North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

["Doreen Howard" <gardendiva@charter.net>]

After tasting the fruits of Shipova at the NAFEX meeting in Columbia, MO 
last August and sifting through the lengthy discussion of the fruit on this 
list last fall, I'm buying a tree!  One Green World has a dwarf Shipova that 
looks good.  It's grafted on to Aronia for dwarfing and reaches only 6-8 
feet.  OGW states that the dwarf has a shorter life span than standard 
Shipova.  That isn't a problem for me.

I have some questions that hopefully those who have grown Shipova can 
answer.  Will this dwarf version fruit earlier?  Also, is fireblight a 
problem?  I have three other pears in my orchard.  Two are Asians and the 
other is Le Nain Vert, a 15th century miniature.  None of them seem have 
fireblight problems.  There are Mountain ash trees in the neighborhood (mine 
was hit by lightning, split in two and was removed last June).  So, I think 
I have pollination covered.
Doreen Howard
Zone 4b--IL-WI border, where it's snowing again!