Also, does rootstock (specifically Quince Provence) influence fireblight resistance?
I had ordered a Galarina apple tree from Cummins earlier this year, and I am thinking of adding a pear tree to my order. I’d like to choose one that has good fireblight resistance. Cummins sells Blake’s Pride and Honeysweet, both on Quince Provence rootstock. Should I get one? Blake’s Pride and Honeysweet are both listed on some of the charts above as being very fireblight resistant, but none of the forum members have mentioned growing them in this thread. And I wasn’t sure if the Quince rootstock would have any affect on fire blight resistance?
Cummins also sells Magness on Quince Provence. My understanding is that Magness is highly similar to Warren, which @clarkinks highly recommends, but that it takes forever to bear, so I was hesitant to get the Magness.
Should I get one of these pear trees from Cummins? Or get something else from elsewhere?
FYI: I do have some pollinizers available. In spring 2022, I grafted harrow sweet and harrow delight to a mature callery at my parents’ house in NJ, which both seem to be growing well (but they’re still young, so who knows how they’ll do over time). So I can always grab some scions from those as a pollinizers if I need to. In 2022, I also grafted Shipova, Smokvarka, and Harvest Queen to an aronia in my back yard. Again, it’s early days on those, so I don’t know their long-term prospects yet, but they’re here in my back yard already to pollinate whatever pear tree I choose.
Shibumi, Ayers gave 8 feet of new growth this year, Potomac pushes about 5 feet, and Warren about 4 feet. I have Potomac and Warren on older pear rootstocks but even so they are slower growing by comparison with Ayers.
Thanks for letting me know the other varieties I’m looking to espalier… You went above and beyond!
With nothing else to go by and knowing of course I live in a different climate and every tree is an individual… Mileage may vary, etc etc.
With the length of the growing season here I think I may be able to actually get the second variety grafted my late summer, assuming my scion stays viable.
So Ayers, Potomac, then Warren. We’ll see how that works.
I’m years from fruit so I’ll enjoy learning on the growth rates, pruning, and form.
Potomac out yields Moonglow for me. Moonglow is more susceptible to rots at harvest time. No fire blight on either in the 15 years of growing them. Potomac makes great dried fruit.
I like the idea of different utility pears, otherwise I’m giving away almost all my (future) yield as there’s only so many pears I can eat or cook in a month or three!
I have these three varieties growing in North Georgia. For me, Warren is the most vigorous. I have two of them on their third leaf; they each pushed 8’+ of growth on multiple branches this season.
I just planted Ayers and Potomac earlier this year. For me, Ayers (on calleryana) was far more vigorous than Potomac (on OHxF-87). That could be due to standard vs. semi-dwarf rootstock, but I have Asian pears on OHxF-87 that were also significantly more vigorous than Potomac. My little Potomac put on barely a foot of growth in a full season (of course, this could be an anomaly).
One potential problem to be aware of with using just these three varieties is pollination – your Potomac might be doing the heavy lifting here.
It is sometimes argued that Warren is pollen sterile (like its sister Magness). Empirical evidence in the form of reports from this forum seem to contradict this assertion, but it may be true that Warren’s blossoms are significantly less attractive to bees than the flowers of most pears. Similarly, it has been asserted that Ayers may produce sterile male pollen (see here). Again, this is contradicted by other reports, some even indicating that Ayers is at least partially self-fruitful.
I am not asserting that Ayers and Warren won’t pollinate each other – I have no idea – but you might not be enthusiastic about being the test case for that hypothesis if you are going to do all the work to espalier a tree and wait the years it will take for Warren to come into bearing age.
As for me, I decided to plant a Maxine near my Ayers and Warren to beef up the roster and increase my odds of successful cross-pollination. Another good choice for pollinating Warren would be Karl’s Favorite (aka Ewart) – our resident pear tycoon @clarkinks uses it for pollinating Warren.
Those cracks usually indicate that you had some wet weather at some point and your pears put on lots of growth at once. Like cracking pears it means the weather was variable.
I still have months to decide. Likely I can only start one and perhaps mid summer graft the second if the scion stays viable in the fridge and the growth of the first graft warrants it.
Karl’s Favorite I’m not able to find any zone/chill info or FB resistance.
Maxine seems to be listed only to Zone 8.
I know there are quite a few FB resistant low chill choices, but I’m trying to get the quality fruit, staggered harvest, varied usage combination (fresh eating, canning/cooking, long storage being a wish list between them).
Also I’d like not to get 2 or 3 fruit too similar. Then there’s pollination.
I know I’m trying to order more food from the menu than I can eat, so to speak.
This was my working short list for non-purely Asian pears.
FB resistance a must to even begin. <500 hr chill ideally.
Pollinator compatible or self.
Not too similar fruit.
Staggered harvest between varieties would be nice.
Maybe a fresh eating, a canning, and a long keeper.
Scion availability
Hopefully this is a reasonable thread for this question. Does anyone reading this know where to find Magness / Warren pears in western Canada? All the testimonials for them on this board has me pretty interested to get a couple.
I’m not aware of a western Canada source for those varieties, but Wiffletree Farm in Ontario has Magness; and they will ship to BC. I’ve bought several items from them and have been pleased with their quality and price. The only drawback is shipping date: the earliest seems to be mid-May.
I have a Magness on order from Whiffletree for next spring. I’ve ordered several times from them in the past and I’ve found their bare root trees to be well packaged and with a better root system than most other places. Their trees come in good condition considering the distance to BC (around the end of April in my case). The only real issue is the trees cost when you include shipping. If you are only buying one tree the shipping will cost you more than the tree ($70+). The only way to make that cost effective is if you purchase 4 or 5 trees together. That is what I do, and then the average cost per tree is still less than I can buy a tree for at nurseries where I live. Whiffletree also has a far better selection of fruit trees than you can find at most other places in Canada. Their may be another Ontario source for Magness (forget the name), but they are more expensive than Whiffletree, (and in my case they will not ship to BC).
I feel even though Ontario is a long shipping distance, Whiffle tree is the best option if you can’t find a variety in your home area.
