My is a stick up, clustered, reddish small pear. Unfortunately, mine has not been that sweet. I hope this 3rd year the taste will improve. So far, other pears I grow taste better.
I got scionwood from an exchange with a forum member.
I have seen it spelled Seckel, almost all the time.
Anyone know which Seckle is the one Stark Bros sells? That is the Seckle I have. I think they just labeled it Seckle.
Side note has anyone noticed both Seckle and Ayers pear are referred to as the sugar pear according to descriptions?
I think Seckle is just a variant spelling that has been around a long time. The original farmer with the pear was Seckel.
@mamuang those pears look just like my Seckels.
One problem with Seckel is you can get one of the variants instead of the real thing. I’m not sure how common it is but I have seen Seckels which seemed too big to be the real deal.
Is your Seckel sweet? Mine is just OK.
So would one labeled Seckle be the real deal. The nursery I bought it from (Stark Bros) claims theirs is the philodephia one from the 17 hundreds.
I have the same one, put in this year. will hope for small and sweet.
Mine is growing strong and I put it in last year. I have it on standard rootstock. I think I got it for 20 something or 30 something dollars. I have gotten deals from Stark Bros and other weeks I buy something at full price only to find a week later it is on sale for 20+ dollars less and free shipping. I am hoping it grows to be the true Seckle. I did not even know there was other Seckle until this thread. I have heard Seckle can take 10 years to bear fruit so I may have a long wait if it is a true Seckle.
My dad planted a Seckel back in the early 1960’s along with 2 or 3 other pear trees. The tree was highly productive of small sugar sweet pears. I’m fairly certain the tree is still there but have not looked at it in at least 10 years.
go look this winter and send us all some sticks. (optimistic thinking)
My ‘Seckel’ is producing for the first time this year. The fruit isn’t ripe yet, but truth be told I’ve been eating them for over a month already. They’re already so sweet and delicious way before they even ripen! Clear must have pear in my book.
I do the same. Starting early also allows me to better define the best time to pick in following years.
Thats great! I have 5 that have been in ground for a year, came as larger stock. Hope to see flowers soon
You said this very well! I cannot help but smile when someone tells me they grow strictly organically when they own 1/2 an acre in the middle of acres of chemically treated yards that look better than golf courses.
What is the best pollinator for seckle? I find conflicting information online. I have a nice sized seckle tree, but have only gotten one medium crop in 4 years. This year it only set about 30 fruit, whereas last year I got close to 100. I noticed the Bartlett next door didn’t produce many fruit either. Made me wonder if Bartlett is a significant pollinator of seckle. I’ve read that comice is an excellent seckle pollinator. But I have a very old comise that makes hundreds of fruit every year and so far that hasn’t translated to good seckle numbers.
What have you discovered is the best pollinator for seckle. I find conflicting information online. One source I found claims that Comice is an excellent seckle pollinator, yet my ancient comice tree with hundreds of fruit each year, hasn’t seemed to help the seckle make more fruit. I had a decent though still small seckle crop last year, whereas this year it has set only a couple dozen fruit. Once again the comice has hundreds. I noticed that the neighbor’s very old Bartlett didn’t set much fruit this year either. perhaps that’s an indication that the seckle and Bartlett are significant pollinators of each other? Just a guess.
Tough to say but maybe a variation in low temps are creating a gap in pollen, or an absence of pollinators. Cold wet weather will also impede pollination activity. You could always add another tree, etc., but we know where that leads…$%$.
My seckel is bearing in its 2nd yr in ground and is surrounded by H. Sweet, H crisp, shin li, mushirasu, and yoinashi, all flowered this year.
I don’t know because this year I had three other pears overlapping ‘Seckle’ in bloom, but it has significantly set less fruit set than last year when I only had two other pears overlapping it in bloom.
So your seckle is lagging too, huh? Interesting. I have 4 other pear cultivars besides the seckle (3 on 1 rootstock), and all of those have set abundant fruit. As I said in the previous comment, the neighbor’s Bartlett set hardly any fruit this year, and that is normally loaded. It typically hangs over the fence because it is so heavy with pears. Could it be just a normal part of the lifecycle? I’ve read that some years certain fruit trees will skip a year. Is that true of pears too? the fact both the seckle and Bartlett skipped this year seems like it might be related. Or perhaps it’s just coincidence.
I do have several other pears. One tree has 3 cultivars and there is also the old comice that’s a few feet away. All my other cultivars set plenty of fruit this year. Do pear trees every take a year off like I’ve read about some types of fruit trees?