I have a larger than ever crop of Korean Giant, Harrow Sweet, Moonglow, and Ayers. My other varieties have small amounts. All my pears are bagged so I don’t have much insect pressure.
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My Harrow Sweet were full of blooms,set lot of fruit and almost all dropped. Very strange and disappointing. I may have 3 pears left from the whole tree.
I blamed it on the bad timing during bloomtime whem it was raininy, windy and cold. Fortunately, other pears set some fruit, too. By %, Ayers and Duchess set more than other varieties.
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@mamuang
Duchess D’ Angoulme will definately produce a lot for you but they are very late season pears. For me its nice getting fruit that late but in some cases they wont ripen until November. My Duchess trees have hundreds of pounds on them! Glad i dont have more than i do but i cant imagine not having them! Everyone needs more trees like the types you grow!
I have to pay more attention to ripening time. I know Harrow Delight is early. Any pears you have that ripen for you by Sept?
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@mamuang
Last year my pear ripening time was off due to the drought and heat. Last year my Duchess D’ Angoulme ripened in September but everything was off a month. Sometimes the Duchess ripen in October or November for me. Here is my personal log of what happened and i kept pretty good track in this post i think Here comes the 2018 apple & pear harvest!
I would compare my ripening times to this list from grandpas orchard and that should be a close list GOWeb-MaturityChart-PEAR(2013).pdf (110.8 KB)
Last year my pears were at least a month early and i know that from all the literature i read. The list below from Grandpas is accurate on September pears (around Sept 1-7) but mine ripened in August. The pears on the list below I will log the dates of again this year on a more normal year
Harrow Sweet™
Karl’s Favorite aka ewart
Magness
Potomac
You can also cross reference with this list Here comes the 2016 apple and Pear harvest! but keep in mind Kansas usually cooks everything ripe in July and August once the 100 degree temperatures hit.
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Grandpa’s Orchard lists Korean Giant/Olympic as the latest. So, that looks good for me.
Just wonder when Aurora, Docteur Deportes, Abbe Fetel ripen?Maybe, @scottfsmith could tell us.
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Those i cannot help with yet. @scottfsmith is the only one i know besides us who even grows docteur desportes. Yes Korean Giant is a very late pear but i forgot about that one because they are not a main crop for me yet. I cant wait to pick harrow delight this year they look good! Its amazing the difference a year makes!
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I like having a large pear like Korean Giant but I’m more pleased with it’s late ripening. My two areas I’m pushing now is early and late ripening varieties that have good taste and fireblight resistance. It also helps if they bloom a little later. KG did get hit with some FB but timely removal prevented it from doing much damage. I have high hopes for Harrow Delight being the good tasting early variety. I grafted several branches of HD and they are growing well so if they have the same early bearing tendancy to fruit as HS I should have a sample next year. I mostly use my fruit for fresh eating so spreading out the ripening time with smaller quantities works best for me.
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This is the first year my Ayers has colored up this early. Several are like this and several are not. I don’t know why but I’m wondering if getting better cross pollination from several varieties is helping.
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Typically coloration like that in my experience is from additional nutrients eg. Water, Sunshine, npk, trace minerals etc. . That is a very healthy looking pear! Leaves are deep green and colored up just like the pear!
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My Pai Li are full of fruits this year Clark. My wife like this one almost as much as the Korean Giant.
Tony
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Mine are new trees Tony but i cant wait to try it after your report of the taste! It will be a couple of years yet. They are really looking good in your photo!
I have a very poor pear set this year. My Luscious has some, but not enough that I will have to thin. Not sure if there is a single pear on my large Clapp’s Favorite or my Flemish Beauty. The Summercrisp has a light crop. Waiting to see if anything is going to happen with the grafts I made.
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Was that poor fruit set due to bad weather during bloom?
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I wish I knew. Probably, or maybe the cold winter.
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I had poor blooming on most of the trees. I think the squirrels got the bloom buds on the two big trees (Winny and Granny Durden). Tennessee acted like it did not get enough chilling hours. It eventually produced a small crop, but it bloomed in dribs and drabs. Goldenboy had the best crop, but I pruned it heavily this winter to shape it because it had lost two major limbs last year. One was lost to a fire blight lesion low in the limb, and the other broke due to the fruit being too heavy. In the pruning I pruned most of the bloom buds off. LeConte has a good crop given the size of the tree. It’s just a small slow growing tree. Southern Bartlett over cropped badly last year and did not produce many blooms this year. I also pruned it heavily thereby cutting off many of the pears that it otherwise would have made. Baldwin is just slow maturing. It bloomed and made a light crop on the South facing side of the tree but not the North facing side. I should have some ripening pears in about two weeks.
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We had the opposite problem this year and did not lose enough blooms. Our pear crop is way to heavy so we have lost half the branches.
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That is horrible to hear. Pear tree branches are not very flexy with that much weight on them. .
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Is anyone growing Devoe at this time?
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