Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

nafex - [NAFEX] pears & fireblight

nafex@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Thomas Beckett <thomas@tbeckett.com>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] pears & fireblight
  • Date: Mon, 05 Apr 2004 00:40:05 -0400

Last month I had the opportunity to speak to an orchard fruit expert from NCSU, and asked him about growing pears in North Carolina. I'm interested in using pears in cider and/or blended with apple cider. He told me that pears are not commercially viable in North Carolina because of the fireblight risk. Pears are apparently much too susceptible, and fireblight is endemic and spreads easily in our relatively humid climate.

I've been mulling this over, and have a couple of questions for the collective wisdom of NAFEX:
- Are pears any more at risk for fireblight than some types of dwarfing apple rootstock such as M26?
- Are their heirloom "old Southern" pear varieties that are resistant to fireblight and might be cultivated here on a small scale?

Many thanks, in advance, for y'all's thoughts.

Thomas Beckett
Durham/Hendersonville




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page