There are many soft types you can grow now that won’t die from fireblight. You started with 2 of the resistant pears which is smart. I grow both kieffer and improved kieffer. They both get fireblight strikes, and neither dies from those strikes. They produce very heavy.
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Thanks @clarkinks — my grafts are looking promising so far.
Excited to try pears again… and J Plums this year.
TNHunter
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Add these from above to your list of ones to grow in the future. There are many others mentioned on this thread.
Improved kieffer 400 chill hours
Kieffer 350 chill hours
Orient 300 chill hours
Ayers 300-400 chill hours
Warren 600 chill hours
fan-stil 500 chill hours
Pineapple 150 chill hours
leona 400-450 chill hours
Hood 150 chill hours
Flordahome 150-250 chill hours
Baldwin 150 chill hours
Tenn 150-450 chill hours
Maxine pear chill hours not determined
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@clarkinks … i was sent some orient, ayers, potomac, korean giant, harrow sweet, scions…
this spring in addition to kieffer and imp kieffer.
I grafted kieffer and imp kieffer on my two callery transplants … out in my field.
Grafted 3 orient scions onto other callery pears in the edge of my field… hoping to add orient to my (out in the field) pears next spring.
At my sisters i added grafts of KG, Potomac, Harrow sweet… to a couple of pear trees she has…
And at my neighbors place this week added grafts of ayers and orient to a couple of callery pears there…
I hated to throw those scions away… that i did not have room for… and found others to give them to… and get some more grafting experience.
Hopefully some of those take and grow this year… and i can collect scions from them if needed next winter.
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You’re grafting already? Another 2 weeks before I do cleft grafts and 3 to 4 weeks before I expect bark to be slipping here.
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Hey everyone!
I am planning to plant two pear trees in my backyard and am looking for recommendations on good eating pears fresh off the tree. I live in south Alabama zone 8b. So far, I am considering an Ayers and a Golden Boy but I am not sure if their bloom periods overlap. Any and all recommendations are greatly appreciated! Thanks!
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My opinion is ayers wont work since it doesn’t overlap golden boy bloom time. I’m saying this based off @Auburn post, but i will let him speak for himself Status of some pear blooms/buds at my location . I dont grow golden boy.
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@hambone … yes have grafted several pears, goumi and a plum so far.
Still waiting on apples and persimmons.
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The bloom of my Ayers and Golden Boy do not overlap. Golden Boy overlaps pretty good with Dixie Delight and Senator Clark, and also with a whole bunch of callery pears around the neighborhood. Dixie Delight and Sen Clark are from the Wildife Group in Tuskegee. Dixie Delight is a very tasty asian pear type - russet, round, sweet, crunchy. I have not had any Senator Clark yet to eat. Golden Boy for me has not been a great pear for fresh eating. It goes mealy on the tree and the counter, and is only mildly sweet. However, it makes extremely good dried pear slices. So I’m keeping it just for that alone. Ayers overlaps with Harrow Sweet and Warren in my yard. Ayers is excellent for fresh eating. Its very sweet with a melting texture. Harrow Sweet is even sweeter, at least for me. I’m in E Alabama.
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I didn’t have much free time today so I’m a little late posting. This is my bloom date/sequence for this year as of now.
20230221 Southern Bartlett first bloom.
20230223 Southern Bartlett has about 6 blooms.
20230225 Southern Bartlett is about 1/2 bloom.
20230304 Southern Bartlett. almost finished bloom
20230302 Golden Boy has about 5 open blooms.
20230305 Golden Boy pear is in full bloom.
20230304 First bloom. Orient, Kieffer, Dixie delight.
20230308 Full bloom. Orient, Improved Kieffer, and Dixie Delight
20230309 Ayers, Korean Giant, Harrow Sweet, and Dripping Honey all have bloom buds getting bigger and I’m assuming these will bloom with good overlap.
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Ayers blooms later than Golden Boy. Look at my post above for better pollen partners.
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Thanks for describing Dixie Delight. I have a bunch of pears from TWG (Dixie Delight, Becton, Gate, Galloway, Orient, McKelvey, Arthur Ledbetter, Kiefer, Gate, Moonglow, Gilmer Christmas, Ms Laneene, and perhaps a couple others) that should be producing this year or next. That was one I was interested in knowing about since I heard it’s also a great eater. I tried Becton last year. Aside from the skin, it’s not a bad pear if allowed to ripen off the tree. Vigorous too.
Thank y’all for replies! That definitely helps to clear things up. After reading the initially good reviews for the Golden Boy earlier in this thread, it’s good to see others’ opinions.
Now I just wish I had more space to plant more than two trees 
Looks like grafting might be in my future!
Does anyone have any recommendations on where to order an Ayers/Harrow Sweet?
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OMG, it’s addictive. Just saying.
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Evidently Ayers is partly self fertile, either that or I got mislabeled trees and scions from different sources all labeled Ayers. Only thing blooming is Ayers and some callery.
Bartlett and some other pears have buds but no blooms yet. (Supposed to be freezes next
Monday and Tuesday nights.)
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Did a bunch of pear grafts to multi-graft callery trees Sunday, did a number of apple grafts for ‘frankentrees’ yesterday. Used 6 variations of grafts on the pears, including bark grafts, and yesterday did apples using 4 types of grafts including one bark graft. Ayers pear and callery pears blooming, Redfield apple not far from blooming.
(But, it gets cold for several days, so may be bad on things…except honeyberries.)
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Ayers are partially self pollinating. The other pears like magness are what they need to worry about. Did you spray any copper? It will buy a few degrees of extra cold hardiness. Ice nucleating bacteria like pseudomonas syringae cause “frost damage using specialized ice-nucleating proteins.” Copper kills or reduces bacteria numbers. https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.1501630#:~:text=Ice-nucleating%20organisms%20play%20important,using%20specialized%20ice-nucleating%20proteins.
" mation at temperatures just below the ice melting point, bacteria such as Pseudomonas syringae attack plants through frost damage using specialized ice-nucleating proteins. Besides the impact on agriculture and microbial ecology, airborne P. syringae can affect atmospheric glaciation processes, with consequences for cloud evolution, precipitation, and climate. Biogenic ice nucleation is also relevant for artificial snow production and for biomimetic materials for controlled interfacial freezing. We use interface-specific sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy to show that hydrogen bonding at the water-bacteria contact imposes structural ordering on the adjacent water network. Experimental SFG data and molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that ice-active sites within P. syringae feature unique hydrophilic-hydrophobic patterns to enhance ice nucleation. The freezing transition is further facilitated by the highly effective removal of latent heat from the nucleation site, as apparent from time-resolved SFG spectroscopy."
Copper needs to be sprayed about 10 days in advance to make a big impact on blossom blast Blossom Blast / Pear / Agriculture: Pest Management Guidelines / UC Statewide IPM Program (UC IPM)
" Blossom Blast
- Pseudomonas syringae
Symptoms and Signs
Infected buds fail to open, dry out, and die. Postbloom infections result in depressed, rather shiny, black spots on fruit and leaves. Unlike fire blight, infections seldom progress past the base of spurs and are usually concentrated in the lower portion of the tree’s canopy. In young trees, symptoms may also develop on shoots when the outer bark separates from the underlying tissue, giving the bark a papery appearance.
Blossom blast can severely reduce crop yield, number of leaves, and number of fruit spurs in the trees. Asian pears seem to be more severely affected, probably because they bloom earlier and are more exposed to frost injury.
Comments on the Disease
Pseudomonas syringae seems to be universally present on plant parts throughout much of the season, although population levels vary. Cold, wet weather favors population and disease development, especially in low areas of the orchard. The bacteria serve as nuclei for ice crystal formation, and high populations induce freeze damage in fruit and foliage tissue at temperatures 3° to 6°F higher than would occur in their absence. The bacteria then invade the frozen tissue, causing fruit and foliage infections. In spring, plant tissue is most sensitive to freezing and incidence of frosts is high. Pear trees are most commonly affected by P. syringae in the bud stage in Mendocino County and from the cluster stage through early fruit set in other areas.
Management
Bacterial blossom blast is difficult to control. Monitor temperatures and protect the orchard against frost, which may help prevent infection. In areas where blossom blast is common, copper sprays applied in the fall or dormant season are labeled for this use, but the efficacy of these treatments is questionable.
Cultural Control
Use frost protection methods to reduce frost injury. Provide a firm, wet soil surface with a minimum of cover crop to keep orchards warmer."
The main reason to spray copper is to reduce fireblight Fire Blight: Symptoms, Treatment and Control | Planet Natural.
" Treatment
- Select resistant varieties whenever possible.
- Avoid heavy pruning or excess applications of nitrogen fertilizer, both of which encourage new growth.
- Avoid planting close to wild plants of hawthorn, apple or pear.
- As soon as fire blight is discovered, prune off infected branches 1 foot below the diseased sections and burn them to prevent further infection. Dip pruning shears into a 10% alcohol or bleach solution between each cut to avoid transmitting the disease from one branch to another.
- Early applications of liquid copper are effective against this plant problem. Mix 0.5 to 2.0 oz per gallon of water and apply at silver tip and bud break — repeat at 3 to 5 day intervals up to petal fall. Use the lower rate if disease pressure is light and the higher rate when conditions favor heavy disease pressure.
- Bacterial spread can be reduced by applications of products that contain Streptomyces lydicus as the active ingredient. To obtain best disease control, applications should be made at the start of the bloom period and every five to seven days thereafter.
"
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Another thing about my Dixie Delight is that it grew fast and flowered early. Mine flowered heavy in year 3. It initially set a big crop but dropped most of them in June. Last year it flowered heavy again but only hung on to a dozenor so fruits. This year, again super heavy bloom. I’m hoping It will hang on to the fruits better this year, but at least its flowering.
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I’ve not sprayed pears at all. I did spray dormant oil on some of my smaller apple trees, especially red fleshed and some I think may crop first time this year. Have not sprayed the old trees, and probably skip it.
Lost a Black Oxford apple on B-118 to fireblight last year…but most anything I lost
either too damp or too dry at some point.
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