The curator got this one right for sure.
Last year they were very good. Kosui Asian pear
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And the color is awesome…
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Chojuro is #1, hands-down, here. Ya Li is probably my #2 fave, but it’s a much smaller tree (on OHxF513, rather than Harbin or callery) than any others. Shinko is my latest ripening, makes HUGE pears.
Niitaka oversets, and I don’t ever get around to thinning, so it breaks branches left and right with full clusters of golfball-sized pears. Flavor not that great… we don’t even bother picking it. I pretty well let the deer have 'em all.
Hosui & Daisui Li are on the other side of the farm pond, and have just recently started fruiting… like 'em both, but their track record is short. Shin Li and Tsu Li should be over there somewhere, but if they’re still alive, they’ve not shown me anything.
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Very limited Oriental pear experience up to this point, but I got a good first impression on Yoinashi last year.
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I sold a home with 12 yoinashi, 5 Kgiants,.5 chojuro, 5 hosui and more. Yoinashi is a nice tree too, good branch structure and fruit
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I heard Kosui is the most cultivated Asian pear in Japan. Must be so for good reason.
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Lucky- How is your Chojuro with blight? Friends here lost an old tree to FB last year. My only Asian pear so far is a branch of Korean Giant, reading that’s at top of Asian blight resistance list.
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Is Hosui a descendant of Kosui? Any reason to have both? Hosui has been excellent.
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It would seem so according to this reference I found! It also explains the lineage of many other cultivars and their characteristics.
Here’s a screenshot of the blurb that more directly answers your question, so you don’t have to scroll through the whole thing.
Hosui is indeed delicious, so much so that I have 2 trees. It has been reported to be vulnerable to fireblight, but I haven’t seen any strikes on this variety in my yard yet. It’s a nice tree too. The branches spread out a lot making fruit thinning and picking easier than some of the more upright growing varieties.
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Good find. Sounds like you can’t go wrong with either one.
Going into year 5 with Hosui and no fireblight issues. Last Summer’s crop was huge and they were very good. Explosively juicy. Neighbors and family loved them.
Buds open up late enough to avoid frost issues here and has been very productive in year 3/4.
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My selection of good Asian pears so far are the following to spread out ripening time. I’d ideally have something else between Drippin Honey and Shin Li. Maybe a grafted branch of Yoinashi would fill that tiny gap.
Shinsui - Early August. This one stores about a month in the fridge. It’s of fine quality, but seems to produce fewer flower clusters than others I grow of the same tree size and age. Maybe it’ll be more productive in the future, since it’s only in its 4th leaf. It produced plenty though to satisfy me before Hosui started to ripen last year. This one ripened all of its crop over a couple weeks last year.
Hosui - Middle of August through beginning of September. This one doesn’t seem to store for more than a month. This one ripens its crop over nearly 4 weeks.
Drippin Honey - Beginning of September until the last week of September. This one can store for a few months in the fridge if not left to become overripe on the tree. This one ripened its crop over about 3-4 weeks.
Shin Li - End of September through early October. This one can store for several months in the fridge. I still have a couple left right now. This one ripened its crop over about 2 weeks. It’s harder to figure out when this one ripens than the others I grow, because the skin color doesn’t significantly change. Other varieties allow me to pick them one by one when I see some sort of color break.
Korean Giant - End of September through mid-October. This one stores very well too, and I have a few left in my fridge. This one ripened its crop over about 3 weeks.
EDIT: I forgot to add an interesting observation regarding fruit pests. My Asian pear trees don’t really require insecticide spraying other than one spray in May to knock down the plum curculio biting some of the fruit and disfiguring them. The varieties ripening in August had no larvae inside them. However, the fruit that were ripening in September onwards seemed to have some OFM infesting a percentage of them. I think they were getting attacked as they approached ripening. A spray of spinosad or BT might be advisable towards ripening for some varieties. I was trying to brainstorm reasons for this, and concluded that the OFM had a resurgence, because my peach ripened its crop and I stopped spraying it. The peach seems to be their preferred target as I saw plenty of flagging shoots later in the season with no more fruit on the tree and no more sprays. Maybe it was acting as a trap crop. Also, there are a few untended apple trees some blocks away. The fruit were probably all infested and acted as a reservoir. Most homeowners around here do not care to spray, or understand spraying.
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Shingo vs Shinko = same thing?
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Not sure. Shingo is what I have. Not fruit yet. And Shinko is what I buy from Hmart
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What are the flavor profiles per varieties? Any odd flavors out there? I thought I read once there was a variety with notes of vanilla and tobacco. I’ve only eaten a few in my life and the ones I bought from ethnic markets blew the grocery store bought ones out of the water in every which way possible.
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Oriental Fruit Moth seems you might have to be more regular with treating the Oriental Fruit Moth. They can breed 3-5 times in a season depending on the length of your season.
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Thanks. I buy them there too - in Niles. They’ve been expensive, but they are so big, I can actually share it with my partner, or I can eat half and the put the other half in the refrigerator.
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Jason, I have been in the one in Niles. It is a bigger store than the one closer to me in Schaumburg. Yes, the Shinko in Hmart definitely can be shared by two people. It is so large and the quality is worthy the money. My Shingo has flower buds this year (thanks to @californicus for sharing the scion) . Will post the picture of the fruit in the fall
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Shingo means Korean Asian pear, and Shinko is a Japenese asian pear, so I highly doubt that they are the same. http://fruitmaven.com/2009/12/shingo-korean-pear/
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Here was more discussion about the two pears, Shinko and Shingo
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I am more confused
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