I have a Golden Dorsett, moderate fireblight resistant, so far, I can see one branch turning brown from afar, not sure what’s the reason, maybe the squirrels broke the branch, but the tree is loaded, I don’t even prune, thin or do anything, it’s growing in a tough corner, so far I have over 100 fruit, some are big like a Fuji, no bugs damage either.
This tree is also next to a neighbor with Loquat, a fireblight magnet.
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i have New Century Asian pear for 15 yeas now and it’s doing good, never had fire blight or insect damage. However deer got to it once 10 years ago, no issues at all with very little spraying of fungicide. however this year i have been spraying copper on the tree due to all the rain and humidity currently, never know what can happen in that environment. I recommend New Century
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Isn’t Kiefer also pretty resistant?
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Unfortunately it isn’t. Kieffer gets fireblight very easy it just doesn’t die. Thats valuable because you can get some fruit all the time. Many home owners choose it for that reason. Its a tree that gives pears and doesn’t die spray free. It is a problem for me because i dont want trees that are carrier’s of fireblight. As an example in Texas pineapple pears are big but they do have fireblight. People plant new pears and the new pears die which is frustrating. The old pineapple their neighbors have are infected with fireblight. Why some stores sell bartlett in Texas is beyond me, we all know better. Imagine a map that said ok you live in houston here are the pears you can grow. In Kansas here are the pears you can grow. It would save much frustration if people in some towns in Texas knew Leona, Orient, Ayers worked in their area. If they atarted giving real data compiled from experience and not reading for a change. There are many so called pear experts who believe they know more than our group. The pear information on paper does not even scratch the surface of the data on this site that all of us put together. We have some talented fruit growers here. People like you teach grafting and other things every year which really helps future generations. The more i grow fruit in this area and compare data with other local growers of fruits the more i realize we need much more research done. The research that we have done eventually made this thread a necessity. My suspicion is many growers realize exactly what i’m saying about pears like warren , ayers, maxine etc… kieffer certainly should always be mentioned.
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I think the list is small but growing. Ways to test and quantify susceptibility have also improved.
Hessle, Alfa, Bohemica, Alexander Lucas, among others
I would also think that using the Maryblyt program with Blossom Protect or other biologic prevention measure (and some on this forum claim apple cider vinegar is also preventative) would improve their inherent resistance even more
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I do understand what the experts are saying and i’m listening to them , but also doing tests of my own along the way. This year has been very telling how wrong the experts are. Ya li had some strikes this year. It is believed to be somewhat resistant to fireblight.
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The ones experts call the most Fireblight resistant pear trees like harrow delight were devastated this year by fireblight. @Olpea warned me about a strain of fireblight that hit him on harrow delight around 10 years ago. Exactly like the fireblight that hit me harrow sweet shows strikes but they are not as bad. The additional harrow pears i was going to add im no longer adding.
Unfortunately that means all documents are now questionable.
The experts are simply wrong the fireblight strain i have had in the past harrow delight was resistant against. The new strain i have now it has no resistance against.
Harrow sweet has some resistance. Blakes pride and tyson have resistance so far but neither have fruit at the moment after the storms.
This is a kosui
Drippin Honey getting a few strikes but it is holding its own. Some leaves were hit with rust.
Full views of drippin honey and no dead tops.
Pai li is moderately resistant. As you can see fruit and branches are showing no strikes. It can get strikes.
Clara frijs got some major strikes
Eldorado fireblight resistance is overated as shown below.
Improved Kieffer and kieffer covered in fireblight but no signifigant damage as shown below. They get it but dont die!
Back to harrow delight as shown below. It is one of my favorite pears but it is not going to work out for me here. It is covered in fruit
Canadian pears eg. Meanie dont work
Douglas like its parent Duchess D’ anglome and kieffer it gets fireblight but the fireblight has a hard time killing it. It has strikes as shown below.
Clapps favorite definately fireblight susceptible but a great tree in every other way.
Farmingdale like warren seems to laugh at fireblight. Not a single strike as shown below.
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Im not saying not to use Bells work as guidelines. His work worked for him. Mostly i agree with his results. Harrow delight was one exception. The couple of pears on his list i dont have i will get asap and we can test them and distribute scions on the ones that work. Harrow delight may work in half the country. Potomac is a great pear to grow!
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The California rare fruit growers group document above was very good. I’m familiar with similar documents i saw years ago. It is possible it might be the same but i’m not sure. Maybe @mayhaw9999 or @mamuang can let us know if Elliot is having any fireblight problems for them Elliot pear aka Selena pear .
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it seems there are variations of fire blight; for example, twig inoculation of Fire Blight does not seem to correlate with fire blight in mature established trees
And Magness (which shows large resistance to twig inoculation of Erwinia thus being considered “very resistant”) still had 9 of 20 trees die from fire blight in the Beltsville MD study (1974)
so trunk blight is different from twig fire blight. see the footnote below
A Romanian study found Untoasa Geoagiu and Beurre Hardy as resistant (the czech study from earlier also showed some resistance with Beurre Hardy as well) but they also claim Starkrimson as “resistant” (Red Kalle or Red Clapp’s Favorite)
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There are different strains of fireblight in general. One is weaker than another. Some may ask how i know that. At one site a strain of fireblight is immune to sprays of antibiotic and at another it is effective. This strain is making its way around the country now. Fireblight at my orchard several years ago did not bother harrow delight now it does. This strain is much more aggressive.
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yes that makes sense. Joseph Postman did an inoculation study using a more “viurlent” strain of Erwinia, EA153
that is a little scary in that it is probably only a matter of time before it spreads everywhere
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I am interested in this topic, thanks for all who contribute. I’ve heard some cultural practices can help reduce fb, such as minimizing pruning and instead using limb spreaders, tie downs etc for shaping and training
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This year was a bad year for fireblight. I have about a dozen Fuji apple trees which had significant strikes in them.
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Everyone is getting hit badly with fireblight that i know in Kansas and Missouri. This is not the same type of fireblight we used to see here. It is much more aggressive.
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Not here this year, thank goodness.
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Most of my apples and pears were hit by FB last summer (PNW). This year everything has been really clean of rust and FB, fingers crossed it stays that way.
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Sounds like Kieffer is the pear equivalent of King David apple- a blight magnet that walls off the disease. Agree- not the kind of tree I want around. “Resistance” can mean resists getting disease and/or resists dying from it, and confuses people.
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It has its advantages but it is something we should be aware of. It works for some orchards.
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Kieffer is ‘fireblight tolerant’… it’s survived for a century or more, often as the sole survivor on MANY a Southern farmstead… may have multiple FB strikes, but shrugs them off and continues fruiting so heavily that it breaks branches every year.
I can almost guarantee that if you’re out driving on a country backroad and see an old pear tree, anywhere from the KY/IN line to south Alabama… 9 times out of 10, it’ll be a Kieffer.
I’ve lost Korean Giant twice to fireblight… both times when it got old enough to bloom. Chojuro, Niitaka, Shinko, Ya Li, Hosui, Tsu Li, Dasui Li all planted about the same time, over 25 years ago, have been mostly unfazed. I get an occasional FB strike on Chojuro, but it slows it enough that I have been able to prune them out.
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