Southern Pears

I have had mixed luck with pear scions this year. None of the Golden Boy scion made it and only one Winnie. I think they dried out in the mail. How did the scion I sent you do ? Savannah and Southern Queen ? I tried Harrow Sweet , Purdue , and Potomac someone else gave me and they took… Can you save me a few scion from Golden Boy for next early 2019 ?

Savannah, Charrels Harris and Southern queen all took and are growing slowly. Thanks. There should be lots of Goldenboy scion this year.

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Charles Harris grow quickly here.

Here are some photos of trees and fruit from my orchard taken on July 7th 2018:

Goldenboy


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LeConte

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Tennessee



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Southern Bartlett


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This pear came off the tree of my neighbor. It’s an older pear tree, at least old in my book…maybe 20 years old and not well kept…It’s in need of a major pruning, but is loaded this year with pears…at least when the squirrels don’t get them…Roy, who passed away about a year ago from brain cancer was an avid gardner, he has quite a few cirtrus trees as well, but I was more interested in the pears…His widow isn’t able to keep up with the tree and I’d like to get it cleaned up for her and maybe get a few sticks of wood to graft onto my pears…

I’ll try to get a better picture of the tree, but was curious if anyone knows what variety this is…based on the shape I was thinking some sort of asian pear, but that is just a guess…

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Looks like the Orient pear variety. The Orient is a fast grower and when it fruits tends to have long drooping limbs.

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So I was correct in assuming it was an Asian pear…That’s probably the only variety I can identify…hah…anyway, I’ve got Orient grafted to one of my trees already. I may still grab a stick or two to graft to my other trees…

Still this tree needs some help and may even be a good candidate for me to graft to…

It could be an Orient pear, but the are numerous other possibilities as well. Orient is a hybrid between the sand pear, an Asian variety and a European type pear. It’s classified with the European pears, but it is a late blooming/fruiting one. When does it bloom relative to your pear tree or fruiting pear trees around you? Yong Winnie Pears look just like that one at this stage of development, but they are super early, blooming in early February and ripening fruit in early July here in Statesboro. Winnie is a seedling and I’m guessing the progenitor of a new variety, but there are other similar pears. More info is needed to narrow down the possibilities. A question is whether there is evidence that the tree was grafted. A lot of old pear trees started out as seedlings. If the tree was grafted you should see an abrupt change in the bark near the base of the tree. I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion that unless you know something about a pear tree’s history, it’s nearly impossible to identify variety with a great amount of certainty. But one can eliminate a lot of possibilities just by comparing plum times and the like. Thanks and God bless.

Marcus

never really paid attention to when it blooms with relation to my trees, but I’d assume they’re pretty close because the size of the fruit is similar…Very much doubt this tree was grafted, but it’s something I’ll check…the other thing that’s interesting, I never noticed the tree producing that much fruit in the past…wondering if the recent bumper crop is a result of the pear trees I’ve planted in the last 3 years…

If your trees bloom with it, that’s very likely. If it’s not grafted, then most likely it’s a seedling and it’s own variety of one tree. If it’s good enough, maybe its worth naming and spreading around through the scion wood exchange. All that depends on how good the fruit is once it ripens and what qualities they have. And please pay attention to when they ripen in relation to your pears. What all varieties do you have in your tree?

Marcus

The trees I have are:

Flordahome, pineapple and Leconte. I’ve grafted, orient, golden boy, ayers…at least those are the ones I can remember…

I know the neighbor well and I’m sure she’ll be happy to give me access to the tree, so I’m planning to keep an eye on it…the pear I picked is pretty firm and I doubt it was anywhere even close to be ripe…

Orient was only a guess but I’m not totally sure. There are many others that look the same. My Orient has been my most disease resistant pear for several years and apparently your tree has survived for 20 year so it must also have good resistance. My Orient is among my first to bloom and sometime there is a loss of fruit as a result. It also has a thick skin.

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All those varieties are earlier blooming than Orient I suspect with LeConte being the only one likely to overlap with an Orient. My Orient hasn’t bloomed yet, but it is one of the last European pear varieties to break dormancy for me. God bless.

Marcus

A FB friend of mine, Tony Miller, posted this picture of immature Scarlet Pears on the Southern Pear Interest Group FB Page today. This is a relatively new variety introduced by Just Fruits and Exotics a few years ago. My tree did not grow much its first two years and has not bloomed yet. According to Tony, these pears are probably about two months away from being ripe. The folks at Just Fruits says that they have a very good, spicy and very different flavor. I have no clue why they are called Scarlet Pears. There does not appear to be anything red bout them. Maybe they are named after somebody or even possibly named after the character in Gone with the Wind. Who knows?

image

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Pretty fruit

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Those are beautiful!

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wish my pears looked that nice…

here is a picture of my Leconte…blotchiness aside, fruit size has increased nicely from June to July…how will I know when these are ready to pick??

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