I got scions of Shroyer’s Sunset in March 2019, the year Pete Scott started the followup group, thanks to one of my friends coming to your scion exchange in Camby and snagging a stick for me. I wrote Pete that I had the scion and he added me to the group. Joseph Postman sent me additional scoins later that spring. So I have a tree on OHxF87 and a graft topworked on a mature tree. the latter is blooming now. I’m looking forward to tasting it if it sets any fruit this year.
1 Like
Clark,
What is your experience with Rouge Red? My two grafts of it topworked on other trees have grown extremely vigorously but have never bloomed. Another good pear grower in the area has has a similar experience on a single variety tree.
1 Like
Have some rogue red blooming this year I grafted in 2019. They are very fast growing which concerns me regarding fireblight. I have some on BET and some on callery.
I have a graft labeled Elliot pear fruited this year. Fruit are small so I thin most out and left 3. They are still small. Not sure when to pick them. Not sure they are true to label, either.
@clarkinks - do you grow Elliot pear?
1 Like
I planted a tree in Jan that is grafted on OHxF87. It has grown slowly this summer. - probably not enough irrigation. I also top-worked a tree to it and several other varieties in March or April. It is the slowest grower of the 5 varieties. We’ll see.
1 Like
I do not grow Elliot
My first couple Asian pears proved a success, so I’ll graft more next year.
2 Likes
How did they turn out?
Have not picked them yet. Not sure when.
1 Like
Amire Joannet is growing quickly. This makes me happy since it will greatly speed up my first pear harvest. Amire Joannet is one of the earliest.
1 Like
Did you get to taste Shroyer Sunset?
1 Like
No. Bird got it! I I just had two fruit on my small graft. Hope more next year. I also have a tree planted but it may take another year or two before it fruits.
2 Likes
Clark, Are you going to start a thread for pears top grow 2022?
2 Likes
I’ve not made an order up yet for ars grin or done much planning yet. It sounds like a great idea. Today when I looked we still have berries on the autumn berry and 1 pear left on a Duchess d’ angoulme tree. It has been cold here lately.
Yesterday, while picking a coulpe of my late apples, I found the last remaining pear on Col. Wilder. If the rain stops today, I’ll take a photo. This is my first year to have fruit on this variety and it seems to be a good addition to the very late Winter pears.
Duchess d’ Angouleme ripens early for me here. I have a good gardening buddy that loves those pears and always helps me pick the huge tree they are grafted onto. We picked on September 19 this year and the remaining pears had all fallen by early Oct.
I’m ordering a few varieties from Corvallis (via GRIN, of course) for our CRFG chapter and two for myself. Have you grown Patrick Barry? It was raised by B.S. Fox, San Jose, California in 1873. Named in honor of Patrick Barry, noted American nurseryman and pomologist. He also released Col. Wilder. P. Barry is also a very late ripening pear - I’m still looking for pears that will hang on the tree into Dec. so I won’t have to store them in a refrigerator.
From Pears of NY
P. BARRY
The fruits of P. Barry are among the latest of all the pears grown on the grounds of the New York Agricultural Experiment Station. They do not ripen here until mid-winter and then keep until spring. A serious defect is that they sometimes refuse to ripen but shrivel until decay sets in late in the spring. To make certain that the pears ripen properly, the fruit-room must not be too cold. The pears are excellent in flavor, have good flesh-characters, and when properly ripened are excelled in quality by no other winter pear. The variety should have a place in the collection of every pear fancier to extend the season for this fruit, and commercial pear growers might find it a profitable sort for local market. Unfortunately, the trees are small, fastidious as to environment, and somewhat uncertain in bearing.
Bernard S. Fox, San Jose, California, raised many pears from seed of Belle Lucrative. Among these seedlings was one which fruited in 1873 and was named P. Barry, in honor of Patrick Barry,[31] an eminent nursery[204]man and horticulturist of Rochester, New York. Of many scores of seedlings raised by Mr. Fox only this one, Fox, and Colonel Wilder were considered by the originator to be worthy of propagation. All these received Wilder medals from the American Pomological Society in 1875 and 1881. In 1909, this Society added P. Barry to its catalog-list of fruits.
3 Likes
Do not grow P. Barry but sounds really interesting. There are a bunch out here now but like you the pears that are a little earlier or later pears are very welcome.
I’m planting more pears again, it has been awhile. I made a mistake of putting my main planting in a not too sunny spot 20 years ago so never got much fruit; not making that mistake again. I am also doing full-sized trees. Currently I am planning on Seckel, Urbaniste, and Dana Hovey. I have all of these three on smaller trees and know they are great. Magness I would also plant but it takes forever to fruit so I will just live with my smaller tree. Aurora is another one that has done really well, but it is a bit too early and can go to mush in all the heat we have. I want later pears for that reason.
What spacing do people use for pears? I have done lots of very close spacing but am wanting to do something more spread-out now, as I am wanting bigger trees with more crop ripening at once and above the deer. My plan currently is 15’.
4 Likes
Scott, as a variety collector with only an acre to work with, I have been doing a lot of 4 in a hole planting for the past 20 years. I don’t want a huge number of fruit from the many varieties I wish to try so that has worked very well for me. Pears on OHxF 87 or 333 seem happy enough. I still have to summer prune them to keep the size in check. But, I do have some larger trees - Warren, Magness, Comice, Bosc, Orcas, Shinko to name a few. My original layout was to plant espaliered dwarf apples every 8 feet between fence posts and a pear on every other post. That worked well until I ran out of fence!
4 Likes
I was doing something similar on my 1/2 acre for many years, I started with 50 pears in 50’ of row; that was too close though and I had to remove half of them. That row I also put in too little sun and only the Asian pears fruited much. Maybe ten years ago I put in a row in more sun with 3’ spacing on quince rootstocks, that worked very well. But I am moving on from collecting and also need taller trees to limit my animal damage.
3 Likes
Mightn’t multi-grafts of several varieties per tree be better than 4 in hole?
2 Likes