North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Moyer, Richard" <ramoyer@king.edu>]

Thomas,
Good advice and experience from Nathan and Lucky. 
See archived posts on this topic below, including an older article: "Pears
for the Carolinas". 
While speaking on backyard fruit production last month in Asheville, I was
told that pears are a "fireblight magnet" by a successful apple grower, with
his extension researcher at hand.  The grower's experience is with Bartlett.


Ed Fackler noted recently the work being done on pear breeding/selecting,
and that new pears are being released with fireblight resistance, moreso
than apples.  Dick Bell, ARS researcher in WV, has done some of this, as
well as Ag Canada work.  (Ed also reminded me of multiple strains of
fireblight being confirmed at Cornell). 

So be a trendsetter or a contrarian and try some of these new releases, as
well as standbys such as Warren/Magness, Tenn, etc.  In our orchard, Korean
Giant (Asian pear) merely laughs at the fireblight on the "blight resistant"
apple trees beside it.  I can't show how 500 Korean Giants would fare here,
but I wonder.  We have equal numbers of apple and pear trees; most all
advertised with blight resistance.  In a bad year for blight, I prune out
much, much more blighted apple wood than pear wood.

For years, Ed's Rocky Meadow catalogue encouraged folks to consider Asian
pears for cider blends, as they are dense with juice. 
Thomas, if for no other reason, please grow blight resistant pears (Asians
and Europeans) to show that it can be done on small scale in NC.  Let me
know if you have trouble finding certain trees.  With the current advice you
are receiving, NC consumer dollars for pears will continue to flow out of
state.  
<https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/nafex/2002-October/001407.html>
<https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/nafex/2003-June/004120.html>
Richard Moyer, humid East Tenn, where our 12 pears trees are still safe 30
miles from the NC line.


-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Beckett <thomas@tbeckett.com>
Sent: Apr 4, 2004 11:40 PM
To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: [NAFEX] pears & fireblight

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.


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