Carl Mohr

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Sean Pratt wrote:i think there is every chance that this could go just fine with an air layered tree but one thing to note is that when you take from a living plant without sexually reproducing the offspring is really the same age as the mother plant.so if i take from a 100 year old apple that has been damaged physically to save the genetics next year i will have a 101 year old grafted tree. this isn't always an issue i know of one case where a annual was cloned for about 30 years before the gardener decided it just wasn't what it used to be. i often wonder if this is why select varieties of apples never taste as good as when we were kids. i speculate that the DNA is becoming wonky after so many years of asexual reproduction.  just food for thought. i didn't see it mentioned. i really love this idea i will plant one for each of my young family members this year in fact.

For air layering I do not know the longevity of an asexual bud.

For graft that is a section of scion wood derived from an old tree in senescence, the graft that grows on fresh rootstock is a new tree relative to part that is grafted.   I have the leona pear; finally a source of the original rootstock was traced and it is derived from the a tree in the late 19th century.   And again we do not know the origin of the original tree.   The bartlett pear has been propagated for many years.  A graft tree does yield soon so there some factor of maturity being involved.    [/size]

Marty Mitchell wrote:Awesome information there!!! Thank you for resurrecting this thread. I am at a new home again now and shall be on the hunt for them Fire Blight resistant strains again at some point.

I am putting in all the garden beds, flower beds, and already planted a bunch of figs, mulberries, plums, and peaches so far. About time for those apples and pears.

There at several winter pears.  Usually they are planted for deer.  I last year purchased a thanks giving pear.  Any there are others.  I got that one IIRC from chestnut hill nursery.  

https://chestnuthilltreefarm.com/shop/thanksgiving-pear/

Thanksgiving pears are a hardy pear with a sweet, crisp flavor found at an old homestead along the Alapaha River in Georgia. They ripen in late fall and hold on the tree until Thanksgiving! Disease resistant. Traditional pear shape fruit is excellent for deer and wildlife, and will bring them in throughout the hunting season. Bears fruit in 3-5 years.

 

From bass pecan nursery.  There shipping needs needs to be discussed with them.  

Gilmer Christmas Pear

Zone 5-9

Gilmer Christmas Pear is a heavy bearer of golden colored fruit. It is a thornless tree.  The fruit drop is very late sometimes holding fruit until January.

Fruit Drop: November-January
$25.00
Size

Here is another one

Hawkins Pear

Zone 6-9

Hawkins originated on an old homesite in Fulton, Georgia. Fruit begins to ripen in November and hangs on the tree into December. Fruits are large weighing up to one pound. While it can be eaten fresh, it is better as a canning pear. Very disease resistant.

Fruit drop: November-December
$25.00

Julian Williams wrote:Our front orchard is going in this spring. We've got 9 trees on their way to us including 3 pears! It's our first time growing trees from whips and we're excited to see what we can do. Our guilds are figured out and seeding starts for the herbs this weekend.

Pears we are planting:
Summercrisp
Clapp
Patten

We're ordering from a local nursery that has been around for a long time. Hoping that the positioning we've chosen works out well.

Best to choose trees with over lapping bloom periods.  They should be close enough to facilitate bee pollination.  

Saralee Couchoud wrote:I found a pineapple pear and didn't know what it would be like, but since they were cheap $8,I thought I would try it.   I planted it about 10 years ago and still have not had any fruit on it. So this year I saved seeds from some pear trees that have been growing here about 50 years. I'll see what I get from them

There are several pears that are called a pineapple pear.  and you have to hope that grafted pear that you purchased is even labeled correctly.  You will have wait to be it bears unless you can contact the nursery that did the grafting for additional information assuming their workers did not mislabel the grafts.  

S Bengi wrote:Both the leaves and the fruit screams pear 101%

It screams hybrid being a cross between a callery flowering pear and common european type of pear.  Should excellent rootstock.  It might work for making Perry.  

The bradford ornamental pears is Pyrus calleryana, or the Callery pear, is a species of pear tree native to China and Vietnam,

Below is a picture of its fruit


What you have is a hybrid.   https://mdc.mo.gov/sites/default/files/downloads/callerypearinvasive.pdf

Background, Life HistoryCallery pear (Pyrus calleryana) is a deciduous tree, more commonly known as ‘Bradford pear.’ Native to China, it was first brought to the United States in 1917 for hybrid-ization experiments to improve disease resistance of the common fruiting pear. The Bradford cultivar was widely planted as a promising new ornamental during the 1950s. Since then, many other cultivars were developed. While individual cultivars are considered self-sterile, dif-ferent cultivars planted in close proximity cross-pollinate and produce fruits and viable seed. Shoots from root-stock developed with varying genotypes are also able to cross pollinate with the original tree. Spread occurs when the fruit of these hybrids is eaten and distributed by birds and other animals

For NW FL extremely early blooming pears may be more resistant to fire blight in NW Florida.

A tree during a warm winter that blooms in early January may have more resistance.  Many believe that the flowers may be a point of entry for FB infections.  So getting that over by march might be beneficial.   The Hood can bloom as early as the end of december.  

Feb 7, 2021 a pine apple pear.  

 

Check the just fruits and exotics pear list.  Most of their pears are fireblight resistant.  

There joy apple is very tough, but very low chill.  Anna is another resistant pear.  In my area Cedar apple rust is more common on apples than is fire blight.

My region is 8b NW FL.  Pace. FL

All that said; when I have my own orchard I plan to plant most trees from seed and try a few cuttings to have some pure bosc and bartlett.

 

It can difficult to do.  If you have not done it I suggest you start practicing now.  I have been told it is possible with LeConte.  

Le Conte Soft Pear- Super Soft and Flavorful!

Le Conte is thought to be a Chinese sand pear European pear hybrid. The fruit are a beautiful bell shape and pink-blushed golden color, Le Conte pear has a soft melting texture. It will ripen on the trees or can be picked when the ground color lightens slightly for long term storage. Le Conte is an extremely productive tree with good resistance to fire blight. This pear is referred to in a book printed in 1886 (Florida Fruits and How to Raise Them, by Helen Warner) as being a “fine-flavored, juicy aromatic fruit.” Incidentally, it was bringing in $5-6 per bushel in Liberty County, Georgia at that time! Ripens mid to late August

quince but it's not compatible with many varieties)

Many use an interstem for that.