There are lots of different strains of Bartlett out there which likely contributes to the confusion.
Matt,
Your right ARS Grin said this about harvest queen " PI 541203 origin: United States, developer country: Canada.
origin institute: Agriculture Canada, Research Station,
Harrow, Ontario, cultivar: Harvest Queen, pedigree:
Bartlett x (Barseck x Bartlett). Perennial. Cultivar.
Plant"
I considered getting barseck just to create new pears. I’ve not ruled it out because it’s name keeps coming up in breeding programs. See this link about gem http://fruitgrowersnews.com/news/usda-releases-a-gem-of-a-new-pear/. Then read this link http://www.goodfruit.com/good-to-know-a-gem-of-a-pear/. Read up on dawn pear here http://www.cumminsnursery.com/pear.htm and then read this on shenandoah pear Ashspublications.org and http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/23703/PDF and finally this Ashspublications.org. One of Barseck’s parent is seckle I think. If your interested in pear breeding this is a really Interesting document and notice the names in the document https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://naldc.nal.usda.gov/download/IND43893575/PDF&ved=0ahUKEwiXsrSiocHPAhVsxoMKHRkFCIk4ChAWCB8wAg&usg=AFQjCNEJC6J9YmLR8-F8Ooqgkln9fUZwFA
My question is why anyone would be comparing yield of Kieffer to any quality pear in the first place- for the processing industry? I didn’t even realize there was a commercial demand for these pears.
Sometimes it isn’t how much weight but how much sugar. People tend to prefer sweet fruit.
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I think they wanted to establish yield statistics. Kieffer are used for canning almost exclusively so It’s like comparing apples to oranges. Kieffer is one of my top producers with only Bartlett producing more.
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Has anyone tasted Harovin Sundown aka Cold Snap aka Kanata???
How does it taste?
Matt,
Bumping this to see if anyone can respond yet.
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Bump
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I’m reviving this old thread since I was recently asked about hw609 aka hs.
The patent expired on this pear but trademarked names last forever. We cannot call it a trademarked name. USPP9863P - `Harrow Sweet` pear - Google Patents
Some harrow station pears were provided to us by the usda ars grin program.
@Matt_in_Maryland in my area Harvest Queen is not an easy pear to grow. Don’t get me wrong I have grown it for years it’s the getting pears from it that’s the problem. It takes a long time to produce here and I’m still waiting
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Agree with everything @TheFluffyBunny said above. It is very accurate in my experience. Harrow delight is around the equivalent of Bartlett except it’s smaller and much more disease resistant than most pears in that category of good quality pears. It’s not a great quality pear like Warren or exceptional like my small yellow pear. All that said my small yellow pear cannot be sold when it’s ripe it’s ripe right now. Not only will my small yellow pear not keep it bruises easily. In addition to that it’s not always exceptional.
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I don’t know how the Harrow program bred so much will to bear in at least some of their releases. Every year Harrow Delight gives me a crop of mediocre pears and requires massive thinning to keep them that good. I think it bears too early for it to store a lot of sugar here. In the west, with endless blue-sky days during ripening season, it is easier for pears to get the max brix they need to be really good fruit. Asian pears like 20th century often don’t get enough sugar to be good here and the best I’ve tasted were against a south wall as an espalier. That is why I settled on Korean Giant as the main Asian pear in my nursery- it gets up enough sugar to be good here.
Bartlett is a very reliable cropper also, and so I suspect that it was a breeding parent for most of their selections.
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Here in Kansas I never reach the size possible with harrow sweet due to my lack of proper thinning. I’m sure there is a good spray that could thin for us but I have so many pears thinning is not reasonable "Harrow Sweet matured September 18 at Harrow, 23 days after Bartlett (Table 1). Preharvest fruit drop is not a problem. The medium to large fruit are slightly smaller than Bartlett on unthinned trees (Table 1). Fruit weight is improved by fruit thinning, since it is comparable to Bosc (Table 2). Fruit are pyriform in shape, with a shallow medium basin and an open calyx (FIG. 2). Fruit shape has been rated 5.2 using International Board for Plant Genetic Resources descriptors (Thibault et al., 1983); individual fruits have received ratings of 3.2, 3.4, 5.4 and 7.2. "USPP9863.pdf (701.6 KB)
You are ofcourse right @alan nearly every harrow pear used Bartlett as a parent with a few exceptions. Harrow sweet, cold snap and many of their best pears did About | Cold Snap Pears
I know your right about the growing season as well. In Kansas our sun is hot and our days long with few clouds in the summer. It builds sugars in pears it’s the perfect climate for them in everyway except late freezes. Some pears bloom to early to be grown commercial in Kansas. Spring freezes make it a marginal area for many pears. Part of what I’m doing is trying to determine what will always work here and documenting that information for the next generation of fruit growers.
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I know this thread is a bit old, but a good one!
In your experience, do:
Harrow Delight
Harvest Queen
Harrow Sweet
Russet when bagged with paper or plastic bags? I think I saw a comment from Mamung that a few Harrow Sweets had russeted.
@rossn ,
Ziplock plastic bags. My pears that were in the bags had some russeting compared to the non-bagged ones.
HS is better, taste-wise, than HD. HD ripens in the summer. HS is in the fall. My HQ has not set fruit after 4 years.
OK - thanks, Mamuang! Interesting the HQ isn’t setting fruit yet - is that a common reporting?
I actually had a HD graft take a couple weeks back on an existing pear, and a HS graft take on an apple, but am looking to add another pear tree as a base for grafting. HS sounds great, but concerned it may not ripen early enough… October is iffy here. Thanks!
Hi guys.
I have read the thread a bit above, and I want to tell you that there are some very good varieties of pears, developed in Europe resistant to firebligth (and there are open programs for the development of new resistant varieties).
I like to add these types of varieties to my pear collection, so I have almost all of them in my orchard.
I comment the most remarkable:
From the German program of the Dresden-Pillnitz institute
There are different varieties that offer a certain degree of resistance to firebligth, the " Uta " variety being highly resistant to the bacteria.
https://www.actahort.org/books/663/663_164.htm
- Uta Pear (Madame Verte x Beurre Bosc Pear), I have had this variety bearing fruit in my garden for some years now and it is truly delicious.
https://www.shop.zahradnictvolimbach.sk/en/uta-pear-tree
Of the varieties studied in the Czech program of the Research and Breeding Institute of Pomology in Holovousy, the “Bohemica” variety is resistant to the bacteria.
https://www.actahort.org/books/704/704_92.htm
- Bohemica
https://www.havlis.cz/karta_en.php?kytkaid=3721
And other varieties with different origins
For example these
- Kyrgyzskaya Zimnaya, a pear variety from Kyrgyzstan resistant to the bacteria
https://www.shop.zahradnictvolimbach.sk/en/kyrgyzskaya-zimnaya-pear?search=pear
The Ukrainian varieties
- Maria
https://www.shop.zahradnictvolimbach.sk/en/maria-pear
- Natalka
https://www.shop.zahradnictvolimbach.sk/en/natalka-pear?search=pear
The Slovak variety
- Yablunivska
https://www.shop.zahradnictvolimbach.sk/en/yablunivska-pear-tree?search=pear
These are just some examples, as there are more resistant varieties, but I usually limit myself to buying the varieties that appear in the Slovak Limbach nursery.
And now a little message for clarkinks.
I know that you are a lover of good ancient varieties of pears (I read in some message of yours that you like the Beurre Superfin variety), to see if I can take a little free time and do a photo report of some of the more ancient varieties from my pear collection, since I know you’re going to love it.
Regards
Jose
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Are the varieties you mention precocious? Do they reliably set fruit?
My Harvest Queen on dwarfing Quince rootstock has been a frustratingly slow grower, but it set a lot of fruit from second year. It also set fruit under conditions that shut out every other thing I have. I’m getting a few fruit this year. I couldn’t find all the fruitlets to pull off.
People can pick HS by late Sept. I tend to get my fruit go longer. It is not too late. At my place, HD is mildly sweet and not that interesting.
HS hold its own very well. Set well every year. When thin well it sizes up to medium/large. Sweet, smooth, no grit, really nice. My whole family loves it.
I have two grafts of HQ on two different pear trees. Both grafts grow very slowly. One had a cluster of flowers but set no fruit.
I grafted apples on pears and pears on apples with no interstem. They all grew well. One apple on a pear even set fruit two years in a row. But fruit did not reach its full size, kinda stopped sizing up after a while.
After 3 years, the graft unions were very swollen, ugly sights, sign of delayed incompatibility. By year 4 I removed them all. Fun accidental experiment.
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