However I do have some photos to share from my harvest.
I think it is fare to say that the star of my pear orchard in Statesboro (SE) Georgia this year was Golden Boy. Golden Boy is a European X Asian pear hybrid. It’s parentage is unknown since the mother tree of this commercial variety was found growing at an old homestead in Wauchula Country Florida. This pear is sufficiently similar to my LeConte’ pear tree that it would not surprise me at all if a genetic analysis demonstrates that LeConte’ is a parent. But the pears from my Golden Boy were bigger and higher quality than those of LeConte’ this year. Last year both three were only two years in the ground here, and both produced one pear which were about the same size.
My Golden Boy is a fast growing tree that seems to be very resistant to disease so far. The leaves stay very unblemished, but it does seem to attract aphids more than some of the other pear trees. Each year it does a big growth spirt in August when the worst of the aphid pressure is gone. I used weights to spread the limbs of my Golden Boy tree during the second and third growing season. With the use of weights it has become the prettiest specimen tree of my pears. I do think it’s too vertically oriented to forgo spreading the limbs.
The pears are yellowish green when ready to pick and pretty yellow after they have ripened inside or in the frig. This pear is not at is best when ripened on the tree. The unblemished pears that were put right in the refrigerated lasted about a month in refrigeration before they began to get a bit over ripe. The flavor of pears ripened the refrigerator was slightly better than those ripened at room temperature. The texture of the skin was quite a bit better.
Golden Boy pears are actually pretty good when picked and eaten crunchy off the tree. But the skin is a bit too tough for them to be eaten with skin on at that state. My sister does not find the skin of a fully ripe Golden Boy Pear objectionable. I still find it a bit tough.
When crunchy tree ripe, the Golden Boy is sweet and fairly flavorful. At this stage its way more flavorful than Southern Bartlett but not as juicy and not as good of texture. When soft ripe, I actually like the slightly heavy but soft texture a lot. A soft ripe Golden Boy has a superb sweet flavor. It rivals about any pear bought in the store.
In my yard Golden Boy’s bloom overlaps best with LeConte and Tennessee. Southern Bartlett blooms for such a long time, it also lots of flowers on it for the whole blooming period of Golden Boy, but don’t count on Golden Boy blooming early enough to pollinate Southern Bartlett’s early blooms. Based on some of my personal experience with Golden Boy, I’m fairly confident that it’s self fertile, but this has not been proven scientific trials as far as I know. I can highly recommend this pear for SE Georgia.