The million dollar question is whether my pears survive the freeze being predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday. Weather.com keeps going back and for between predicting 27 and 28 the last three days for those days. That one degree can make a big difference in how badly the pears but especially the plums are damaged. My early pears are all bloomed out. Winnie and Granny Durden did not bloom at all this year and Southern Bartlett very little. Tennessee is blooming but in dribs and drabs. We got 524 chill hours, and itās becoming clearer and clearer that Tennessee is not going to act right with less than 600 hours of chill. Baldwin and Acres Home bloomed well and are finished blooming. If the frost does not yack them, I should get a good sense of both trees this year. My Orient pear has about three flower clusters on it and is blooming now. LeConte, Goldenboy and Purdue are in full bloom. Purdue has the coolest looking flowers I have ever seen on a pear bread for fruit production. They are doubled and look like little rose flowers. They are also huge flowers for pair. Tennosoui, Scarlet are not going to bloom this year but are just now breaking dormancy, so I think their flowering will be late. They might even overlap some with the Asian pears. Iāve top work both Ayers pears out of existence. One has a lot of Olton Brouzard in it which is an Asian pear, but it also has some branches of other things. The other Ayers is now another Acres home with one branch of moonglow. The two pears that show absolutely no sign of breaking dormancy yet are Korean Giant and Savannah. Iām thinking those two will bloom together in early April when they get mature enough to actually bloom. Hereās a photo of Purdue flowers:
I got past the cold weather with no damage to the pears and minimal damage to the huckleberries and blueberries. Given that the ten day forecast does not have us going anywhere near a frees as late as March 23, my guess is that we are finished with freeze threats for the season. The little Pears on the Purdue tree are very red. If how they look right now is any indication this may turn out to be much more of a red pear than I expected. Stay tuned. We need a good red pear for the deep south. We really donāt have one.
Karls Favorite aka ewart is going to bloom this year! Buds are not open yet.
@rayrose I took your suggestion and got me an Ayers pear , looks like five pear on it this year , really excited to try this one !
Good, youāll like this pear. Itās early to fruit, and dessert quality.
The only down side is that it doesnāt hang very long on the tree.
It ripens quickly and needs daily picking.
Curious how everyones pear crop is doing? Ours is very heavy but insect pressure is higher this year. We are getting a lot of fruit put up but im well aware the pressure is building. The late crop may take some doing to harvest.
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 donāt have much insect pressure.
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.
@mamuang
Duchess Dā 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?
@mamuang
Last year my pear ripening time was off due to the drought and heat. Last year my Duchess Dā 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 Sweetā¢
Karlās 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.
Grandpaās 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.
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!
I like having a large pear like Korean Giant but Iām more pleased with itās late ripening. My two areas Iām 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.
This is the first year my Ayers has colored up this early. Several are like this and several are not. I donāt know why but Iām wondering if getting better cross pollination from several varieties is helping.
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!
My Pai Li are full of fruits this year Clark. My wife like this one almost as much as the Korean Giant.
Tony
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!