Truly conference is a delicious pear and exceptional in every way. It is plagued by cracking in my climate. It has been hit with upper 90s to 100 degree days for weeks which is completely normal this time of year. We received our spring rains in the middle of the heat wave this year which made everything miserable. We desperately needed the rain at my property and received 3". It was so hot and dry i drove my car through the field the next day. Conference like comice in certain ways or concord is a very high quality pear. I grow these 3 that were developed from comice. I highly recommend you not try that in Kansas with comice. I lost 95% of those grafted to fireblight. Conference is the hardiest of the 3 types. The problem with conference is the cracking. I highly recommend you try it so you know what good taste is because comice is the standard others are judged by. The difference among conference, comice, and concord is small. Save yourself some time and grow conference but dont say i didnt warn you on this type of year it will crack. Check them regularly since a few of mine already ripened due to the hot sun. Sometimes the sun ripenes my fruit a full month or more ahead of those even in warmrr zones. In this case it ripened the conference in the sun in July instead of late August or September.
After you taste them you will forget about losing 3/4 of the 2025 crop to cracking. They are very delicious and there is always next year again. By the way the tree is remaining at 7 feet and is around 7 years old on BET rootstock. What pear tastes better? No pear taste better truthfully than conference , comice or concord at their best besides clarks small yellow on certain years but there are those that taste different. Harrow delight has been very good this year which indicates it may be a great year for pears to taste good. This tree has produced fruit a few years but i wait to post until at least the second or 3rd year. The rootstock was a few years old when i grafted it. The conference fruit reminds me of harrow sweet in that it is numerous and must be thinned to reach good size and weight. I had way to many small fruits this year which can only be my fault due to neglect of the tree.
@clarkinks I was looking through a book (for a problem with my peach tree…) and saw a picture of a pear with boron deficiency. It had cracking that looked like yours.
Though I also know that a dry period followed by a rainy period can cause cracking, I remember you once had an issue with boron deficiency in one of your pear trees. It seemed worth mentioning in case a boron spray would help.
The book also said the only early leaf symptoms were on new growth which can have brown tips/ edges or the growing end of shoots can be stunted. It sounds like the early version can be pretty subtle.
From “Mid-Atlantic Orchard Monitoring Guide”:
and here is the rest of the text:
“In most fruit crops, boron deficiency symptoms show up in the fruit before
appearing in the leaves. Symptoms in apples and pears are similar: gnarled,
misshapen fruit caused by depressions usually underlaid by hard, corky tissue.
This symptom is often confused with bitter pit or corking caused by calcium
deficiency. Researchers disagree whether the two symptoms can be told apart
visually. Boron deficiency might be distinguished from bitter pit by the presence of pitting from the peel to the core, whereas in bitter pit, the pitting usually occurs only at the calyx end and only very close to the skin. In some instances of boron deficiency, the entire fruit surface is covered with cracks (photo 8-17) that have callused over, producing a russeted appearance.
In plums, deficiency symptoms appear as brown sunken areas in the fruit
flesh, ranging in size from small spots to almost the whole fruit. The fruit
usually colors earlier than normal, and falls. Gum pockets may also form in
the flesh. In peaches, the flesh adjacent to the pit develops brown, dry, corky
areas, and some fruits may crack along the suture. The most typical vegetative symptom is the death of the terminal growing points, resulting in a
“witch’s broom” appearance.”
Boron deficiency would make sense . I’m going to try to address that next year. There is the possibility that since it is around other nearby fruits not having the problem it is more sensitive to fluctuations in weather. Thanks
My Conference trees, fruits are looking bad this year. A lot of excessive russeting and wrinkles at the blossom end.
For me this has been common with the variety in my wet springs. Always kind of a trade off, Conference seems resistant to scab which is great.
Now, this year, my Comice, Bosc, Red Bartlett, Orcas are lookin unusually good considering their scab susceptibility.
Very weird…
It may just be that the years of early green tea sprays are paying off?
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