North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[fuwa fuwa usagi <fuwafuwausagi@muchomail.com>]

It was written:

As I pored over nursery catalogs lately, I noticed that one catalog 
claims that 'Warren' pear is self-pollinating.  Is this true?  Does it 
actually set good crops by itself?  (I have a small yard).

My reply:

Warren is not self fertile.  In fact, like Magness it has such weak scent 
that insects are attracted to about everything else.

For those whom would be content with just a few Warren pears I have two 
suggestions.  One espalier the darn tree and then use a paintbrush to hand 
pollinate it.  Or, train a six arm palmette form of espalier and graft 3 
different varieties, Warren in the middle.   I did this and it was going very 
well until the animals girdled the tree at the snow line.   i imagine a 
triple "u" espalier would work as well.

I mention this because I tried the multiple graft "tree" approach with Warren 
and Magness.   This simply does not work very well as the insects avoid the 
Magness/Warren part of the tree.   However by sandwiching the Magness/Warren 
in a tight espalier form the insects seem to stumble over them on their way 
the other varieties flowers.

Once again, the home grower is presented with viable options that are simply 
not practical for a commercial orchard.

By the by, what catalog was this?   This is a very big error.   

All the best,

the fluffy(supremely confident in his masculinity)bunny




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