Added several Asian varieties this year so hopefully I will know how they grow in Kansas in a few years.
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I do not really like Asian pears (nashi), the only one that I’ve tried and it tastes good and is huge giant korea(dambae,olimpic)
the Asian giant pear Korea has been crossed with pear williams, I do not like the result and finish eliminating the hybrid called new wold
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Did you add any particularly interesting varieties?
Yes I did but let me post the varieties later. Thanks
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This is a great thread. Does korean giant need a pollinator? If so, which varieties will work the best?
Any pear that blooms about the same time. I had Shnko,and have 20 th Century and Hosui. They all can pollinate KG. E pears can cross pollinate A. Pears, too, I believe.
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This year I’m adding several more Asian pears. Several of my new ones are flowering that I put in during 2015 and 2016. Anyone have much experience with ya li at this point? My Drippin honey topped out at around 12-15’ and I’m ok with that Drippin' Honey Asian Pear - #24 by clarkinks. Planning to grow slightly larger Asian pears on harbin rootstocks.
Tony
Yali is mildly sweet but very crunchy. I liked them.
Tony
Grafted on Cleveland Flowering pear understock. 7 years old and 15 feet tall.
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Based on my research on Ya Li I think it would be best for cooking, like jam/preserves, pie filling, and so on
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Not sure about cooking but eating fresh Yali is very good.
Tony
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Tony et al,
Talking about cooking with Asian pears, have you ever done it? I always think it is meant to be eaten fresh. None of my Asian friends has ever cooked with them. Have you?
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I can’t personally see Asians being good for cooking. But sometimes some of the best things in life are the things we would never expect. Like chocolate covered bacon.
The crispness of the asian pear seems like a natural fit for salads. But I enjoy fresh eating them.
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The mention of cooking reminds me of an article I read recently, but don’t ask where as I tend to jump around pretty randomly. Evidently at one time pears were frequently eaten as a starchy vegetable, cut up and cooked with savory foods like roasts as one would do with potatoes. The fruit was consumed in this way well before its sugars had developed.
The text referred to European pears, but given that Asian pears are larger and potentially low bird measurements until ripe, I wonder if the same could apply…
Scott
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I was thinking how great Honey Crisp apples are cooked when I mentioned cooking Ya Li, and as far as I know any low sweetness and low flavor fruits are good in jam. There is such a thing as pear jam/preserves, I have never seen anything mentioning Asian pears being used for that though.
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The gentleman who I received many Asian pears from contacted me shortly after I got them and let me know some misidentifications occurred. This year many will fruit and I hope to clear up which pear is which. I’ve eaten Korean giant and definitely am familiar with it. The other pears he thinks I have are hosui so they should be easy to identify. He is not sure but I may have received others so it may get interesting. I grow Drippin’ Honey trees I purchased many years ago that have been fruiting many years now.
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Chojuro has been, from the first time it fruited for me, 15 years or more ago, my favorite… butterscotch flavor undertones… at least to my palate. Makes a really nice ‘brandy’-type vodka infusion, too.
Shinko was good… don’t recall what happened to my tree, but I have a new one that fruited again for the first time last year.
Ya Li has moved up to favored status - and ripens here a bit later than most of the others.
Korean Giant/Dan Bae/Olympic or whatever moniker it goes by was a dog here; I know it routinely gets rave reviews, but here it rarely set more than a couple of fruits in any given year, and they’d be huge, juicy, flavorless things, akin to eating a raw potato with more juice.
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Location really is everything with fruit. Korean Giant are usually a fair to excellent pear. It’s strange to hear them described as a potato pear. Makes me wonder when someone bites into a kieffer in another area if it tastes anything like my kieffers. There is also the possibility we have all been the victims of mislabeling. My kieffer pears are a pretty good cooking pear and lack much of the grit others describe. I enjoy eating kieffer raw in their season but they lack the complex flavors a few pears have.
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When did you plant it?
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