What type of Pear is This?

OK, Everybody, I know this is a ridiculous question given that every pear variety has a look alike. But a FB friend in the mountains of Tennessee sent me this picture of pears on her mystery pear tree asking if they were Southern Bartlett pears. My answer is that while I’ve seen pictures of round and long pear shaped S. Bartletts, to may knowledge they all at least have a rounded bottom rather than a tapered one like these pears. What are some of the varieties that look like this picture? I can’t think of any that’s common to the deep South that look quite like that. But some of the more northern varieties might do OK up in the mountains where my friend is at. God bless.

Marcus

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/16265924_10154457835426633_905927602461278069_n.jpg?oh=4e379ab013ca7aadf5c103a480019c54&oe=591255EA

1 Like

Looks similar to Magness, though I wouldnt swear on it.

see this thread on this site

This topic hasn’t been touched in a while and I’m showing you all this pear. For the US it is very unusual. Its skin is like silk, very fragile and soft. Definitely not ripe in these parts til late summer or mid-summer. I do not know where it is from. It is bright yellow with a hint of green. The taste is sweet, soooo juicy and floral. It almost tastes like pear-jasmine. Truly delicious. Cannot wait to find out the name. Any help? We know it grows here or Israel?

4 Likes

Hello Mrs.G
I am not a expert at all but to me this pear looks like Dr. Jules Guyot, a french variety. I have to admit, this is a very uneducated guess, I’ve only seen/eaten this pear once, in summer 2019 but the form of your pear reminds me very much of it. A quick Google search reveals some pictures where the form fits very well and others don’t.
This one fits in the form:

This one not really:

The Austrian source talks about ripening with Clapps and Precoce de Trevoux, does this fit?

1 Like

Yes, it looks very similar. The skin is so thin, it bruises easily and would be hard to ship. Can’t imagine who growing it now. I’ll go back to the small grocer and see if I can get a name. The pear is yellow.

2 Likes

Hmm interesting…I read that Guyot is firm at harvest but ripens fast and then gets very sensitive and bruises easily.
That could explain why I remember this pear as mostly green. They were harvested slightly underripe to be sold in the grocery store.

Nearly all soft European pears have to be harvested green and ripened indoors. To be honest, I’ve given up on identifying a pear based off of a photo. There is just too much overlap between varieties, and of course things like ripening time is very much conditioned on climate.

4 Likes

Of course you are right and to be honest I wouldn’t bet money on my guess😉 but it’s fun to guess and one can learn about varieties one didn’t know and look at photos of pretty fruit.

2 Likes

Some are obvious like ayers but unless the leaves, fruit , etc is distinguishable it can be very difficult to be able to know which pear it is.

1 Like

It looks like some Comice I have seen.

2 Likes

Hi There,
I was wondering if anyone could tell me what kind of pear this is I would like to know if they are edible, can you make pear preserves with them ? How can I tell when they are mature enough to be picked ? This tree is located in my backyard in the South ( Savannah, Georgia ). I hate to see them go to waste, but I do not know anything about them, other than my neighbor calls them " Old fashioned pears ". I have googled that, but when I look at the pictures, a lot of the different named pears all look the same to me. Any help or information would be much appreciated. Thanks !!!

IMG_5704

Hi, I’m just up the road in Statesboro Georgia and grow lots of pears. It won’t be possible to identify them with any real certainty. But we can narrow it down to a “type” once we have ripe fruit. Generally when people say “old fashion type” they mean one of the Sand Pear X European pear hybrids that have firm flesh at maturity. The most famous and probably the most common variety of that bunch is the Keefer variety. Orient would be the second most common and second best well known of this group, but there are many more. I can tell you that the pears don’t look like the orient pears on my tree at the same stage of development. They could be Keefer, but I don’t have a Keefer tree and haven’t seen the fruit such an inmature stage.

Generally around here pears ripen sometime between early July and October depending on the variety. It’s time to pick most varieties when they start to change color, and the pear snaps off easily when you lift them to a 45 degree angle from how they are hanging. Caution, super young pears also snap off when you lift them. But the stems of the ones that aren’t quite ready are more rubbery for some reason. That’s handy!

The best time to preserve and pickle pears is right when you pick them while they are still good and firm. A lot of people think they have firm varieties when they actually have varieties that do soften up inside after being picked. Most soft varieties only become soft ripe inside, and some actually have to be stored in refrigeration for a while before they will do it.

If you remember the approximate dates of when your tree bloomed, I can compare it to my 15 varieties and at least begin the process of narrowing the possibilities down. That’s the advantage of having a neighbor who grows pears. Our bloom times should be close enough for us to compare varieties easily, although your trees would likely be ahead of mine by a few days.

1 Like