North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lucky Pittman <lucky.pittman@murraystate.edu>]

At 10:04 AM 11/10/2004 -0500, David wrote:

> I'd love to hear what others think of their Asian pears.  How about
> fireblight resistance?  The Kent Whealy/Seed Savers Exchange book often
> mentions fireblight susceptibility of European pear varieties, but rarely of
> the Asian pears.

I had pretty significant fireblight infection on Korean Giant about 3 years 
ago, but pruned it out, and it's regrown and fruited moderately since 
then.  I've been somewhat disappointed with KG, overall.  It produced maybe 
a dozen pears this year, of lesser quality than Chojuro  & Shinko, and for 
the previous 4-5 years, produced at most 2 pears, when the others were loaded.
No significant FB damage on any of my other Asians, but the fruit 
specialists at the U of KY Ag Experiment station, located 30 miles NW of 
me, recommended against Hosui, as their experience indicated that FB would 
eat it alive.
I grafted one anyway.

Lucky