My asain pears love it here. Glad i planted them. Most everything im growing i never tried which has lead to a few duds for apples. I will say the korean giant were delicious this year. Last year they werent worth eating. Very sweet and crisp this year.
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I think I have the same one in Washington.
I love it in fresh and fruit leather form, I will open a jar of the spiced ones soon, hopes are high. It has higher acid than the Bartlett or Bosc, still fragrant, but less delicate/perfumy than the bosc. A real good pear/pair with white cheddar, the local Beechers is recommended.
The grit is unfortunate. It ripens with Bosc though Bosc begins a few days earlier.
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I grow chojuro pretty close to you too made it through the last 2 winters fine with -20 lows, its doing well im not crazy about the texture though its kinda gritty with a meh watery flavor
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the ones i had were excellent but others say its hit or miss. really strong buttered rum flavor on the ones i had. Id give it a shot a few more years but it may just be the conditions arent conducive for this one by you
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Hm, thanks for sharing your experience. Doesn’t sound as delicious as it might be in other climates, perhaps? Bummer that yours are disappointing. Do you grow any pears that you find good?
Does anyone have an opinion about whether OHxF97 v. OHxF87 makes a big difference for an espalier Asian pear?
I’ve grown Chojuro and Drippin’ Honey in northern UT, zone 6, about 4500 elevation. Somewhat alkaline soil and water.
The Chojuro had an encounter with a goat and struggled to establish at first, staying a rather runty-looking tree. Two years in a row some of the leaves turned black and fell off on one small area. I figured it was fireblight and removed the affected limbs the first year. The second year it happened, I pulled off the black leaves and fed them to the animals, but the twig it was on recovered fine and regrew its leaves. The tree was fine thereafter. Maybe not FB?
When they ripened in Sept, the pears were absolutely delicious! Crisp, juicy, butterscotch delights. My whole family loved them and the kids kept asking for more long after they were devoured. I’m definitely going to put some in my new orchard.
Drippin’ Honey ripened much later, and at first I was very unimpressed and left them for the critters. They were bland and weird with an off flavor I didn’t care for at all- but I later realized that’s because I was picking them much too early!
My daughter collected some off the ground after a frost in late Oct, I think, and said they were really good. We have since moved away from that property, so I haven’t actually had a good DH, but my daughter says they’re very yummy.
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Misharasu- Ginormous pears and so far has been a consistent annual producer of high quality fruit. One of ours weighed 2 pounds
Shinko and Korean Giant are very similar. We thought maybe they might be the same. Both excellent producers, great flavor
Hosui/Kosui also excellent (probably favorite for texture/flavor), but they havent been that consistent producers so far.
Ap’s listed above have also held up well against pest pressure (we dont spray)
Western Washington Zone 8b
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Are there any that doesn’t require thinning?
I have read that Tsu li is a relatively low-productivity pear that may need less thinning than other Asian pears. I only have a 1-year-old graft, so I cannot speak based on experience.
Olympic (Korean Giant) doesn’t need any thinning at least on my parents property in zone 5B, maybe it’s the soil or other issues, but it’s great with 0 thinning lots of 4+ inch almost spherical pears.
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You don’t want them, you want Betulafolia, that’s the king of precious dwarfing, or maybe Callery, possibly even more dwarfing, but it’s inconsistent, probably because of such wide genetic variety.
Neither betulifolia nor callery is a dwarfing rootstock. Please check the details on this, it is important. Quince is a dwarfing rootstock but is not compatible with all graft varieties. There are a couple of selected semi-dwarfing rootstocks but to my knowledge, each of them has an issue of one sort or another. Either off flavors in the fruit or inconsistent production or disease susceptibility or whatever other concern shows up.
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Ive read conflicting info about beutofolia so maybe it depends on the tree or climate. I thought it was dwarfing for Asians because thats what onegreenworlds description says which is why I got it but other sources say it grows larger than standards. For me it has grown like a beast from a 2-3ft twig to about 7-8 feet in 2 years.
From Ogw:
Rootstock Description: A vigorous and very productive rootstock for Asian Pears, Pyrus betuaefolia produces trees 10′-12′ in height. P. bet grows well in both heavy and light soils.
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beutofolia is just a type of pear tree, I am sure there are different subtypes
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Callery is not dwarfing for typical European pears, it’s extremely dwarfing for precious Asians pears, there’s a difference between low-vigor dwarfing and precious dwarfing.
Precious European pears are less dwarfed as far as I know.
I found these Asian pears in a supermarket in Moscow. They’re not labeled at all. They’re like a classic Asian pear in taste, but amazing.
They’re sweeter than any Asian pears I’ve eaten and more flavorful too (other than the probably fragrant pears that were almost football shaped and yellow red striped, and aromatic too).
Anyway he first photo color balanced far too orange/yellow and the second a little too green, so they’re actually somewhere in the middle.
Does anyone know what variety these are?
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Shinko is the only Asian pair that has given us fruit, but all of our pear trees are small and in big pots right now, but we got three fruits last year and the first two weren’t much to write home about, but I found out I picked them too soon.
I left the biggest one on there until it was all yellow, and I was surprised to find that it had a butterscotch flavor.
We really enjoyed that pear.
We also have Hosui and 20th century but have not got to try fruits from them yet. They seem to be growing just fine, no major problems so far (knock on wood).
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Hosui is pretty fireblight suceptible so you’d better Get some copper sulfate spray, just in case, but if it survives through it’s youth it will probably make it.
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maybe Ya Li aka yali pear?
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