I’ve not ordered yet this year. Anyone finding new and rare or old and forgotten but delicious pears on the site this year? Looking to graft over a larger than normal group of pears this year. Will not be adding new apples. Unfortunately what I ordered last year I need to reorder due to the severe drought this year.
The only pear I requested for 2019 was Okolo. I’m mainly wanting to add it in hopes of bettering pollination for my Ure, Early Gold, and Golden Spice trees.
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I was out at the NCGR-CORV a couple weeks ago for the late pear/non-pear pick and I ended up with a collection of random pears that I was not seeking but simply acquiring because they were still on the trees. I think I wrote the names or enough of a scribble to figure out the name on each type of pear I got. Maybe I’ll find something special. In most cases I took a bite so I wouldn’t be lugging around a sack half full of no-goes. These will all be late pears, at least for around here. I should have started ‘testing’ them right away; I think some were ready; but I’ll start eating them tomorrow. More later.
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Pears are the best kept secret in fruit growing and fine dining! There’s a huge need for good food and non destructive agriculture. In terms of resources and kindness to the land what could be better? We had 100% failure not just of grafts in 2018 but also many small trees. We have to hope 2019 is better. This year was expensive not just in terms of trees lost but also future fruit. My BET and callery rootstocks mostly survived the drought. I ordered today the scion wood to replace the losses. I’m not discouraged but rather more convinced than ever callery and BET rootstocks must be used in my area. Dwarfs are not better because in drought prone areas the roots are what keeps trees alive. Ironically I did not lose any ohxf333 either which is good but what will I do about the deer later? In my area where pear orchards are not grown research is desperately needed to determine what works.
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I placed an order with ARS GRIN a few days ago, does anyone with experience know about when I’ll find out if they are going to send me anything, or decline?
And how does one go about ordering from the Arboretum’s website? I couldn’t find any links on the main page for requesting plants?
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Clark did you have any unestablished OHxF 87 among those that perished?
Dax
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Yes seedling rootstock are the hardiest it seems but I found a spot recently where they had problems also. BET rootstocks had an incredibly good year!
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Hi Clark. Where did you get your betulaefolia rootstock? I’m trying to buy a smaller quantity (10-20). Everywhere I’ve found sells by bundles of at least 50-100.
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I bought large quantities from Lawyers but now they are out of business . You might check with @39thparallel orchard and see if they have smaller quantities. Wiliamette is great for 100+
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I think I still have some seeds I could send you.
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Do you mean Arboretum? Fruit Trees – The Arboreum Company has the links to order if thats what you meant.
I haven’t ordered from ARS in awhile but last time I did every repository has a different approach to what they tell you about your order. Sometimes I got a confirmation, sometimes nothing until the items showed up at my door.
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Birch leaf pear is BET in case someone doesn’t know that.
“ Birchleaf Pear
(Pyrus betulifolia)
The Birchleaf Pear is a wild pear tree that is native to the leafy forests of Northern and central China. The fruit matures in August.
Soil Type: Adaptable to many different soils; tolerates dryness, pollution, full sun.
Zones: 5 to 8
Germination Range: 40-60%
www.treeseeds.com
“
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Thanks Scott! I was definitely looking on the wrong page…its hard being new, sometimes. 
and for the info on GRIN. I will be patient and hope for a surprise I guess!
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Just as a heads up, if your order from the USDA, make sure you specify that you plan on grafting the scions to rootstock. This will save them the effort of sending a follow-up email to you (like I received) confirming you will be grafting the scions…I’m assuming they are double checking that you actually know what form of tree you ordered (scion wood).
As an aside, there’s little information about growing apples and pears where I live beyond the very common cultivars that are available at nursuries. Apples and pears do well here in a general sense. However, particular cultivars may experience their own respective successes and challenges. I’m planning on sharing my results with both GF and the USDA. Growing season and local climate will be the main variables affecting growth, disease and harvest parameters.
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Apple scion from Dawn at Geneva arrived today. Thought it would be pear wood from Corvallis for some reason. These programs are terrific! We are very fortunate to still have these programs!
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There was a lot this year going against getting this scion wood but here it is! It was delivered at 2pm yesterday and took a lot of frantic searching to find it. It was blending in so good i walked past it once and went back searching again. I received a delivery notification yesterday but by the time I saw the email it was dark. Searching in the dark last night did not help.
Beautiful scion wood! Definitely worth donating money to the program! They were out of a few varieties.
1 PI 617504 - COR - Pyrus communis reamer red =out
2 PI 641291 - COR - Pyrus communis burford
3 PI 654919 - COR - Pyrus pyrifolia singo =out
4 PI 541443 - COR - Pyrus communis amire joannet
5 PI 312505 - COR - Pyrus communis phileson
6 PI 641280 - COR - Pyrus spp. ledbetter
7 PI 617647 - COR - Pyrus pyrifolia Vietnamese Asian pear
8 PI 189695 - COR - Pyrus communis ulitchka
9 PI 542007 - COR - Pyrus ussuriensis Tzu ma li
10 PI 255616 - COR - Pyrus communis -napoleon
11 PI 200378 - COR - Pyrus communis Josephine de malines
12 PI 541207 - COR - Pyrus communis highland
13 PI 541201 - COR - Pyrus communis shroyers sunset
14 PI 541710 - COR - Pyrus hybr. eureka
15 PI 541252 - COR - Pyrus communis rogue red
16 PI 541535 - COR - Pyrus communis-doyenne du comice -crimson =out
17 PI 541998 - COR - Pyrus ussuriensis pai li
18 PI 617584 - COR - Pyrus communis joeys red flesh
19 PI 352634 - COR - Pyrus pyrifolia kosui
20 PI 224089 - COR - Pyrus pyrifolia -yakumo=out
21 PI 541711 - COR - Pyrus hybr. garber
22 PI 541534 - COR - Pyrus communis doyenne du comice regal red
23 PI 541347 - COR - Pyrus communis moe
24 PI 541300 - COR - Pyrus communis spadona di salerno
25 PI 541269 - COR - Pyrus communis sucra verte
26 PI 541259 - COR - Pyrus communis saint andre
27 PI 541170 - COR - Pyrus communis dawn
28 PI 541168 - COR - Pyrus communis conference
29 PI 541158 - COR - Pyrus communis canal
30 PI 131232 - COR - Pyrus communis -pound
Last year we had a failure of everything! My order was very large this year due to replacements and even then you never replace what you would have had from a year that dry. It takes a lot of resources to get these things done and unfortunately it does not always work out. In most cases hard work pays off though in my experience. Love the pyrus catalog (looking at Polyploid Genotypes now!) NCGR-Corvallis: Pyrus Catalog
low chill types are also interesting NCGR-Corvallis: Pyrus Catalog
This is my favorite catalog which is all pears https://www.ars-grin.gov/cor/catalogs/pyrcult.html
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Grafting all these new pears is pretty exciting for me always. Cannot wait to see them in a few years. Researching pears for orchard trees in my area would have been unthinkable a few year ago. The weather can be challenging at times making orchards in general marginally successful. Like looking at a watch that controls time my orchard has unravelled many of the secrets of pears. Pears are under-appreciated for now but my dream is to change that.
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My life sure has changed since I planted my first fig trees and my first pomegranates, in 2011.
Me I like growing things that are either expensive, hard to get, not tasty from the stores. Pears are a great example of all those things in a way. I bought a ‘Korean Giant’ fruit from a grocery store somewhat recently, even though it was bland, hard and had almost no juice, It still tasted a very weak flavor of Chojuro, I once had a Chojuro pear that I bought from a grocery store, that is what got me hooked to Asian pears, so much so that I buy them from stores, even though they are expensive, even though I know that I have only bought one Asian pear that was decent so far, that one Chojuro pear. I have had more luck with store bough European pears, yet still very hard to find decent ones of those as well.
Pears are one of my very favorite fruits. It’s not just the ARS GRIN programs either, it’s places online like this forum, other forums, past and present. It’s the internet in general as well. It’s the kindness of people. In some ways I hate the internet, yet without it plant cuttings (scions), seeds, air layerings, and even plants would be much harder to find, to learn about, to get.
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Chojuro is very uniquely flavored with a taste i consider strong and similar to butterscotch. Like Bosc it pronounces its flavor from its first bite. The yellow unknown pear i grow is like that most years. Few people have tasted that pronounced flavor you speak of chasing , but once youve had it everything changes including perspective. Drippin honey & Korean Giant’ can be very good but not at all in the same way. Wait until you try a pear like harrow sweet that teases your taste buds with a nearly the best flavor. Its very good but lacks what would make it the very best. Seckle is very addictice due to its sweet flavor but people who love it unlike you pursue a different flavor. I can eat and appreciate the flavor of kieffer and turn around and eat comice and love it and recognize its delicious flavor .
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Yes, a very strong flavor of butterscotch, it’s like it just smacks you with goodness, instantly. I doubt that the one I had was as good as it gets, yet still it really impressed me.
There are some European pears that I love, store bought that were actually very good. If they are very juicy, and very ripe like, then I usually love and crave them too. yet the European ones I find harder to describe the flavors. There are at least three types I desire a lot and I have good ones so far and few between, that I don’t know which ones I desire. I am sure I’d like a lot of different types.
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