My Hood pear has a tiny fruit first year planting, whether this will get to be anything is another story. I ordered a Warren, I hope it doesn’t take 3 or 5 years.
Think I agree. If you notice all of the old varieties are late ripening when it’s already getting cold. People back then would pick and store in their “cold storage” area and remove to finish ripening. Early varieties mostly are pretty recent.
For pear cultivars that have demonstrated this decades long developmental time in a particular location, does the same cultivar exhibit this on all rootstocks in that location?
In the case of limited testing, which varieties on which rootstocks has long developmental time been verified for?
I have a feeling “plant pears for your heirs” refers to the longevity of the trees. As I mentioned, ours are 60 years old and we only have a handful of gaps in the orchard from dead trees. None of those are from the 10 years I’ve been working them and none have any sign of decline. We have an apple orchard that is about the same age and has a lot more issues and a cherry orchard that nearly completely died in that same time frame.
Cherries probably take just as long to come into production as pears. Even super high density cherries take a few years and high density European pears can be in full production in their third or fourth leaf. SHD Asian pears can be in full production in their second leaf.
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@clarkinks
I saw your post mentioning Tyson and I’ve become rather intrigued by it. Do you have relative harvest time compared to Bartlett? Thanks.
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Tyson is a very early pear several weeks (2-4) before Bartlett
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Great, thank you. How do you rate the quality?
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Mine haven’t fruited yet, so can’t answer that
Just have Hendrick’s description among others as well as people on this forum - smallish but very good early pear; I love Kalle (Red Clapps) and Bartlett, so if it is indeed “better” then it is a winner
Hendrick:
Tyson competes with Clapp Favorite as the precursor of the pear season which is really opened by Bartlett. In every character of fruit and tree excepting size and color of fruit, Tyson excels Clapp Favorite. The quality of the fruit far excels that of Clapp Favorite and it is better than that of Bartlett. Indeed, of commonly grown pears, the characters of flesh and flavor are second only to those of the fruits of Seckel. The flesh is melting and juicy, with a spicy, scented sweetness that gives the fruit the charm of individuality. The pears keep longer and ship better than those of Clapp Favorite; their season in New York is from the middle of August to the middle of September. Unfortunately, the pears are but medium in size, and are often poorly colored, both of which defects appear on the fruits of this variety as grown on the. grounds of this Station and shown in the accompanying illustration. The tree is the most nearly perfect of that of any pear grown in America the Kieffer, praiseworthy only in its tree, not excepted. The tree is certainly as hardy as that of any other variety, if not hardier, and resists better than that of any other sort the black scourge of blight. Add to these notable characters large size, great vigor, and fruitfulness, and it is seen that the trees are nearly flawless. The only fault is, and this a comparatively trifling one, that the trees are slow in coming in bearing. Tyson is the best pear of its season for the home orchard, and has much merit for commercial orchards. Were the fruits larger, it would rival Bartlett for the markets. No other variety offers so many good starting points for the pear-breeder.
Pears of the SouthEast was less praising:
Fruit quality: Flavor is mildly sweet. Texture is mushy in our climate. It got high praises in New York by Hedrick, but it ripens in the hot Summer in the South and it just can’t take it.
Fruit size: Small, slightly larger than ‘Seckel’. *** g/fruit
Fruit appearance: Attractive. Hedrick’s description is largely reflected by how they look when grown in the South.
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