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  • From: Anton Callaway <marillen@earthlink.net>
  • To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [NAFEX] pear stuff
  • Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 17:13:57 -0500

With "partridge in a pear tree" being heard everywhere these days, I've accumulated some assorted pear musings & questions.

1. 'Honeysweet' is described by several nurseries as "self-pollinating", but "The Brooks and Olmo Register of Fruit and Nut Varieties" (1997) says "...cultivar sets without pollination...". So is it self-fertile (makes seed with it's own pollen) or does it just set a lot of parthenocarpic fruit? Hedrick also described its mother, Seckel, as being quite self-fertile. Is it? or parthenocarpy again?

2. Another 'Honeysweet' question for Southerners, especially. The Register also says, "...does not defoliate even without spraying for leaf-spotting diseases...". Mine defoliate before anything else with terrible leaf problems. It is dramatic. I can send photos off-list if anyone wants to see. Anyone else have similar experiences?

3. Is 'Dabney' self-fertile?

4. Finally a question 'specially for Ed. I was reading Brooks Drain's "Southern Pear Breeding" (ASHS, 1955) and noticed this footnote on page 301: "Records previous to 1941 were kept by ... and H.L. Fackler." Is this kinfolk of yours or are ya'll a pair of unrelated pear experts?

Anton
Zone 8







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