Do you know where I might be able to purchase some scion of these varieties? I have been having trouble finding a good source and I want graft some of my fireblight prone varieties of pears. Thanks!
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The main reason this forum keeps getting bigger is because as you mention the data is never intentionally biased. We do not have ads and we do not take money from anyone in the business. We donate to the site ourselves to support it to avoid bias. @scottfsmith is the website owner. He does allow anyone to sell in the for sale portion of the site. He does not allow much of that. Spamming or multiple posts are not tolerated. Scott may have some advice as well for a commercial pear orchard. @alan what do you recommend now for commercial pear orchards? @Olpea do you have any advice on his peach part of the operation or pears? @39thparallel what is working for you on distance between trees you spray, varieties etc? Many of these guys are professionals or experts as well on the nursery / farm business. @fruitnut i know you have some incredible fruit as well do you have advice to offer?
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Thanks Clark. My curiosity right now is mainly varietal. We have been in the Bartlett business since 1992 and have learned a ton about all facets of pear growing. Hopefully, I can help others on the way. Our pear production has went from 4,000 bushels down to 2,500 over the past 5 years (mostly due to fire blight). I am at the juncture of deciding whether to continue in the pear business or not.
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The ânew generationâ of pears that we will see more of in grocery stores will likely be Gem and Happi.
@clarkinks started a good thread on it but some folks downplayed it due to it being a âcrunchyâ pear⌠howeverâŚ
the pear is good right off the tree, but with storage it will soften into the creaminess that many consumers expect from a pear. The industry dubs it âbuttery-juicy melting texture.
Cummins Nursery description-
Gem pears have a unusually long storage window. While the fruit is quite palatable when freshly harvested and still crisp, three to six weeks of storage are recommended for full ripeness and softening, and the pear actually appears to store well for up to five months. Additionally, the flesh of Gem does not yellow after slicing. The flavor is sweet and sub-acid, spicier than Bartlett but otherwise similar. Gem does eventually develop melting, dessert pear qualities.
As noted in the Sheldon thread Gem is offspring of what was once one of the best pears in the worldâŚ
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Pears are a specialty crop in NYS and only a few varieties are grown here for market. Bosc, Seckel and Bartlett. The orchards I see have some frost protection.
I wouldnât want to try to grow them commercially here unless it was a very good site for them. They donât cost that much to ship from the west where they are much more productive and easily grown. Distribution networks are very extensively established.
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Have you ever tried Gem pears? They are not comparable to Magness. Crunchy wise, I would much rather have a mediocre Asian pear.
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No. I cant tell where many folks on this forum have either. My earliest chance will be IF they make it to my grocery stores⌠which would have been grown in the PNW.
Im interested in it because it was grown and evaluated 55 years ago not far from where i live by an excellent breeder.
Also it is bred from Barseck which has led to some other nice offspring.
Not saying its the best pear in the worldâŚbut it has good bones.
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I have high density plantings with espaliered rows 10 foot apart. Many of the pears are to vigorous and difficult to prune. I am now grafting Asain pears on OHxF 333 and Euro pears on Quince. That might not work in poor soil.
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Trent, Iâve tried a few pear varieties on a few trees. Not nearly as many as Clark and others have.
My limited experience is that Harrow Delight can gain size if thinned heavily. Still not as big as a well thinned Bartlett (which can be very large) but still decent sized. Iâve only got like 4 trees of Harrow Delight, so my experience is pretty limited. Tastes a lot like a Bartlett to me. Iâm not sure if I could tell one from the other on a blind taste test. Seems to be very FB resistant here.
Likewise with Harrow Sweet I have limited experience. Itâs sweeter than a Bartlett, but not quite as much of the Bartlett flavor, imo. I lost one Harrow Sweet to FB (about the same time I lost a Bartlett). Through the years Iâve read some other people have had some issues with FB on Harrow Sweet. But I think itâs more resistant to FB than Bartlett.
Interestingly, I have a Red Bartlett which seems to have migrated back to a regular Bartlett. Itâs 20 years old and never had much problem with FB.
One FB resistant pear that I didnât like was Green Jade (aka Crispân Sweet). It just never developed flavor good enough for me. I only let it fruit a couple years though before cutting it down.
I remember Bob Purvis once told me a story about 20 years ago. He said he used to be a paid crop consultant for fruit crops. He said he was consulting for a pear orchard in WA. He had them cut their irrigation and fertilizer way back because of FB issues.
They sent him a big thank you letter because he was able to get their FB under control. They also saved a boatload of money by reducing fertilizer and irrigation costs. I donât know what that did to their pear size, but they were apparently happy with the result. Maybe something to think about.
The pear trees I grow donât get any supplemental N, but our soil is very fertile here (think corn soil) so all tree crops by nature are very vigorous.
You also probably know that FB tends to take out younger trees much easier than older established ones. I planted 55 Evercrisp apples and gave them too much N too early to try to size them up. This summer I had quite a lot of FB strikes in those trees. I may slow them down with some apogee this coming season.
I know apogee isnât labeled for pears, but I wonder if there is a growth regulator for pears?
Youâre in a good spot for growing fruit. If you tried to grow 10 acres of Bartlett pears 60 years ago here, they would have been dead 59 years ago.
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Look through the trading post for current offers. You can also purchase several good pears from Mike at 39thparellel
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I am doing my best to be a new generation pear grower. Hopefully i havent started too late. I have just about all of the top Euro pears as well as most all of the Asian pears and am now getting into the Chinese Fragrant pears a little. It will be fun trying at least.
Its interesting that my region doesnt have more pear growers or interest especially Euro pears⌠Looking back at the history of pear breeding and evaluation⌠just about everything has came from my region.
Virginia, WV, Ohio, NY, PA etc.
But i think these statements are mostly true-
Even after over a century of breeding new pear varieties, there hasnât yet been wide acceptance of new pear varieties in the U.S.
The answer can be attributed to numerous factors such as the pear industry moving from the East Coast to the Pacific Northwest where disease pressure is lower due to the dry climate, challenges associated with complex storage and ripening requirements, stagnant productivity due to the lack of a dwarfing rootstock, and consumer acceptance.
Note âGemâ may be the one to break thru.
The USDA-ARS Pear Breeding Program is increasingly having an impact, demonstrated by the Pacific Northwest pear industryâs growing interest in âGemâ.
Im not sure that the PNW has the âdry climateâ that they are referring to lately⌠The past few years have been dry for me at my location.
Regardless im happy to have such a variety to choose from⌠not sure the selection and availability has been this great before.
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Quince is popular in Europe. Do you worry about winter hardiness? I am considering that root for myself. What varieties do you have and which do you like?
Olpea, Thanks for the comments. I may skip the fertilizer this year on the pears to see if that helps. I have actually experimented with Apogee on pears (shh). It does help but is not labeled. The Gem, Harrow Delight, and Harrow Sweet are definitely on my list of candidates!
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Quince is susceptible to fire blight
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I have 8 varieties of pear on Quince in Z4b and theyâre doing well. They are all 2018 grafts and 3 of them had their first fruit this summer. The variety on Quice will be important, I would probably avoid Quince for a low vigor cultivar, but more vigorous trees are doing well for me. Winter Nellis is struggling, so I will graft it to something else.
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Iâm starting to experiment with provence quince. The main issue will probably be compatibility with some varieties which may be able to be resolve with an interstem,
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