Pears are by nature a low acid fruit but Harrow Sweet is a lot easier to grow than Bosc in the northeast. I'm not sure anyone would try to grow Bosc in TN, given its susceptability to fireblight. It is also more likely to get psyla and scab than HS and takes about 5 more years to bare. But only a Bosc is a Bosc and it is a very distinctive culinary pear.

My Bosc took 7 yrs to flower. I left about 12 fruit and the next year it didn't flower again. In TN there's about a 95% chance it would be dead or infected with fire blight before it bloomed.

Thanks guys. Sometimes, disease susceptibility becomes an afterthought which should never be the case. Harrow Sweet sounds clearly like the best choice. But now that you guys have brought up disease and fire blight, I have to wonder if I will be removing my Shinseiki Asian pear in a few years because of those very issues. I've read conflicting reports about its susceptibility to fire blight. If I do remove it, I'll likely go with another Asian pear known for great fire blight resistance like Korean giant. Growing fruit is even more of an adventure than I originally thought for better or worse. :-)

This post was edited by thapranksta on Thu, May 15, 14 at 13:08

Especially when you live in a part of the country where there's not much commercial fruit production. There's usually a reason or several reasons why folks can't make money growing any given crop at any given region. What fruit is grown by commercial growers in your area? I'm thinking certain nuts, blueberries, blackberries- then I go blank besides the less common fruit, like paw paws and native persimmons.

Actually I had been going by the extension office which says it's fine to plant all types of fruit tree for home growers except sweet cherry. The only other thing it does warn about is picking disease resistant varieties when possible especially of apples because of fireblight. It doesn't mention nectarines as necessarily a trouble fruit but from all I've read here, it would be if I planted one. This forum has a variety of information that appears more accurate and more thorough than the extension office and so I can't stay away. lol.

I know there are local producers of the following fruit: apples, peaches, blueberries, and blackberries. I've no idea how much of it is shipped to other parts of the country. I'm not particularly sure of plums and pears though they are listed as fruits for home growers by the ext office.

There are a variety of fruit trees grown here that are shipped throughout the country but I know that does not necessarily translate to whether or not the tree would be successful growing fruit here for the long haul.

Hey prank, we have the same issue, we're a lot better area for growing trees than fruit. And after the recent freeze I'm not even sure about the later.

I'd say TN is a low cost producer of nursery stock because of soil and rainfall. But it's likely a high cost producer of fruit because of high pest pressure and few competitive advantages. Harvest is all mid season when prices are lowest.