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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] pears & fireblight

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  • From: Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>
  • To: natelson@pipeline.com, North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Cc:
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] pears & fireblight
  • Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 09:50:19 -0500

Commercially viable - maybe not, but certainly for a small home planting, there's no way I'd omit pears. Fireblight can be a problem, but it's not insurmountable - and I've seen some apple varieties in my orchard that are more susceptible to FB than many of my European or Asian pears. At least in my orchard, the likelihood of pears bearing good quality fruits is much greater than for apples or peaches.

Dr. Natelson gave a good overview of Southern pears that should work for you.
Keiffer, which folks seem to either love or impugn as inedible, also seems to tolerate fireblight well - it's not immune, but it takes a licking and keeps on ticking, as the old Timex commercials used to say - I see lots of old pears hanging on around old homeplaces, with varying amounts of fireblight damage evident, but they keep on producing loads of fruit - and most of these are quite likely Keiffer pears. I like it, because it's dependable - and, it's the pear I grew up eating, so it's what I expect a pear to be - firm, crunchy, juicy, flavorful, and gritty.
Dr. David Griffith, at Dadeville, AL has preserved a number of good old Southern pears in his orchard, including the Ledbetter, which is very fireblight resistant(I don't think you could prounounce any as being totally immune), and produces a high quality fruit.
Follow this link to the most recent NAFEX Southern Pear Interest Group Newsletter - and you might consider contacting Travis Callahan to subscribe to the S-PIG, so you can receive updates/newsletters, as they're released.
http://www.geocities.com/ccduster/page10.htm


Lucky Pittman
USDA Zone 6
Hopkinsville, KY





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