Quick question for the pear aficionados here:
Just started a backyard orchard and, along with some other stone fruit trees, I’ve planted a Summercrisp pear and a Tawara Asian pear. I’m looking for one more that is a European winter pear with great storage life and is hardy to zone 4 (I’m in western Montana, zone 5 technically but we have long/late winters)
A PDF from OSU extension I found listed D’anjou and Winter Nelis as the longest storing pears. I like Anjou so that’s a candidate, but from what I’ve seen it’s just zone 5 hardy so borderline.
Local nurseries have Kieffer, Bosc, Patten, Flemish Beauty, Seckel, Bartlett, and Luscious at the moment. Kieffer or Bosc is probably closest to what I want from what I’ve read. Season is ending so the aforementioned are all on sale but I’m inclined to wait for spring and get the most appropriate variety.
I have an Asian pear with 4 additional Asian varieties grafted this past spring.
Since pear tree seems to shoot for the stars in their growing habit (before they are old enough for fruit to bend the branches some), do you recommend second year pruning of the newly grafted wood to promote laterals? Or is it better to wait a few years and see what develops?
I’m getting gun shy on pruning a bit with the whole fireblight issue, though these varieties only showed a leaf or two turn black.
Also would sealing the pruning cuts help a bit for FB exposure?
Here is a photo of my first year Kieffer pear harvest. They just started falling this week. I put a quarter next to one to show the size. I imagine the pear sizes will get larger in some years to come since the tree is still small. These were not sprayed at all this year.
Pruning is something i only do with a reason in mind. Crossed branches, disease like foreblight etc.are good reasons to prune. In my opinion height is not a good reason to ever prune asian pears unless they are causing a problem by shading something else out. They are easier to spray and pick if they are short. Each case is different depending on your spacing in the orchard. If you must prune avoid pruning off fruit buds and prune during the dormant months when fireblight is not active. Asian pears fruit quickly and that makes a very good case against pruning excessively.
@marknmt has years of experience in growing pears in Montana. He has given me several great ideas i use in Kansas. I’m growing the frost pear here which is a Montana grown pear as an example.
Makes sense for sure. It is in a location where I can let it grow more or less. It’s a bit sun starved mid afternoon so it’s going to want to reach anyway. Hopefully I’ll be investing in one of those pole pickers in a few years. It’s a problem I’ll welcome.
Phil,
As you know, you do need to be very mindful of fireblight in your area so I would not prune in dormant season because that promotes vigorous growth that is more susceptible to blight. I’m thinking that summer pruning after the summer solstice would be a good idea and treating the cut ends with hydrogen peroxide followed by sealing the wound with something like Doc Farwells Seal and Heal would work well. If you want to force laterals, you could cut out the tip of the present growth then treat it and seal it.
Unlike Clark, I want my trees to be small but the Asians are the hardest to keep in bounds. Is your Asian on P. betulifolia? That rootstock is very vigorous and I think promotes fireblight due to tender rampant growth. I know Clark will disagree with that - he likes it!
As I age, I have been bringing my taller trees down to a size that does not require me to get on the tall orchard ladder to prune and pick. I’m making progress but a few will never be small enough.
I’m finally back after a short recuperation following surgery. Just before my forced absence, I picked these two varieties. Most were given to my nieghbor for addition to his apple brandy mash but of course I saved a few for storage. Both are good winter pears for cooking and Belle Picarde is a good dessert pear as well.
Belle Picarde
“A very large winter pear which makes a superb delicious compote, cooking to a beautiful light pink. It is also good for dessert with white, melting, sugary, pleasant flavored flesh but must be carefully ripened off the tree. The fruit is often orange-red and speckled on the sunny side. A French pear discovered about 1850. – Robert Nitschke, Southmeadow Fruit Gardens Catalog, 1976.”
Doyenne d’Hiver
Excerpt from GRIN Narrative:
“Fruit medium or larger in size, ovate-pyriform with thick neck. Skin thick and somewhat tough, deep green in color, sometimes slightly russeted, occasionally blushed. Flesh somewhat coarse, gritty, buttery, moderately juicy. Fairly sweet, pleasing flavor when properly grown and handled. Usually fails to ripen unless previously held under refrigeration for several months. Very late in season.”
My fruit starting falling mid Oct. They will not be ready to ripen until Jan. or later, if ever!
Here are three varieties picked this week. El Dorado
These were picked from a tree grafted on OHxF87 that has not grown very well. Unlike most of my other varieties the fruit are small this year. They will need a little refrigeration time to be ready to ripen well but are quite tasty off the tree with a crunchy texture - some people really like that. El Dorado has some fire blight resistance but I had many blossom cluster strikes in 2022, none of the infections ran down the branches. I probably should have picked them two weeks ago.
From GRIN
" flesh quality fair to excellent, depending upon time of harvest, storage, and ripening conditions; sweet, with fair balance of sugar to acid; texture smooth, melting, with few grit cells; ripens very late, beginning about the third week in September; keeps well in cold storage at 30 to 32F until May and June"
Vicar of Winkfield
Very large fruit that tend to fall early but a sufficient crop hangs until maturity. Pick mid to late Oct here. Store for at least a month and then use for cooking.
“This is a culinary pear of reasonable flavor when cooked. Good quality pear has the appearance of clear greenish yellow skin and possesses strong, musky aroma. Vicar of Winkfield is also an excellent keeper and is suited for cooking. Its season ranges from November to January.”
Korean Giant
The first pears I planted when moving to this home in the late 1990s were four purchased Asians grafted onto P. betulifolia. In the second leaf, all four fire blighted to the ground. That put a bad taste in my mouth, so to speak. These four were all planted in the same hole and two of the roots resprouted and were subsequently grafted to several varieties. Tsu Li and Ya Li both later died due to blight. Korean Giant, Hosui, Shinseiki and Shinko have done fairly well with some blight in all but the Shinko. I have added a few other varieties that are still young.
This year the Korean Giant is particularly flavorful and huge!
Tomorrow I will pick a couple more varieties. We are rapidly coming to the close of the pear season. Josephine de Malines and
Barlow will remain for a few more days.
My 2nd leaf 20th Century, Hosui, & Shinseiki is on OHxF333… A 3-on-1 grafted tree from Groworganic (Peaceful Valley). It creeped this year but actually set a single fruit on the Hosui and Shinseiki. Plenty of spurs produced now for next year.
The one I’m more concerned with is a Shinseiki I grafted this spring with KG, Hosui, Raja, and Yakumo. It’s in its 6th leaf with a 3 inch diameter trunk. I pruned it pretty heavily this past winter in prep for grafting.
Unfortunately I don’t know the rootstock. I bought it from Willis that year along with a plumcot. I tried numerous times to get the rootstock info and even the plumcot variety from them but they never replied.
Willis doesn’t list rootstock for any of their fruit trees, or even that they are grafted trees (I did a spot check just now of 8 trees and this is the case). They still sell a plumcot but have no further variety description for it.
Anyway back to the pear in question… There is a FB impacted pear tree two doors down so I know it’s here. Reading now that perhaps Raja won’t last once it gets hit. I’ll just have to see over time, but I was also thinking at my age (60 next month!!!) I also want less ladder and hands overhead action.
I love reading about all you pear harvests @mayhaw9999, but how have they been tasting out of storage? For me this year Magness was the best by far, every pear was excellent! I really can’t ask for anything more in a pear. Fondante des Moulines-Lille was also very good, lighter and more refreshing. The skin is a bit too thick and they can soften too easily. Docteur Desportes was ok, it tasted something like Bosc but with bitter skin. I also have a Honeysweet graft on the same tree and I think it will become 100% Honeysweet this winter. That was about all I got in the way of storage pears this year…
Scott,
I agree that Magness (also Warren and Jana’s Pear and possibly Popenoe - see entry 223) are the best of the summer pears. We are still eating them and I plan to dry most of the remaining fruit today. It is time to think about Taylor’s Gold and Comice as the best dessert pears for the season.
Our CRFG group has had two pear tastings and the following varieties ranked highly - first tasting Gorham and Paragon; second tasting Popenoe Duchess, Potomac and Leopardo Morettini. Popenoe Duchess ranked best at the last tasting. Unfortunetely, I had not been able to properly ripen most on the 16 varieties I took to the last tasting but Popenoe and Potomac were fairly good. Warren and Magness were not ripened properly.
I’m bringing out several varieties to ripen this week and I’ll probably have more information soon.
David
To follow up on my question, I figured out that the pear tree in the yard of some people I know is a d’Anjou and is in fact growing and producing vigorously for 10 years or so. So I guess that is a viable option! I’ve been trying a lot of pears and while I like many of them I do prefer the acid tang of the Anjous the most.
I’ve read some strong endorsements of Douglas on various websites, any thoughts there?
@slartibartfast in my experience if you like anjou than you will love potomac. Douglas is tasty but not in a traditional pear way. Douglas has been blan before for me as well. Douglas is given to over producing. If to many pears are on the tree or they dont get enough sunlight it really hurts the flavor of douglas. Douglas is a nice balance of acid and sweet somewhat reminiscent of an apple.
