Korean Giant does great here, strong reputation as the most blight resistant Asian pear.
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One more point about tempsā¦its the warm wet weather that bad, not cool weather. Population growth rates of the bacteria increase with warmer temps. I always have trouble with FB on late-to-open flowers on my apples. Less trouble on early pears. I had a few strikes on a Korean Giant graft last year. I cut it way back and it seems fine this year and even set a couple of fruits. I would not take that as a data point suggesting its tolerant or susceptible. FB is too random for that. But just passing along my experience.
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I think that cold damage can cause fireblight, while damaging the flowers, and of course heat makes the fireblight bacteria all the stronger.
They are not doing their testing in your orchard. So much of what you say about pears is through the relatively narrow prism of your own environment just as research experts tend to overlook the fact that varieties and species are affected by many issues that vary from soil to soil, site to site, the scale of an orchard, and region to region, but the overall literature eventually responds to outcomes at regions where fruit tends to be commercially grown in large scale- that is the main focus of research funding- to inform the main industry, for which you are not on the radar. Grocery stores in most of the country donāt have pears from KS and I doubt your landgrant university is engaged in much research on their production.
Members of this forum need to know that Iām only expert in growing fruit in home orchards in S. NY and nearby CT just as your expertise is limited to your own weather and soil in KS. Some of our knowledge applies to a wide range of environments and some of it doesnāt.
We can mislead people with what the issues are going to be when they begin the long process of understanding fruit growing in their own yards if we project the idea that our own experiences are universal. As Iāve often stated, in my area, pear psyla has presented much more of a management problem than fire blight, and yet, at some sites psyla hasnāt appeared after decades of managing pears there. However, once psyla shows up, it seems to be there to stay. Fireblight strikes tend to be very random here, with strikes showing up for one or two years at a site or two and than disappearing in subsequent years. Mostly the strikes never travel deep enough into trees to kill them and the only thing I need to do is remove stricken wood. .
Varieties that are fire blight resistant in some regions are not going to be in others.
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Because psyla is so much more a problem here than FB, psyla resistance is very important and yet I can find little in the literature on the subject of relative resistance, although I experience a range of resistance in varieties I grow.
Harrow Sweet, Harrow Delight, Bartlett, Dutchess, Sheldon, Magness, and Aurora come to mind as the most resistant in my nursery, orchard and orchards I manage. Bosc is the most susceptible.
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Phil,
Fire blight needs warm temps and moisture to flourish. As mentioned, flowers are the most sensitive to infection and the bacteria can be spread by bees as well as wind and rain. But, speaking from experience, FB can enter anywhere on the tree. I have had non-blooming trees infected and often have had sensitive varieties develop a trunk canker without realizing anything was wrong. Many, many, many years ago, T.O. Warren (Warren pear fame) and James Anding (small nursery operator in McComb, MS) were visiting my north MS orchard. I was just 15 years into fruit growing and still had much to learn! They looked at a 3-year-old Blight Resistant Bartlett Pear tree I had purchased from Bountiful Ridge Nursery and pointed out a large canker low on the trunk. It had never bloomed and died the next year.
Another example from my north CA experience. I had a beautiful 12 year old Urbaneste tree and because it took forever to bloom the first time, I grafted about 10 different varieties from the Corvallis collection onto it. Two years later was a bad fire blight year. Several varieties blighted without blooming. Those were cut out easily. Then I noticed an ooze low on the tree. There was no canker there. Here are photos with notes that I sent to the local CRFG group. I had to remove the tree. It was 7 or 8 inches in diameter.
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Damn. Sad to see a whole tree go.
Itās certainly a risk for me as I currently only have 2 Asian pear trees, regardless of the grafted varieties.
Iāve grafted my own European pears on OHxF87 this spring (Warren, Ayers, Maxine, Gem) so Iāll have a few years before first flowers and possible increased exposure to FB.
Lastly, just received a bare root Hood. For now it will be itās own tree.
If it were easy, everyone would be growing whatever they wanted.
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Thatās a good list of fb resistant cultivars. Hopefully they will all do well for you. Remember, fb resistance does not mean immunity! You might have strikes but should be able to manage them. Even Warren blights in your area. How far are you from Sibley?
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Was that a reply to me? If so, the Asian pear list or European list?
Iāll answer as though it was directed at my posts.
Yeah, Iām aware itās a level of tolerance as opposed to immunity.
I donāt know who Sibley is so perhaps it wasnāt for me.
BTW, I live just north of Lake Pontchartrain north of New Orleans.
Yes, Phil the reply was to you. And, it was the European pear list I was referring to. Sibly, LA is a small town where one of my fruit-growing friends lived. The reason I was asking is because he had a small Warren pear planting - 7 or 8 trees if I remember correctly. They had blight. Another friend in Ocean Springs, MS had one tree that had blight. Southern MS and LA can be problems. Are you in the Slidell area? Another fruit-growing acquaintance in Slidell had a huge Magness tree with a smaller Moonglow as a pollinator. He never complained of blight. I grew up in McComb, MS and passed through your area after the bridge was completed going to and from New Orleans.
I just looked up Sibley. It is east of Shreveport so a lot further north.
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Gotcha.
Iām about 18 miles west of Slidell.
Iām happy with the risk of trying a subset of lower chill and potentially FB resistant varieties. I have limited space so Iāll do multi variety trees to test and, as far as those 4 European pears go, espalier. Canāt easily fit them otherwise!
Good timing. Walked around the yard after work today and saw some black on my 3-on-1 Asian pear.
Itās the Shinseiki (20th Century and Hosui are the other two).
I only removed what I saw. Letās see if it is FB. Iāll be checking that branch closely every day in case I need to more severely prune before it gets bad.
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classic fireblight appearance.
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Thanks for this list of Fireblight resistant pears.
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Since your looking at Texas type of resistance please take a look at this Texas pears - resistance to fireblight
I would go with these types below personally
Ayers
Warren
Orient
Garber
Maxine
Pineapple
Leona
Ts hardy
@mayhaw9999 on this thread many discuss hood like it is fireblight proof which is not the case it is fireblight resistant Hood Pear
Can you bounce my list off Dr. Natelson since he is a friend of yours. Texas is a complexed environment. I point this out because of ayers. Tenn is ayers sibling. They both can have an off flavor in climates they dont care for. Tenn is much more pronounced. I know ayers is a favorite in Texas but if something is better there i dont know about it. I recommend avoiding Tenn unless your like me and you enjoy growing it and it does well for you Tenn pear
These are fireblight resistant and that is not what i recommend in Texas
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You are so kind to take the time to respond! Thank you. I am currently growing some on the list, including ayers. Its a new orchard so none have fruited yet. I am looking to add to the orchard. Only have 48 fruit & nut trees planted in ground & a similar amount growing in pots to mature. This will be for us to focus on in our
retirement. Im not a native Texan so growing here is tricky. We were so spoiled with great loamy soil near the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania when we were young!
Weve finally had rain much of this week, so a good time to develop the next fruit tree order! Have a great weekend.
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Thank you @QuirkyKimbo please keep us posted on your orchard it sounds like your off to a great start!
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Would need a pic of the leaf undersides, but from the top looks like powdery mildew. You may also have pear psylla.
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Is anyone growing New World Pear? Bartlett x Korean Giant Hybrid? I found an old Englandās flyer where he listed it as Blight resistant. I took note of that because he doesnāt grow many pears and the Turnbull I got from him is my new favorite. Itās like crunchy lemonade.
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