Is that normal and are they ok to use?
I don’t know anything about juice collecting in the pit end.
My Royals ripen first. Now my Nottinghams are falling off. Most are still not bletted yet. I’m puting them in a bucket. I don’t want to step on them and crunch them.
John S
PDX OR
Ive seen a drop of nectar in the calyx before. Its not a problem IME
Yesterday i had about 30 or 40 medlars on my BG. I planned to try to ripen them on the tree. I come outside today to find they are all gone. Managed to get 5 drops that werent bitten into. Found a few half eaten ones and they were all still hard as a rock. Not sure if it was deer or squirrels. No cheese for me this year!
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For size comparison here is an unripe Breda Giant fruit next to a MDE fruit that is almost fully bletted!
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Can you give a estimate on the fruit size of a Nottingham vs a Royal? Royal is common, and OGW nursery puts that typical fruit sizes of Royal and Breda Giant on their website. But not the fruit size of Marron™, which I believe is genetically similar to Nottingham.
I see you post a lot and thanks for giving your Pacific Northwest and Zone info. I’d be in Zone 4b Minnesota, and I’m too newbie to know if in a short summer a Medlar would just produce smaller edible fruit or if the crop would totally fail.
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Nottingham is slightly larger than a Royal. Not nearly as large as a BG or a Monstreuse de Whatever.
It’s hard for me to speculate about ripening, because I believe you have hotter summer nights than we do, which would help ripening. My guess is if they would have to be ripening now in Minnesota, that wouldn’t work. I would try to compare with others in the Upper Midwest.
John S
PDX OR
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