Very thankful for the wonderful pear research program at Corvallis. Some of these scions are orders I made before for trees lost during extreme weather. We had a 70 mph wind recently that blew in smoke from a fire raging over a hundred miles away. People ask if we ever have fruit tree damage! Yes we do! Some of these pears I know nothing at all about them. My general rule is I make several backup grafts but even then the way the weather has been it hardly seems like enough. What are you ordering from Corvallis? I’m convinced someday Kansas will have a lot more pear orchards because of my research. The plan is always to get this scion wood or trees in the hands of everyone. One thing I do is when I prune I give @39thparallel and others scions of what I grow. It takes time to graft trees and grow them out so my advice start asap on your pear orchard research. There are many years of documented research on here of what worked for me and what didn’t.
I’d like to add more pears to my own small orchard here in Kansas. What are your top 5 for disease resistance and flavor? I have what I believe to be Kieffer (grafted off a very tough, productive tree in a vacant lot from Lord knows how long ago), but that’s it. I’m not as concerned with productivity or reliability. One crop every few years is fine by me.
There are more than 5 but here is 7 : Warren, Harrow delight, Harrow sweet, Karl’s favorite, potomac, small yellow, ayers would be a great place to start. That’s a little of everything but if you want productivity + flavor + easy to grow that would be ayers, Harrow delight, Harrow sweet, potomac, Karl’s favorite. You could just as easily add in Maxine, Duchess d’ angoulme or many others and that’s just European pears.
They will send them but help is hard to get and things like shipping are not getting any cheaper. Covid has strained a lot of programs to the max they can handle. They have worked with me on scion wood for many years and know I’m growing for research. One time going to this website every pear grower knows what I’m about.
This is what they said
“We received your GRIN-Global order for Pyrus scion wood. We regret that our current budget and limited staff requires that we limit individuals to 10 items or less. This was a difficult decision for us because we know how important our genetic resources are for you. Please choose the ten accessions you would like us to send from the list below.”
