It has been requested that I share photos of my pears this year so my intention is to post photos as I pick my 2023 crop. Some of you know that I’m a variety collector and a “certified fruit nut”. But, I also love to eat good fruit so I have a collection of most types of fruits that grow in my area and some that are not very happy. Here in Sebastopol, CA we have a Mediterranean climate so usually no rain from April until late October. That makes it a little easier to grow organically but I still have to fight brown rot, codling moth, peach leaf curl, and some years, bad fire blight along with various aphids, squirrels, raccoons, deer, and pocket gophers.
After three years of very low rainfall, we had a winter of record precipitation followed by a very cool June. My Prunus crop is extremely light and has been ripening a week or two later than usual but the pear fruit set is great on almost all varieties and the ripening time seems to be normal.
So here is the start of my pear harvest. According to my records, I have 95 varieties fruiting this year. I do not guarantee that I’ll photograph or even pick all of them, but I’ll try. If anyone sees a photo that does not look like the variety I have labeled, please let me know. The majority of my scions came from the USDA pear repository in Corvallis, OR but some may not be true to name.
The photo I shared of Abbe Fetel on the Elliot Pear thread was dated 8/28/2021 so that would be a week or so later than Bartlett here. In our area, Bartlett usually ripens mid-August . I don’t have a regular Bartlett clone but my neighbor has a dwarf tree so I watch his. When they start dropping I can date when to start checking some of my other pears. I picked another Harrow Delight yesterday that was just ready to come off the tree. It supposedly matures a week or so before Bartlett. Another way to check.
I will probably refrigerate them for a week or two before ripening them. Most of the pears that I pick in the summer seem to ripen better and taste better with a little chill but I’m still learning!!! I have a very light crop of Abbe Fetel this year.
Today I have picked Chapin, Devoe, one California and more Harrow Delight and BRM. I notice that the Stuttgarter is dropping a few fruit but the ones I tried to pick yesterday were not ready. More pictures later.
Just came in from picking the remaining BRM and a few others so will take some photos soon and may get around to posting them later today. It’s too hot for me to do any work in the orchard now.
Here is the harvest for today 8/7/2023. Shroyer’s Sunset
GRIN Narrative
Oregon’s Home Orchard Society (HOS) voted at their November 2018 annual meeting to name a favorite pear selection in memory of long-time member Jerald (Jerry) Shroyer who was born on November 24, 1932 and died on November 9, 2017. Shroyer’s Sunset (PI 541201) is a delicious little pear that was among hundreds of varieties transferred to the USDA National Clonal Germplasm Repository when it opened in 1981 from Oregon State University’s Experiment Station near Medford. Little is known about this un-named selection from Canada, other than it was from a cross made in 1925 by O.A. Bradt in Ontario. The catalog at the Southern Oregon Experiment Station listed this pear as HES 25021, the letters presumably an acronym for ‘Harrow Experiment Station’. There are no records to link this selection to a particular pedigree, however the fruit resembles the cultivar Seckel in size, shape and coloration, although it tends to be slightly larger than ‘Seckel’. The fruit ripens in mid-September, and like ‘Seckel’ has superb texture and flavor. HES 25051, now Shroyer’s Sunset, has been a favorite of HOS members during their annual visits to the USDA Pear Repository in Corvallis.
Carrick
From the same breeding program as Ayers.
“Originated in Knoxville, Tennessee, by Brooks D. Drain and Lawson M. Safley, Tennessee Agriculture Experiment Station. Introduced in 1957. Seckel x Garber; cross made in 1934”
Chapin
The best garden pear to follow Beurre Giffard and even better in quality. Picked in mid-August, it ripens for eating during the following two weeks. A seedling of Seckel from the New York Station, but larger. The flesh is juicy, melting, smooth with a sweet, aromatic flavor of highest quality. Regularly productive making an ideal dwarf pyramid. – Robert Nitschke, Southmeadow Fruit Gardens Catalog, 1976.
California
Originated in Davis, California, Max-Red Bartlett x Comice, This fruit is very small this year and the tree is taking a rest due to a heavy crop last year. When picked the color is a drab purplish red but when it ripens it turns a very clear red. The third photo attempts to show this.
Here are the pears harvested today 8/12/2023: Beierschmitt is a favorite. I have grown it both in Mississippi and northern California. It has never had fireblight but is not listed as a fireblight-resistant variety. Excellent flavor, and ripens without refrigeration. The season is about the same as Bartlett’s here
Beurre Lebrun: My first experience with this variety. Being a summer pear with maturity about the same time as Bartlett, I assume it will ripen without refrigeration. We’ll see. A very nice-looking pear.
Starkrimson AKA Kalle and Red Clapp’s Favorite: I only had one pear on a small graft and picked it today. It was too ripe and had been invaded by codling moth. I should have picked it two weeks ago.
We tasted some of the earlier picked pears this week.
Chapin - fair
Souvenir du Congress - good
Harrow Delight - excellent
Ubileen Gift - excellent tasted 2 weeks ago
Butirra Rosata Morittini - good but not quite ripe
Not tasted yet:
Devoe
Shoroyer’s Sunset
Carrick
Nice looking pears. I had looked at getting a Beierschmitt pear for my orchard some years back. Just by the descriptions it sounded like a good pear. I just had not known anyone that actually had one to ask about it. So it sort of an early ripening pear.
Yes, really good and ripens without refrigeration. It ripens about Bartlett’s season +/- a week most years. As I said, it seems to be less blight sensitive than many others.
These are my unknown pears from a mislabeled tree. They are large and came right off with an upward tilt. I’m going to refriderate them for a while before trying to get them to ripen on the counter, then water can most. It’s a great pear year!
Here’s the Arora pears that I sent you a graft of. I need to graft it to a limb that gets more light, kinda got buried beneath other growth and the peach tree.
