Return to the Fruit & Orchards Forum
| Post a Follow-Up
Choosing pears for Southeastern US
| | |
Posted by
theloud 5 (
My Page) on
Tue, Jan 7, 14 at 17:26
| I just moved from zone 5 NY to zone 7b/8a? Georgia, and I want to plant fruit trees, including a couple of pears. I'd appreciate advice on which varieties to choose. I might like one soft and one crisp if I could find two that would pollinate each other. I know fireblight resistance is a requirement. There seem to be several different varieties claiming to be the tastiest of the fb-resistant pears, and I don't know which to believe. I've eaten delicious Harrow Delight pears, grown up in zone 5 NY. I've also heard good things about Harrow Sweet. But how do Canadian varieties do so far from home? I'm also thinking about crisp pears, which usually means Asian, but I see there are some European/Asian crosses that are supposed to be crisp, but with more aromatic flavor. (I like the texture of Asians, but find they lack flavor.) Any recommendations in this category? |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Choosing pears for Southeastern US
| | |
I'd recommend Ayers, Maxine, and Pineapple. They've all been good producers for me and fire blight free.
They have great flavor and you can decide how crisp you want them by how long you leave them on the tree.
Pineapple is self fruitful. Ayers is also, but will be more productive with pollination from Maxine. The two will pollinate each other. Since Pineapple is an early bloomer, it won't pollinate the other two. |
RE: Choosing pears for Southeastern US
| | |
- Posted by Noogy 6 sw mi (My Page) on
Tue, Jan 7, 14 at 20:44
Rayrose,
Ayers is pollen sterile according to the folks at Corvallis. Sweet tree. http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/acc/search.pl?accid= PI+541722
I also think Dabney, a sister from the same program, will do well too. I saw both at raintree also. |
RE: Choosing pears for Southeastern US
| | |
| There's a good nursery in GA, Isons; I bet they would know |
RE: Choosing pears for Southeastern US
| | |
| Johnson Nursery, also in GA, seems to have a good selection of pears especially suited to the Southeast. Edible Landscaping also seems to have made good selections in its offerings for the Southeast, even though there's not a lot of variety overlap between the two nurseries. |
RE: Choosing pears for Southeastern US
| | |
Ayers is not pollen sterile. Mine pollinates itself. It's even advertised by Johnson's Nursery, where I bought mine, as being
partially self fruitful. It was the first variety that I planted, and it pollinated itself, and became more fruitful after I planted Maxine. |
RE: Choosing pears for Southeastern US
| | |
| Just Fruits and Exotics has an assortment of southern pears too. |
RE: Choosing pears for Southeastern US
| | |
| Say gonebananas, you're in 7/8 like the original poster and myself; what are your favorite pears? How did the Douglas pear work out? Thanks, |
RE: Choosing pears for Southeastern US
| | |
| You could also look at Legg Creek Farms. They are based in East Texas but they sell trees that do good in the south here so they should grow good in your area. |
RE: Choosing pears for Southeastern US
| | |
| In the next few years I should learn a lot about what pears do well here, but in terms of fruiting not quite yet. I have about 35 different selections that at least have a chance "on the way" so to speak. |
RE: Choosing pears for Southeastern US
| | |
| Here in Dallas, I'll always grow a Keiffer. But posters either love Keiffers, or hate them |
RE: Choosing pears for Southeastern US
| | |
| I believe a variety can be both pollen sterile and self fruitful, via parthenocarpy, which I also believe to be a common ability of pears. Usually this creates seedless fruit but apparently not always, according to the text book in my lap (my brain isn't functional enough to hold onto words like parthenocarpy). Parthenocarpy in pears apparently relies on warm conditions during early fruit development (according to Childers in "Modern Fruit Science") and a great many varieties are capable of it. I don't believe such pears tend to be smaller or more sparse on a tree than pollinated fruit as long as weather is favorable. It used to be fairly common for growers in CA of Bartlett pears to plant orchards without pollinators, so in the right site there may be no advantage to having compatible pollen around with many pear varieties. The fact that this is a weather dependent phenomena may lead to a lot of the confusion about what varieties are self fruitful. In the south you are more likely to have warm conditions during fruit development than in the north, I believe. |
Post a Follow-Up
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in.
If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Fruit & Orchards Forum
Information about Posting
- You must be logged in to post a message. Once you are logged in, a posting window will appear at the bottom of the messages. If you are not a member, please register for an account.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you
will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review your
post, make changes and upload photos.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in
order to see it.
- Before posting copyrighted material, please read about Copyright and Fair Use.
- We have a strict no-advertising
policy!
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit
our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we
will be happy to help.
Learn more about in-text links on this page here
