I picked one Magness as a test today. It was 18 brix and quite good.
Of course, I’m not sure it is better than the Harrow Sweet and the HS is much more productive. I’ll pick the rest of the Magness tomorrow and do more comparisons. If they are pretty similar, the location could be up for grabs, maybe grafted over to more Asian pears (that the rest of the family likes more).
Nice size pear.
I checked Dutchess yesterday and it is indeed ready to be picked. Most were 10.5 - 11.5 psi and a few were softer.
Bob, Magness will taste better with a week or more in the refrigerator.
Seckel
I picked Seckel on 9/13/2023 They had started falling but those I picked will need a little ripening before being prime.
Here are the pears I picked yesterday 9/14/2023
Doyenne Madame Levavasseur
French variety dating from 1912. Late keeper, ripens very slowly. I have had this variety since 2011 but have never evaluated it well. This year I’m going to try to ripen a few on the counter and also refrigerate some to see if they ripen in the cold temperature.
Honeysweet
A high quality, fire blight resistant pear with medium size fruit from Indiana. Seckel x US 220 (Vermont Beauty x Roi Charles de Wurtemburg). Released in 1977. It ripens to golden russet; flesh smooth, buttery, no detectable grit; flavor rich, sweet, resembles Seckel; cultivar sets without pollination. It has done well for me. Needs heavy thinning to get larger fruit.
Paragon (AKA Yungen)
This pear has been mentioned in other threads. I’m going to continue to call it Paragon. A much better name and I understand there are orchards in the Northwest growing it under this name. It wins taste tests against many very good pears. It ranked very highly in our apple/pear tasting last year. I have a tree on OHxF87 that has very small fruit but on a multigrafted tree with a calleryana rootstock, the fruit are quite large this year.
Tomorrow I’ll start picking Warren, Magness, Duchesse d’Angouleme and Duchesse d’Angouleme Bronzee.
Excellent looking pears. Nice job displaying them for us.
Those are uniform in shape, too. Very appealing.
Onward
I discovered that Onward pear was ready to be picked this morning. A cross of Laxton’s Superb x Doyenne du Comice and named in 1967. Fruit medium, short pyriform to round conic; skin light green becoming yellow-green, often with pink blush; russeted at the stem and eye.
If you look at the basin you see the resemblance to Comice. These are the largest fruit of this variety I have grown. This one does not last very long so eat soon.
Magness
Yesterday 9/17/2023, I picked Magness. Nice crop this year.
Developed by USDA Beltsville, Maryland - Seckel seedling x Comice. Introduced in 1968. Ripens a week later than Bartlett; ripens for prime eating in about 10 days when held at 70F; Stores for 2- 3 months. It is entirely pollen-sterile and wind pollination seems to ensure better crops.
Notice the varying shapes of Magness. The upper right pear in the right box is quite pyriform.
I also picked Jana’s Pear (probably Warren) It had a very light crop but they sized very well during the past couple of weeks, and picked more Paragon plus the last Beierschmitt, but didn’t have enough energy to pick Warren.
Hi Mayhaw9999, you must have a nice sized pear orchard, beautiful pears. Is there a picture of your orchard somewhere?
Randy,
When my wife and I started planning our garden/orchard we wanted to have a variety of fruits and vegetables that would last throughout the year. With our fairly mild climate, we can eat something fresh from our planting every day. It may only be brassicas and a few hardy greens during Feb and March but then the berries start.
I have an acre lot with a lot of trees of many kinds and varieties. Many trees are planted 3 or 4 in the same hole and I have a lot of multigrafted trees. So, it is not a pear orchard. Apples and pears surround the space planted along my fences. Of course, individual groups of three or four trees are planted elsewhere. I also grow both kaki and American persimmons, Asian and European plums, pluots, peaches, a few nectarines, sweet and sour cherries, figs, mayhaws, feijoas, and citrus (with some frost protection). I try to grow apricots and have a few surviving trees of the many I have planted through the years. We get a decent crop every 6 or 7 years. We have blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and elderberries.
I’ll try to post a few snapshots of what I call my fruit jungle.
I’m curious to know what apricots have worked for you. It sounds like we may have a similar climate.
Sounds like Eden!
Jana’s Pear
Jana’s Pear is a tree resulting from a mislabeled Moonglow scion I grafted in 2000. It was to be the pollinating variety for my Magness tree. After a few years of no fruit I thought, this is not Moonglow, it doesn’t take this long to bear fruit. After 7 years it did start fruiting and this is the result. I think it is Warren. My wife, Jana is not sure but as it is her favorite of my many varieties I call it Jana’s Pear. I have had several side-by-side tastings with it, Magness and Warren. We are still not sure. The fruit were quite large due to a light crop on this tree. I think it is because it is on the eastern border of the orchard and does not get as much wind pollination as my Magness or Warren trees. It always has more fruit on the windward side.
No apricots have done well. But I do have a Derby Royal tree that is over 20 years old and has an occasional crop. The only other variety that survived for long was a Tomcot. It lived 10 or 12 years and had a decent crop three times before dying.
In retrospect, some of my issues may have been due to rootstock incompatibilities. The two longest-lived trees were both grafted onto Monclar peach and the others were probably grafted onto myrobalan seedling. Maybe I should be using Marianna 2624.
Let’s get back to pears!
I think your right it is warren or a sport of it maybe. Here are some photos i took in 2022. The only pears stolen last year by animals out of all my pears were warren pears. Karls favorite are also excellent tasting and grow on the same tree. The thieving animals walked past dozens of pears from any direction to get there but only came for those pears. This year i put in a row of them and a small row of Karls favorite which are a great pollinator for them. This year i picked them all myself except for some i lost to yellow jackets. Again the only tree yellow jackets came to was that one. I found potomac and Karls favorite exceptional this year. Warren was very good but not at its best. Like wine every pear has its off years. I dont mind if animals steal whatever they want i planted enough for them. It is not really stealing since i’m letting them take what they want. Mostly the animals just eat windfalls.
Warren
I picked Warren this morning 9/19/2023. It, along with Magness and Jana’s Pear, are the family favorites. It has become a very popular pear here in North California. It commands top prices at the local farmer’s markets as well as by mail order from a grower in the East Bay area.
Here is a link to something I posted a while back. There are other threads if you are interested.
I am eating my Magness now after harvesting at just getting the slightest hint of yellow in the green, a week or two in the fridge and several days on the counter. They are all I can ever ask for in a European pear, pure perfection!
At some point someone told me Magness was a bit better than Warren so I never planted a Warren, but given all the praise here I wished I had tried it. So many pears so little time…
Magness is supposed to be a knock off Comice. Do you taste any comice in it? I’ve got it, but it’s not a quick producer.
Scott, There is so little difference that I don’t think you are missing anything. Some years one seems to bear more heavily than the other. For the past two years, Magness has been the better one but three years ago Warren was the winner. As I have mentioned, Warren seems to be a little healthier tree.
I have yet another tree that may be Warren. I’m picking it tomorrow and will post pictures.
