I get drawn in to growing something new while watching other culture’s shows. If not a new ingredient, then a new way to use one that I can already get.
Sadly so many recipes are no starters for me because I can’t get the ingredients (at least quickly and affordability) .
@Lukeott You can also get a large amount of information from clarkins but entering “@clarkinks Pears” in the search box.
Hey mamuang — bumping this now that I’m looking at planting some in 5b NH next spring. It seems at the time of this thread everyone was high on korean giant / olympic giant (if they are indeed the same thing). I think I need to plant two, right? What’s been working best for you (I think we are nearby)?
I’m looking at https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/collections/pear-trees? and was thinking of ordering an Olympic Giant and Hosui, or maybe an Olympic Giant and 20th century. But I think I read somewhere that European pears will pollinate Asian pears, and my dad (whose land this is on) likes European pears, so I am also tempted to plant an Olympic Giant + a european pear of some kind.
Korean Giant has several names. One of them is Olympic. Olympic ripens around 2nd week of Oct where I am in central MA. But it can be picked from the first week to the last week of Oct.
Hosui ripens 3 weeks earlier. I like them both and are russeted skin Asian pears.
So far, the only Euro pear that does not give me a headache is Harrow Sweet. By headache I mean not knowing when they will ripen, requiring refrigeration (at varying length of time) to ripen them properly. These issues turn me off of Euro pears.
Other people can tell you what Euro pears they recommend.
In colder zones like ours, most pears bloom at the same time. Any pear including Bradford pear can close pollinate your pear tree.
In general, Asian pears set fruit sooner like 3-4 years after planting. Many Euro pears can take a lot longer. Harrow Sweet is precocious, fortunately. It also tastes very good.
Thanks. I plan to definitely order an Olympic/KG. I have planted two Hosui at my girlfriend’s down in the boston area so thought I would choose another variety for up here. fast-growing-trees sells the funky “four european pears on a single tree” grafts and I figured I’d grab one of those for pollination and Chaos Pear!
Forget to mention, I would buy my fruit trees from many other nurseries before I look at Fast Growing Tree nursery.
One of the good ones Schlabach nursery. It does not have online presence. You can call for a catalog and send in an order by mail.
Check this reference out. It is in the Reference category.
Thanks for the tip and list of refs!
Fast growing trees seems to have by far the most expensive trees as well. Ridiculous prices for a single tree.
Does anybody grow shinko in the southwest? How did it fare?
How is dripping honey’s tolerance or resistance to fire blight?
I have a Shinko pear tree in 8A North Georgia. It will be on its 4th leaf this spring.
It fruited this year — the first of my young pears to do so — and the fruit was good. It has more attractive leaves here than my other pears — very dark green. It also appears easier to train, with wider natural branch angles.
The fireblight resistance is living up to the hype so far. It is planted not far from where two mature apple trees had to be removed due to fireblight. Last spring — a particularly warm and wet one following a late freeze — it was covered in fresh pruning wounds, had bark damage along the trunk from a rabbit who must have gotten through a treeguard, and flowered very heavily, yet not a trace of fireblight.
I’m glad I put it in.
Fast is just like Amazon…they raise no plants, (or if they do, prove it), just sell somebody else’s plants. To people that do shopping from a computer or smart phone instead of phone calls or going to a ‘brick & mortar’ nursery.
A lot of convenience/couch potato shoppers are gullible and think they get good deals.
To me, a good deal is an apple or pear tree in October that’s marked off by 75% to 93%!
From the big chain retailers.
(And if I don’t like the cultivar, I’ll graft it to something else.)
@BlueBerry Been doing that for years. I can’t even count the number of $5 trees I have. Unfortunately since the virus everybody sells out every year now. Last year I got burnt on some mail order TWIG rootstocks. Ended up buying several of those $30 6-7 footers from Lowes to use as root stock. Cost more, but the grafts took great and shrunk off two years.
Yep. I got some little rootstocks too. (But, since scions are often not the ‘pencil’ size everyone seems to seek, both thin roots and thicker roots come in handy if you’re grafting uncommon scions from various sources). I haven’t exactly gotten ‘burned’ 'cause I realized thin at the time I ordered for roughly $1 per rootstock. More than once.
Last year I got some ‘oversized’ apple rootstocks discounted in April 'cause they hadn’t sold them. So…I like a mix of sizes, so I can match scion to root better.
The other option for me is to make cleft grafts and one side connects up.
I was looking there because they had a big sale on some other trees. None on their Asian pears
Right now.
I definitely like to support small nurseries too — going to get some pawpaws from @Buzzferver in the spring!
I really like my Mishirasu pear, very old tree now(2006) no tags left. I rate it just as good as others.
I think Tony had one growing.
Btw, it’s almost citrus picking time, I am eyeballing a big fat Jo Real Thong Dee pomelo, and others. Got to wait a few more weeks.
Do we think the Stark “Hardy Giant” is a kind of korean giant / olympic? Starking® Hardy Giant™ Asian Pear Tree - Stark Bro’s
So Dashi Li is a good one to grow in California? I’m looking for one to grow in 9b Sacramento region it’s hot and dry typically in the summers.
A friend has a huge KG tree and said I can take some cutting or better yet an air layer?
I don’t see a lot of talk about that so I’m wondering if Asian Pears are tough to root?
I’d like to get one for the front yard to block the house from the Summer heat here.
Thanks
I don’t know about how well Dasui Li will do in CA so I cannot comment. I know Korean Giant and have had the tree for 15 years.
I can’t recall any member here air layer KG. People just graft it.
Thank you. If you were to grab a small tree to possibly graft onto down the road what would rootstock would you recommend? I was looking at TYTY nursery and they have Hosui, KG, Sand Pear and Shinko.