This attached pdf document is discussing many fireblight resistant pears. It discusses the garber pear x anjou cross is where the ayers pear comes from. This is signifigant information if anyone wants to further the research. Tenn which is less well known originated in the same program. This is from April of 1954 bulletin no. 236. This confirms what we learned from here SE Pears . In my experience ayers can have some grit some years or an off tasting skin some years. Here is what was said
" Breeder(s): Brooks D. Drain; University of Tennessee.
History: Not to be confused with a chance seedling with a very similar name found in Kansas. Originated from a ‘Garber’ X ‘Anjou’ cross made in 1937. Because ‘Garber’ is thought to be a P. pyrifolia X P. communis hybrid, ‘Ayres’ is one quarter Asian pear and three-quarters European.
It was named in honor of Dr. Brown Ayres who was elected president of the University of Tennessee in 1904.
Rootstocks used: Old Home x Farmingdale #‘s 333 & 513 and P. calleryana seedling.
Orchards grown in: Apex, NC; Pittsboro, NC orchards A & B.
Notes:
Fruit quality: Excellent, buttery-textured pears with a rich, perfumed, sweet (18.4° Brix on average in 2009), sprightly, slightly spicy flavor. These pears are very juicy. Flesh is smooth, with few noticeable grit cells. One otherwise fantastic book, Fireblight , unfairly implies that Ayres is poor quality by saying, “Garber, Kieffer, LeConte, Pineapple, and more recently Ayres, Mooers, and Orient are the best known of these gritty, coarse-fleshed fruit hybrids.” But don’t believe them, it’s fake news, people! SAD! Seriously, Ayers (and possibly Mooers) are not like the others listed. I would agree with the authors’ characterization on the others, but Ayres is neither coarse nor gritty!
Fruit size: Small. 83 g/fruit in 2009; 81 g/fruit median in 2010. Larger than ‘Seckel’, but smaller than other supermarket pears.
Fruit appearance: Attractive golden, uniform russet with a beautiful red blush on the sunny side over a golden-yellow background.
Culinary characteristics: We’ve never cooked them. They are simply too delicious and beautiful, and so even when we’ve had abundant crops, they were easily given away to very happy recipients. People who have tried them always ask for more.
Storage characteristics: Keep well for at least three weeks in common cold storage.
Harvest season: Early-middle of the pear season; ripens after ‘Wilder Early’ and ‘Dabney’, but before ‘Potomac’ and about a week before ‘Spalding’, in other words, mid-July to mid-August in Pittsboro. in Pittsboro, NC. In Tennessee, they were said to ripen from mid-August to early September (Brooks & Drain. 1954.)
Pollination: Male sterile. There are some reports on the Internet that ‘Ayres’ is partially self-pollinating. Then again, you can find all kinds of incorrect information on the Internet. I’ve always had more than one cultivar in my orchards with ‘Ayres’, but I generally think the careful work of the university and government scientists is more reliable than some random internet post. Bloom season: “Medium-late” according to Brooks & Drain in Tennessee. In my experience, it blooms either with ‘Spalding’ to one week after, depending on the winter. (In winters with lots of chill hours, the bloom season is more compressed than in winters with limiting chill hours.)
Diseases: Very resistant to fireblight. I’ve rarely seen blight on any of my ‘Ayres’ trees, but the few times I have seen strikes, they progressed no more than 5-10 cm. Somewhat resistant to pear leaf spot.
Precocity: precocious; first fruit set 2-3 years after planting on OHxF #513 rootstock.
Productivity: Tends to bear biennally unless thinned well in “on” years. With thinning and good pollination, they bear annually and yield well. Bore almost a kilogram of fruit in its 3rd year after planting.
Growth habit: Too vigorous on standard (calleryana) stock. With a semi-dwarfing or dwarfing rootstock, ‘Ayres’ is still vigorous, but becomes quite manageable. It has mostly good, wide crotch angles.
If the inconsistent production problems of this cultivar could be overcome, it has commercial potential in the Southeastern U.S., in my opinion.
References other than my own experience:
University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station; Drain, Brooks D.; and Shuey, G. A., “Breeding and Testing Fire Blight-Resistant Pears” (1954). Bulletin #236. (can be downloaded at: "Breeding and Testing Fire Blight-Resistant Pears" by University of Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, Brooks D. Drain et al.
Fireblight: USDA."
This link can be used to see additional information on Tenn
This link can be used to see additional information on Ayers
Tenn is not ayers but i could see how the two pears would be confused. The descriptions and appearances i discuss here on this thread when the inquiry was made.
So who was Dr. Brown Ayers you might ask who this infamous sugar pear of the south was named after? https://www.nytimes.com/1919/01/29/archives/dr-brown-ayres-dead-president-of-university-of-tennessee-dies-in.html
This paper was published Jan 29th 1919 and the title reads " DR. BROWN AYRES DEAD.; President of University of Tennessee Dies in Knoxville at 62." The article is on page 13 of the New York Times.
Here are a few photos i took of ayers
These are a few photos of Tenn pears on a young tree. Tenn ripens later in the year than ayers. Its my opinion that the asian pear genetics are fairly obvious in this pear.
This is the part everyone will love to here. The pear Tenn is said to produce two crops in Houston. This is what ARS GRIN said in their description
"Excellent quality, medium sized dessert pear. Reportedly came out of the Tennessee breeding program with Ayres. Apparently there is more than one cultvar propagated as Tenn in the South. This is the good one. It has a slightly pyriform shape, fairly uniform, and has a nice red blush on one side. About 350 - 400 chill hours (commonly sets two crops in Houston). Tree is very large and spreading on calleryana. " Pictures can be found at this link PI 617601 GRIN-Global
Which i mentioned at this link before
Breeding and Testing Fire Blight-Resistant Pears.pdf (2.9 MB)
