Soft when ripe and crisp when ripe hybrid Asian and european pears. which of each are your favorite?

General Fruit Growing
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This is my first year growing pear trees and I am curious about hybrid Asian and European pears, specifically what peoples favorites are from both the soft when ripe and crisp when ripe categories (and I’m sure there is overlap between ones that might be crisp when ripe but can be allowed to soften). I put together this very rough list of hybrids I could find here on the forum. I’m completely new to the world of pears so I could have made some mistakes here and I’m sure I missed some cultivars. Let me know what are your favorites of each type and why. I’m very curious to know.

Soft when ripe:
Acres Home
Ayers
Baldy Hill (Thanks @JohannsGarden)
Golden Boy
Le Conte
Southern King
Sunrise

Crisp when ripe:
Early Gold
Garber
Improved Kieffer
Keiffer
Maxie
Ooharabeni
Orient
Spalding
Tennosui
Turnbull

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What about my ‘Baldy Hill’ pear that’s crisp when ripe, but then if left to sit a while becomes deliciously soft? :slight_smile:

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I added it to the “soft” list since it can be eaten soft. Thanks for the addition!

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Sunrise is not a hybrid. Just grafted Ooharabeni this year. Hoping someone chimes in on it.

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I’m not sure how a hybrid is defined, but while ‘Sunrise’ isn’t a direct cross of a European pear and an Asian Pear, one of its parents was a cross of Bartlett and NJ 1 (P. pyrifolia) making one of its parents a hybrid. I assumed this made ‘Sunrise’ a hybrid as well, but maybe not?

In this post it was listed as a hybrid pear, but it was taken verbatim from an external site.

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Looking at the parentage chart your right. Most of the nurseries just say bartlett, comice, and seckel. 1/4 asian I guess it would still be a hybrid.

That’s interesting. I have Sunrise, but it hasn’t fruited yet.

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