Many times we find out many years down the road we are wrong about certain pears. This year, Magness is absolutely covered in fruit. I have always thought of magness as similar but slightly less stingy with its fruit than its sibling warren. It is odd that after 10 years, the fruiting habits suddenly change. @scottfsmith went through this with grand champion, but it was fruitless instead of stingy. What have you recently found out about pears? We all are learning new things every day!
The Asian pears I planted last year refused to grow laterals despite Summer pruning. They’re happily doing it on their own now. Kept them to the height I wanted them at least.
1 Like
This spring my very stingy Urbaniste is absolutely loaded with blooms. This will be the first year with a large fruit set on it. My Magness is also going to set a good crop, not over the top like Urbaniste but close to a full crop. My Josephine des Malines also set better than ever… 20 years and finally more than a couple pears.
My Grand Champion has exactly one cluster this year. Ah well, some pears never seem to learn.
1 Like
This is going to be my 3rd year growing pears. They still have yet to even attempt to flower so they seem to be slow to flower either way. Something I have noticed is my pears on OHxF 87 grow way faster than my standard pears. My standard pears have grown very little if any in size but my OHxF 87 pears are reaching to the sky even inside a pot. I am around 6 foot and cannot reach the top.
2 Likes
Remember the video in this topic Napoleon’s army planted pear trees fact or fiction? and the comment on the poor quality of the fruit on those ancient pears?
I’ve recently learnt that if you plan to get a graft from a good quality old pear tree somewhere, don’t wait until you pass it by in the right time some years ahead. The tree may actually (I guess) revert to rootstock top to bottom/left to right. They hardly have a system… It has happened to this perhaps 120-150 y.old pear on our property.
20 years ago the whole tree bore loads of mid to large sized pears of a local winter variety that ripens in storage since Xmas, stores until april and has excellent taste and thick skin.
Slowly the bottom branches 1m above graft started showing rounder and less hairy leaves and fruit the size and shape of a squised golf-ball. (Very sweet but bletting on the tree, still good for distilling, though.) Then some old branches broke off higher in the tree and the changes appeared there as well. More one spring when a number of larger trees (cherries, walnuts, mullberries, apricots etc) in the area leafed out late on the southern side - perhaps damage from winter sun. Last year there was one branch left of the grafted variety atvabout mid height.
Fortunately, we have one other tree of the same kind.
I’ve seen this happen with ancient pears in the area, some reverted completely, som are part way through. It seems as if the tissue DNA travelled up to the top branches (not new, but still growing).
I’ve tried to find out how it works, but I must be asking the wrong questions, so if someone knows or has links to some papers, please let me know.
3 Likes
Had one on my property over a hundred years old we think that wasnt good. When i planted pears nearby it improbed drastically. Aging pears are complicated.
3 Likes
I have grafted its seedling (left) with a Conference as a gentle hint/warning, but it’s just doing its thing. I guess it is too old for living its life according to human whims… 
It is staying on its own terms.
I have grafted 2 low branches with another variety this spring to see what happens in a few years.
3 Likes