Thanks so much for another report!! This sounds like a very neat apple-pear I am so glad mine is in the ground, it has actually been probably my most vigorous pear I believe already about 11 ft tall!! The sweet/tart and uniqueness sounds right up my alley for variety! 
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Any time!!! Mine is very vigorous too. Excellent fruit production too- very satisfied with the yield!
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Would love to see more pictures for future identification. This pear has been very hard for me to grow in the traditional ways I use.
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It should be renamed as the Turnbull umbrella pear. Shoots grow so long they fall over. They load up with fruit and some break. It is not possible to get a central leader above ladder height.
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I’ll try to take a picture of mine tomorrow. I too find it hard to grow into a central leader. That’s not necessary for me though- don’t want my trees growing too high.
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More pictures would be interesting…
In the original 1980s Oklahoma news article the couple who found this tree on their farm said it had produced every year in its 2 decades of fruiting to that time, that when late frosts damaged it it would rebloom and set a crop…
And you know Oklahoma is like Kansas, Very prone to spring bloom killing frosts.
Here is that article:
"WHAT STARTED out as the product of seeds in kitchen scraps thrown to the horses might be the beginning of a new-wave fruit that can be successfully grown nationwide.
Ken and Doris Turnbull, Depew, discovered their tree in the early 1960s.
“We didn’t contact anyone until 1967 when it had this big fruit on it,” Mrs. Turnbull said. “People kept coming by and tasting it and saying it was so good we should send it a seed company. Henry Fields first came in 1976 and a second group came in 1978 to get a limb sampling.”
The fruit is now known as the Turnbull pear. As a young fruit, it tastes like a tart apple but as the fruit matures, the taste mellows into a juicy, sweet-tasting pear, Mrs. Turnbull said.
Though the Turnbulls haven’t tried to grow other trees, they have have applied for and received a patent on the pear plant.
Shaped like an apple, the tree’s fruit has the grainy texture and appearance of a pear. She described the tree as having “a very pretty shape wide at the bottom and tapers up.”
In the nearly 20 years they’ve gathered the fruit, there have always been hearty yields, with some pears weighing up to three pounds.
“We had to shake it two or three times this year to keep them from breaking the limbs.”
Mrs. Turnbull said the pear becomes edible in July and the final reaping is done in early October, before the first frost. She said surplus fruit is given to friends and relatives and a daughter’s horses.
“We give it away. I’ve canned what I could, but I can’t use that much. I’ve had calls from people wanting to buy it,” she said.
To produce plants for use by other fruit growers, grafts are taken from the Turnbull tree and put on seedling pears. Within two or three years, the trees are able to produce.
“It would take 10 or 15 years for the fruit to crossbreed otherwise,” she said.
“In T-budding, they take the limb from one tree, cut the limb of a new tree and put the bud inside the cut. I think all nursery fruit is produced that way.”
Since she’s been canning from their special pear tree, Mrs. Turnball said she seldom, if ever, cans from her usual canning source, the Bartlett pear.
“We really like it better than any other fruit we’ve canned. They’re kind of large, and you sometimes have to cut them up to fit them in the jars. But they’re smooth and more like the pears you buy. They’re not gritty like homemade.”
The pears also can endure most diseases and weather damage.
“Fire blight, which causes fruit to shrivel, effected nearby apple trees, but not that tree,” she said. “Frost may have killed early buds but the tree always blooms again. The tree has not missed a season yet.”
The couple maintains only a home orchard and have no plans to make a lot of money on their discovery.
“We don’t have that much interest in it,” she said. “We would have to sell a lot of trees before we could make any money.”
The Turnbull’s main interest is in preserving what may be a good thing for most of the country, especially for those areas that have difficulty growing trees.
“We’d like to see the tree go on. If it’s such a good fruit, we don’t want it to end.”
The couple hopes to “groom” the tree so that it can be grown in the North where it’s usually too cold for the tree.
The Turnbulls, who have maintained their 160-acre farm for 24 years, said they’ve received calls from Oregon and New Jersey expressing interest in the tree, which is available through the Henry Fields Seed and Nursery Company.
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Here’s my turnbull. All downward branches will be removed during the winter. Some fruit is softball sized. I have had a few and I prefer them crunchy as opposed to slightly softer.
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Nice!! 
You shared the same photo 6 times. I am guessing that was an accident.
Yes, was having trouble with the site when uploading the photo
I didn’t get the photo at all. Not a 1.
The photos from the website above are interesting. This year I will graft it to ohxf rootstock. The grafts did not take on the callery I grafted to.
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Pretty excited about this one on ohf97 from 39th Parallel .
I also anticipate great results with Charles Harris:) These hybrids, and others are a break from the typical flavors in nashi and bartlett centered fruit. Can’t wait for seuri to bear fruit.
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I know this doesn’t mean that it will work with all Calleryana, but i grafted turnbull to two 1/4" callery last spring.both took and grew 2-4’.
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Looking forward to Turnbull. The trees I received in the fall were grown on ohf97 and were of a greater caliper than the warren and karls favorite I received. Im guessing this is a vigorous hybrid. My spacing on these are 15’. I imagine turnbull being great for animal feed if need be. My brewer friend has volunteered for tasting, as he wants a juicy pear with acid profile. He likes a barely ripened shenandoah so far. Besides perry pears are there any others that are acidic when ripe or barely ripe? Charles Harris also comes to mind.
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I picked mine a little early. I cant confirm these are turnbull yet. Normally we grow a couple of other trees from different sources.
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The first, second, and fourth photos look like turnbull! Hard to tell with the third.
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@clarkinks can i enlist your experience to help with a decision? I have a Magness and Warren pear in one location and need a third variety for pollination of magness. I am looking for the most FB resistance I can get, as well as something good to eat fresh. Considering determining ripeness, flowering times, frost susceptibilities, disease, growth structure, vigor, and the hundred other factors - I can’t make any decision on what to add.
I would like to choose between Turnbull, Lazy J, Seckel, or Ayers - unless you have a better selection for me. At the end of the day, I don’t spray my trees and simply want something that can at least survive and make food to eat. That is more valuable than anything else. Thanks!
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One word: Ambrosia
I had serious fireblight on Ayers this year. It took out the top half of the tree.
Seckel has variable fire blight resistance, in some regions, it can have serious problems.
Turnbull is a seedling of Kieffer and as such does not have the eating quality of other pears. It would be a decent choice, but you can do better.
I don’t yet know enough about Lazy J to say yay or nay. I have it growing but it is still a small tree.
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