Has anyone had any fruit from this one?
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One of my scion friends sent me cuttings that have taken:) Thinking about letting them grow another year before grafting more. Pai li grafts grew tons and even branched. Im excited that its early and will ripen with Drippin honey by labor day. Get your boxes of pears!
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@noogy pai li is a very heavy bearer here. I enjoy it. It is onee of the first to ripen here weeks before drippin honey. They are inferior to DH but still have a nice taste. They are the most popular pear in north China.
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I have this one grafted ,not sure if it has fruited yet , forgot to check it . I have so many good pears to choose from, I really donāt miss one.
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I grafted āPai Liā last year, then I started to wonder if I had made a mistake, since it blooms even earlier than anything else I grow right now, and as you know āHoneysweetā is not as early a bloomer, and itās too early a bloomer for here, the frost almost always hits the blooms. How could it possibly fruit heavily in your area with the frost?
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If a pear blooms very very early here that may be its salvation. As long as it sets pears its fine. The mid season bloomers are more likely to get caught. In addition it depends on the pear. Kieffer can take cold really well on the blooms.
Interesting āPai Liā, and the other āflowering group number 2 (Pollination group B)ā varieties, I wonder if those will do better here for me than the mid season ones do, like they do for you. āDoitsuā should crop at the same time, and as you know, I am planning to get that one.
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Should someone start a new topic on Fragrant Pears? or should we keep lumping them into āAsian Pearsā
https://china.notspecial.org/archives/2006/11/fragrant_pears.html
There are several topics in this forum over several fragrant pearsā¦
https://growingfruit.org/search?q=fragrant%20pears
The US Govt classifies them as fragrant pearsā¦ but must be from the Korla regionā¦ deeper reading also notes that in China they are mostly referred to as Korla pears.
Personally i would like the truth on many of these fruits and call them Chinese Pears. As many of these āAsianā pears are actually Chinese.
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I have Yulu Fragrant pear. It is one of my favorites, very crisp and with an aromatic taste somewhere between an Asian and a euro pear. It is a cross of the Snowflake pear and and a Korla Fragrant pear. The critters agree, they stole them all this year and I didnāt get any.
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It will take me some time to do more detective workā¦ but from what i am gathering it may be possible that Tsu Li could also be a āFragrant Pearā ?
I found this bit of info-
Xinjiang Fragrant Pears are mainly produced in Kolar, there are more than 60 varieties of fragrant pears, of which Dangshan Pear (intro-duced from Dangshan. Anhui Province) and Qipan Pear (Yecheng County) have the better quality. However, Korla fragrant pears, reputed as Chinas honey pears" and āprince of fruits,ā are famous since the ancient times. The fragrant pears, soft, tasy, and refreshing, have a honey aroma, a thin skin, tender flesh and beautiful color. They are not only loved by people in Xinjiang but also by people both in other provinces and abroad.
A bit more reading leads to Dangshan pear called Suliā¦ Su Li aka. Tse Li aka Tsu Li?
A bit more says that the Dangshan pear is crisp, sweet etc.
From this review it sort of fits the profile as well.
Tsu Li from the cultivar guide can be stored for 6 months and is recommended to be stored for a long period.
Some of the info says that you must grow Ya Li to pollinize it but it doesnt appear so.
Like the note says there is probably over 60 varieties of Fragrant pearsā¦ so interesting that some Chinese pears that we are able to obtain may also be Fragrant pears. Or maybe not.
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That sounds like a great idea.
Thank you, that sounds wonderful!
In Kansas the early group might get froze andd not the late group or vice verssa. The mid bloomers nearly always get hit somewhat.
Has it been disease resistant so far?
Scotts description makes it tempting!
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Tsu Li is from Shandong province so it doesnāt sound like this Dangshan pear. The original Korla pears from Xinjiang province have been crossed with other pears over the years though, and Tsu Li could be such a cross from a very long time ago. Yulu is a fairly recent cross with a Korla pear.
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A lot of my taste is smell.
Tsu Li is ānativeā to Shandong province from what i read and has been cultivated for over a thousand years.
I guess its possible that it never made it to the Dangshan province in all that time but it for sure made it to Japan a long time ago.
I just remembered the talk about the āfloral notesā and smells of pineapple etcā¦ im not sure how that wouldnt make it a āFragrant pearāā¦
I have not seen Tsu Li called a āFragrantā pearā¦ which is why i brought it up.
As for calling them Chinese Pearsā¦ as far as I can tell you coined that termā¦which i think is more fitting.
As far as i can tell the criteria for a Chinese pear to be a āFragrant Pearā is the crossing with the Euro pear which gives ethyl decadienoate from the Euro pear and hence aroma.
Not sure how Tsu Li doesnt fit this criteria.
Pyrus pyrifolia x āTsu Liā
The fruit from this venerable Chinese variety can be large, with an elongated neck like a European pear. The flavor is gently sweet and aromatic.
Speaking of Largeā¦ perhaps Tony bought Tsu Li at his local store? If so why were they called Fragrant pears?
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Tsu Li or Tse Li used to be the most popular pear in China. Itās crunchy juice but not overly sweet and can be kept a long time in winter. Generally itās called Laiyang Li, officially Laiyang Chi (or Ci) Li. Chi = Tse or Tsu
Dangshan Su Li is quite different from Tsu Li, itās bigger and sweeter. Su means crunchy. Both of them are not fragrant.
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Dangshan Su Li sounds like another one I want. Where is it available?
Im glad i read this thread. I completely forgot i had Tsu Li left in the fridge.
This was hard as a rock when i put it in the fridge but it is so sweet and juicy now. Not grity at all.
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I have been looking for it forever. I think itās one of the best Chinese pear. Shin li is quite close to the taste but has thicker skin and a little coarser.
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Can you tell us why?
From what i gather the āFragrantā pears are Chinese cultivars crossed with Euro pears which give them fragrance. Tsu Li in just about every description not only resembles a Euro pear but almost all reviews talk about its smell/fragrance/floral notes.
Your description in this thread along with Scotts mentioning that āfragrantā pears are cellaring pearsā¦ also fits.
Im not sure we can have a Fragrant Pear thread or discussion without knowing what makes a Fragrant pear. I would think it would be somewhere along the lines of being a Chinese pear, being crossed with a Euro pear, have fragrance/floral notes/aromas, and need to be stored/cellaredā¦or as they use them to be exported all over the world in cold storageā¦
Hard to really know as some of these Chinese pears have been cultivated for thousands of years and most of our (US) information and plant material is via Japan. I think many folks have gotten the wrong plant material from the USDA as well. Perhaps the fruit that is imported from China doesnt match what we grow as named varieities here. Thousands of years of cultivation would obviously lead to many variations i would think.
This is a very in depth detail of what was known about Tsu Li/Tzu Li and Ya Li half a century ago.